I have countless photos of Sydney playing Wii Just Dance Kids and if you are not familiar with this is is perfect for kids and each song has a different costume change. As you can see Sydney loved to dress up like each one. Her all time favorite was the Disney "cheerleader song" Sydney lived inn this outfit nights and weeks. So after a little persuading from Auntie Cara I signed Sydney up for cheer leading. One of her good friends from Kindergarten than ended up changing schools, (only a few blocks aways but closer to her house) was signed for the Thursday night class so that sealed the deal. Thursday night cheer leading class with a few parades and a show.
The very first practice they were so cute spinning, twirling and jumping around and some even followed along with the coach.
A few weeks later thay got pompoms and they were a big hit and really made them look like "cheerleader girls" and by this time they were a little better at following along and doing the same moves. For the most part practices were fun a little late and we didn't get home till almost bed time but it was only once a week. Little did I know this was the least of my worries.
The cheer uniform... the dreaded cheer uniform as it was referred. Please note how much smaller her skirt was than her top, laying down a full two inches smaller, meaning it was so small it didn't fit. I was fearing something like this would happen and we only got it the evening before the first parade so there wasn't much I could do beside freak out. After calming Sydney down, getting her to stop crying an into bed I repeatedly called, emailed and send text messages to any and everyone even remotely related to this organization. Sydney woke up crushed and neither of us were looking forward to going. I talked her into giving it a chance and they if she didn't have a skirt that fit we would home. It was a sad morning getting ready and needless to say I could not get her to smile once.
I was wishing, hoping, praying and had my fingers crossed it would work out. I was so worried I even had cash in hand just in case they may be buy her a new skirt I was willing to shell out another $70 for a new uniform even thought her current one was brand new, but to keep her from crying and hating life I willing to do it.
When we arrived they her lots of other girls huddled around a car trying to swap out uniforms. We got one that would zip but it was too big so two giant safety pins later we had a skirt that looked like it might work.
Best of all we had a smile! The first smile of the day posing for a picture moments before the parade was to start with her friend Aryana.
Marching in the parade was a long walk and it was cold and poor Sydney had to pull up her skirt the whole way. She was not having fun but she made it the whole way and was ready to take off her "stupid skirt" and be done. I wasn't so pleased either and after waiting for someone to try and help we left with he same skirt that was so big it slipped off if not pinned smaller. The worst part her next preformace was the next day. So hungry and sad we all left to hopefully figure something out before tomorrow.
I tried to alter the skirt the best I could without damaging it or having to fully undo and resew the whole thing. I rolled the waistband over to try and shorten it since it was about 2 inched longer than most girls skirts and would slip down well below her knees. Then I took the button off and moved it over almost two inches. It did not look pretty from the back and would not lay flat but at least it would stay up.
My poor little girl she was so worried that her skirt would fall off the whole time and she wouldn't smile.
A sade fake half smile for mommy just before she was done.
It was one issue after another with cheer, from lack of communication to disorganization to uniforms mishaps to missing orders. I can say it never seems to put a smile on my face. I felt like I was going to have panic attack every time we went somewhere. From the lack of preparations, to the information to lat minutes changes it was VERY hard for me to handle and hard to try and stay calm and keep Sydney calm as well. I plan, organize, coordinate, double check even triple check everything all day long at work so it was very very difficult to walk into such disorganization day after day. Needless to say it got to a point where I stopped expecting things to go smoothly. After all of my issues with just about everything they offerded me a free photo package to try and calm me down. It was defiantly a nice gesture and calmed me down for a little bit.
Unfortunately that all it was a nice gesture. Cheer leading ending about three weeks ago and no photos and no call back and no returned emails. I am glad I decided to take my own photos and was able to get a few nice photos of Sydney smiling. Over all I would have to say it was a learning experience and I learned I HATE disorganization and being uninformed. I learned that sometimes no matter how hard you try and want it to work out in the end it still may not work out but make the best of it. Sydney didn't like the parades or the show but she loved seeing her friend Aryana. So at least it wasn't a complete loss she got in some quality girl time.
It is probably no surprise that we wont be starting up cheer again in late January. Sydney wants to try soccer but after this I am a little scared and not looking to invest a ton of time or money in something she hates. So for now we are enjoying not driving home late and stressing over uniforms.
- Christa
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