By the Way, I Bellydance

In keeping with the blog name and some other posts, I was going to label this post "She Looks Like a Bellydancer," but the fact that I bellydance seems like such an aside. I didn't put it in my bio, and thus far I'd only mentioned it in comments on other people's blogs. So, by the way, I bellydance.

The studio I go to puts on a student show every year. I had performed a level 2 bellydance choreography as a duet with another student at the 2009 student show before Ms. R joined the scene. I then took a break from dance classes to raise R, and this Spring I finally enrolled back in classes again. It feels great to be back.


Level 2 Duet, 2009 Student Show. I'm the orange one.

Remembering the rush of feelings from that, my first show-- everything from excitement, to anxiety over forgetting the next steps, to overwhelming pride afterwards-- made me want to do it again this year. I'm so glad I did. I don't have pictures from this show, but I do have the excellent videos that Senpai took.

This first dance was choreographed in a folk dance style called Khaleegy. In the Khaleegy style, the women wear embroidered robes that they show off in the dance, and they also show off their beautiful hair and jewelry. My duet partner, performing under the stage name Leyla Nyx, has been dancing for 9 years. She is a student of the highest level classes, and also is a member of the professional dance company that performs at events around the area. I had asked her in passing once, back when I was still pregnant, if she wouldn't mind dancing with me sometime, and I was thrilled when she said yes. When talk started turning to this year's student show, I pinged her on it again, asking if I could join her in the slot where she'd usually do a solo. Once again, she said yes. It turns out that me sticking my nose in her dance was a good thing because she had vowed this year to try her hand at choreography. While she has danced numerous beautiful solos over her career, she told me that they're all mostly improvised on the spot. I'm glad I could help her to achieve that personal goal as she graciously took me on as a partner. So this dance is the first one either Leyla or I had ever choreographed. I hope you like it! (I'm the green one.)


After we left the stage, the announcer remarked, "I should have said in my commentary that Leyla and Kyla's HAIR would be dancing." Hahaha!


This next dance is a group number I performed with my level 2 and 3 classmates. It is based on the dances of the Turkish Romani (or gypsy) people. I was more nervous about performing this dance than the first, because it was someone else's choreography that I could easily forget the steps, versus my own choreography that makes sense in my head. Add to that the fact that I DID completely blank on stage during a section of the level 2 dance I had performed in 2009, and that's where my head was. After everything was said and done, I did do a couple of things wrong, but I hope I "owned" my mistakes enough to make them work. :-) (I'm the orange one with the blue headscarf.)




So yeah, I bellydance. ^_^

Running from Lions

Remember this post? And this one?

The in-laws are coming back. The feeling of letting them back into my house is akin to letting lions into one's home: welcome them inside to tear apart your furnishings and family. Nothing good can come of this.

Thankfully this is just a short weekend trip for them to empty our garage of their stuff, not an extended live-in like we've dealt with in the past. Still... I want to run away. I have nowhere to go, but I can't stop them from coming, and I don't want to face them. There's no choice in the matter. I have to stay strong because they'll want to see R. If I run, R is coming with me; but no, they'll want to see her. I have to stay. Leaving R here without me is not an option. I don't trust them enough to be with my daughter unsupervised.

All I can do is let it go. Don't think about it too much or it'll tear me apart. The lions are already here: shadows of fear that lurk in my mind and stalk through the hallways. Am I stronger than a lion? Am I more cunning than a pair of lions? History says no. I should just lie down like the welcome mat on the floor when they step into my home. I get walked all over anyway.

I wish I had something more positive to say. Maybe in the next two weeks I'll learn how to tame a lion. I just have to put on the cool, confident mask that is reserved for these occasions as I twitch the whip in my hand. My only positive thought is that Labor Day weekend will come and go, and then we'll be done for now. Until the next holiday. Crap.

You can't run from lions forever.

She Walks (and Talks)

Thursday.

Last night I watched R walk around most of the house without a push toy. She would start out with uneven steps, get into a good stride, and end with a tumble. Then she'd get back up and do it again. Our baby is finally a toddler.

Watching R grow has included a lot of waiting; she's been behind in most every milestone due to her prematurity. Wait for her to roll, wait for her to sit up, wait up for her to crawl, wait for her to walk. She walks now. Yippeeee! She feels more confident when Mommy or Daddy hold her hand and walk with her, and she still zips around with her push toys, but she takes steps on her own, too. She takes steps on her own. I am so happy. The waiting for her to walk is finally over.

One sign of growth she hasn't made me wait for is speaking sentences. Just a couple of months ago I was worried that she didn't speak too many words, but she knew a key sentence, "What is that/it?" She points and asks what everything is, and she must be cataloging our answers. She won't repeat the word after we say it, but the next time it's relevant, she just may pipe in. Senpai taught her the color red, and she says up and down more frequently. Going back to sentences, every morning I ask her, "Did you sleep well?" Sometimes she'll reply, "yes" or "good." This morning, before I had a chance to ask, she exclaimed, "I didn't sleep well!" I was surprised. Was she trying to parrot my usual question? Is that what I heard her do? But no, she didn't say you, the did had two syllables that ended with n, and she started the sentence with I. More than repeating what she hears me say, she had created her own (correct!) sentence. True to form, R surprises us with first sentences as opposed to first words.

The last way she has grown since last blog post is that Senpai turned her carseat to face forward. We went to the zoo yesterday. R's rear-facing carseat was behind my passenger seat as Senpai drove. I couldn't take a nap. I was super exhausted, having fallen asleep at 2 am the previous night, and I really really wanted to sleep on the drive down to the zoo but it was impossible. The carseat interrupted where the headrest could go, which isn't a problem when you're sitting up, but when you're trying to lay your head back, man, it sucks. And my seat was pushed all the way forward, so there was no room for me to scootch down in the seat because my knees hit the dashboard. I was not a happy passenger. I told Senpai, no more. R faces forward. He changed the carseat in my car as well, and when I drove with R to the craft store today it was odd to look back and see her staring at me. We'll get used to it, though. Aside from the nap frustration yesterday, I've been thinking for awhile that I needed to change her carseat position, as she had gotten too big to easily fit in the space between the carseat and the doorframe in my car. Putting her in the seat involved much contortion on my part. The nap was just the last straw.

I love watching her grow.