MWNews 38

Well, yesterday was the day of Maeghan's program. I will wait to see the video, but I would not be expecting a DVD from me any time soon. Maybe some pictures, but the DVD will be about 2 hours long and Maeghan might be in it, and then again, she might not.

I don't know if it was the crowds of people or she wasn't feeling well or maybe she was still tired since she had just woken up about 30 minutes before we went up there. But, she didn't do her dance. She was really upset and crying. We had to leave her with the teacher and go sit in the audience, but she was still upset and crying when the program started. She did manage to get into the room and even climbed up on the stage, but she was crying the whole time and the teacher had to go get her and hold her during the performance. She stood next to the teacher while the other kids kind of looked around and did something. I am not sure they actually did any of the things they were suppossed to do, but at least they managed to stay mostly on the stage. Some of them ran out to the parents in the audience but then went back. A couple of the little kids tried to do the things the teacher was telling them to do, but overall, it was just cute and cudley and the kids did the best they could. Maeghan stood next to the teacher the whole time, but she did stop crying and after they were finished, she came over to us and sat with us.

Most of the rest of the program was kids of all ages dancing. Ballet mostly, but I don't think you would have known it if they were not wearing ballet costumes. The only difference I could see between the age groups was that the older the girls were, the less they smiled. It seems you have to concentrate more to do the advanced stuff but I couldn't see any difference between the advanced stuff and what the younger kids were doing. Parts of it were ok, but mostly, it was just random walking across the stage and waving their arms.

They had a big finally at the end. Not really, it was just to get all the kids on the stage at the same time. Maeghan still did not want to go up there, so whe sat with me. They gave each child a little trophy for being in the class. Maeghan said she wanted to go get her trophy, so I moved up the front and waiting there with her. When they called her name, she walked up to the stage, but would not get up on the stage, and held out her hand. The teacher came over and gave her her trophy. Juanita and everyone else said she got the biggest applause when she walked up there. I knew she got a lot of applause but I couldn't really tell because I was trying to get her attention. When she walked back to me, walked past me because everyone was clapping and she didn't see me. I had to reach out and get her or I think she would have gotten scared again. I suppose it was a lot of applause because she is so small, the smallest by far of any of the kids there, and she didn't cry when she went up this time. She wasn't wearing her wings or her shoes, but she still had the purple costume and the things on her head. She might be in the video at that point, but since she did not actually go up on the stage, they would have had to move the camera to get a picture of her. The only other picture they might have would have been when she was crying and laying on the stage when her part of the program started.

She really liked her trophy. She told Juanita that it was a bubble blower. It is a balerina with her hands above her head and it forms a little whole like her bubble blower, so she said that is what she was going to use it for. She has it in her room now. I thought it had her name on it but it doesn't. Which is probably a good thing since in the program for the show, they spelled her name wrong. Both her first and last name. I guess it doesn't really matter, although they were charging a dollar for the program and all it was was a single piece of paper folded in half. We have it and of course, we are going to save it, even if her name is wrong in it.

At this point, I have to say how really, really happy I was when she was in the show. Even if she didn't actually perform, it was just special seeing her try to go up there even when she was so upset and everyone was oohing and aahing when they saw her. All the other kids were already on the stage and she came in last, holding the teacher's mother's hand and crying. Then she climbed up on stage but just laid there crying until the teacher came and got her. I was almost crying myself. Not because she was, but because she was so special being up there. It was really wonderful.

Naturally, when she got home, she started dancing and showing everyone her dancing and singing. I told her to do all the things she was supposed to do on the stage and she did them all perfectly in the living room. I didn't have the camera at that point but got it soon after and got about 10 minutes of her dancing and singing. I explained to her grandparents that they should get used to it because she dances and sings in front of the TV every night. It doesn't matter if you are trying to watch TV or not, she will tell you she is not finished yet if you tell her to stop and she will say she is busy if you try to tell her to move out of the way. It's lots of fun each night.

As you can tell, Juanita's parents arrived yesterday. Maeghan would not got anywhere near them but she was playing and letting Poss carry her around after a couple of hours. She will sit beside Beverly sometimes and let her hold her, but she will still not go near Juanita's father. She does acknowledge him now, where before she would just hide, but she has not gone over for a cuddle yet. That will apparently be the goal, to get Maeghan to give poppy a cuddle.

In other news, William is still sick, so he could not dance last night. He still has his little cold and he is miserable most of the time. He cannot breath through his nose and that upsets him, and he still wants to eat all the time, so that upsets him also. He is doing ok otherwise and has started sitting and looking around instead of sleeping all the time. He seems to be recognizing people and things and will look at you when you get close. He seems to like looking at things upside down mostly as he will tilt his head back and look around at things behind him.

Things haven't changed with me. Still waiting. Juanita is getting better, although she still walks slow and has pains when she does too much. She cannot climb stairs and has trouble pushing the trolleys and pram, but she is getting better. Hopefully, she will be ok by the time I go into the hospital. Juanita's parents may not be staying as long as we first thought. They might be going back in January. They haven't said anything yet, but we are getting that impression. Poss said she had to be back in January, but she did not say when in January. I suppose it is for school, but no one has said yet. So they may not be here for my operation. The two daughters might still be here then, but with them, you can never tell. We will just have to wait and see.

Other than that, everyone still has some Christmas shopping to do. They all decided I didn't have enough Christmas presents under the tree and they are going shopping to get more. I gave them a list of what I needed and hopefully, they will stick close to it. I would hate to have them all give me the same color socks. Maybe this year, they can get some variety. We were going to go to the largest regional market in Australia today, but it only stays open until 2pm and it would take us two hours to get there. I have no idea what the largest regional market in Australia is, but it sounded like something we wanted to see. Then again, it is only open for six hours, so how big could it be if you can cover it in six hours. Instead, they are going to Tuggerah to get me my presents.

We might have to take two cars to haul everyone up there, unless we leave Angela and the kids at home. I don't have a problem taking two cars but I tried to point out that we have trouble finding seats for everyone to sit together when we only have five people, how are we going to find places for ten or twelve. But, I will probably be overruled and we will take everyone anyway. I will have to hide anyway because they do not want me to see them buying me presents. So, I suppose, I could just take the computer and work at Starbucks. The problem with that is, I have been off for a week and I have forgotten my password. Normally, that is a fear when you go on leave but apparently, by not writing it down, I have actually forgotten it this time. I will have to go to work tomorrow and sit around until someone decides to come over and sign on to my machine and allow me to change my password so I can then log back in. I have no idea how long that will take, so tomorrow will be a wasted day, I am sure. Plus, most people will be on vacation, so the actual chances of getting someone who knows how to do it and having them come to my desk will make it almost impossible to get it fixed before Wednesday. Maybe I should have just taken vacation from now until I am all well. Too late now I suppose and they would probably not have paid me anyway. Then again, my boss did say as long as I have a doctors excuse, I can be off forever and still get paid. I think it is some kind of Australian thing, but I didn't want to test the theory, so I didn't take off.

I have to go now. Shopping is calling. I will let you know how things are going as we get closer to Christmas.

Talk to you soon