Bonus Post: Baby Guesses

The time has come, the time is now! Lionel will make an appearance in approximately five weeks, give or take, and you need to get your guesses in before that happens! For your own personal sense of accomplishment, you may attempt to correctly predict the following:

1. Birth Date
2. Birth Time
3. Gender
4. Weight
5. Length

If there is any other tidbit you may wish to predict, putting it in your comment would be the best way to assure that you get proper psychic credit at a later time when it inevitably comes up in conversation.

Pertinent information: The ultrasound tech noted at the 20 week scan that the due date should be moved back a day or two because the femur length was shorter than expected.

The 36w 6d 3D ultrasound pic:

Interesting dates that could make having a baby more exciting and/or inconvenient:
August 17 - Josef's birthday.
August 20 - First day of school. Would Gretchen ever forgive us or Lionel if she missed this highly anticipated day due to a birth?
August 21 - Anything before this would be earlier than any of our other kids arrived. Kaitlyn was one week early.
August 25 - Church feast day picnic.
August 30 - My mom's birthday.
August 31 - Anything after this would be later than any of our other kids arrived. Gretchen was three days late.
September 1 - My grandma's birthday.
September 2 - The date that should have been our annual fun run, but we canceled it in anticipation of being busy. Will Lionel now be born exceptionally early or late to make us feel like we could have partied anyway?
September 3 - Walter's birthday.
September 11 - 42 weeks, and the point at which an induction would most likely be scheduled. Also late enough to make everyone a little nervous about Lionel being present at his own baptism, which is currently planned for the following week.

	Olivia	Gretchen	Kaitlyn	Matthias	Lionel
BIRTH DATE	August 3	April 24	March 27	July 11
My Calculated Due Date	August 3	April 21	April 3	July 12	August 28
Ultrasound Based Due Date	July 30	April 15	March 31	July 11	August 29
TIME BORN	12:58 pm	3:29 am	5:15 am	4:20 pm
Arrived at hospital	4:00 am, Wed (same day)	3:07 am, Wed (same day)	3:15 am, Fri (same day)	1:45 pm, Tues (same day)
GENDER	Girl	Girl	Girl	Boy
Bryan thinks/ thought	Girl	Boy	No strong feeling, but optimistically saying boy	Girl. 100% girl.	I’m rooting hard for a boy. But it’s a girl, of course.
Johannah thinks/ thought	No strong feeling	Girl	No strong feeling	Boy	Girl
Olivia thinks/ thought	N/A	No opinion	Girl	Girl	I don’t know. I’ll choose boy.
Gretchen thinks/ thought	N/A	N/A	No opinion	Girl	It has to be a boy. Matthias needs a brother.
Kaitlyn thinks/ thought	N/A	N/A	N/A	Girl	Girl (named Rudy)
Matthias thinks/ thought	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	Whichever choice was given second.
Cravings	None	Chipotle, pizza with ranch, both once	Chips and salsa	French fries and Little Caesars pizza	None
Aversions	Cream of Mushroom Soup	None	None	Sweets	Sweets
First Trimester	Sleepy, never hungry	Starving	Hungry, but nothing sounds good	Never hungry	Never hungry, slight nausea
Sweet or salty snacks?	Salty	Both	Sweet during the day, salty at night	Salty	Salty
Fruit or meat?	Fruit	Fruit	Fruit	Fruit	Fruit
Weight gain	All in front	All in front	All in front	All in front	All in front
Carrying?	Low	High	Low	Low	Low
Complaints	Pain under right ribs from 4.5 months, mild heartburn	Shortness of breath from 6 months, mild heartburn (less than Olivia)	Pain under right ribs from 5 months, mild heartburn (less than Olivia, more than Gretchen)	Shortness of breath and dizziness from 3.5 months, heartburn, mild anemia, random back spasms	Shortness of breath and dizziness, heartburn (more than other kids)
WEIGHT	8 lbs, 5.8 oz	8 lbs, 0.2 oz	7 lbs, 9.5 oz	9 lbs, 4.7 oz
Johannah weight  @9-11 wks	132	124	128	128	128
Johannah weight @ 29-31 wks	144 (+12)	141 (+17)	140 (+12)	141 (+13)	139 (+11)
Johannah max weight	148 (+16)	144 (+20)	148 (+20)	145 (+17)
LENGTH	21 ¼ in	21 in	20 in	21 in

This table is getting crowded. :)

June 16-July 21

The garden is doing poorly. :( Despite our prediction, the zucchinis have not managed to rise to the occasion, and instead appear to be alive but stunted. The same is true of the tomatoes, which have not died since being transplanted, but also steadfastly refuse to grow a single inch, let alone a flower. The beans and cucumbers have completely given up. The broccoli and peas were actually flourishing for a while there, which is unusual. I harvested more peas this year than in the previous seven years combined. I also blew Kaitlyn's mind a little bit when I opened a pea pod to show her what was growing inside. :) My most promising broccoli chose to reach maturity while we were traveling and flowered before we came back. The remaining broccolis are languishing in the oppressive heat and seem to have lost all will to grow.

Poor Kaitlyn is struggling with the difference between movies and real life. When we visited the zoo, there were divers cleaning fixtures in the coral reef tank. All of the children thought the divers were as exciting as the fish, if not more so. It seemed a little weird to have them watch divers, but I guess they don't get to see those ever, either. Anyway, Kaitlyn was very resistant to leaving. When questioned, she said it was because she wanted to see them catch a fish and take it to their dentist, like in Nemo. I finally convinced her that these particular divers were not there to catch fish and we were able to move on. A little later, we made it to the gorilla enclosure. We got to see a mother gorilla trying (and failing) to get a baby to take a nap. We also got to see one gorilla tackle another one after some insult was given. Alas, Kaitlyn could not find what she was looking for: Tarzan.

Kaitlyn likes to visit the gazebras at the gazoo.

Perler beads are our girls' equivalent of Legos. Whenever they want to do something small and fidgety with their hands (which is almost always), they turn to perler beads. Or sometimes to cutting up large pieces of paper into millions of smaller pieces. But mostly to perler beads. On a related note, buy stock in perler beads.

About a week after returning from Pittsburgh, I noticed some spots on Olivia's arm. Since Walter had Lyme disease while we were there, I was aware that bullseye spots were a possible indicator. Unfortunately, Lyme disease is not a thing that exists in Ohio, so our doctors were less aware. I ended up taking Olivia to urgent care on Sunday and was told that it couldn't possibly be Lyme disease because the tick was no longer present and because it should be one spot getting larger, not a spreading rash of spots. Since they couldn't think of anything else to diagnose, though, they did prescribe a one day dose of the appropriate medication. The pharmacy didn't stock the medicine (see note above about the presence of Lyme disease in Ohio) and had to order some for the next day. On Monday I called the pediatrician and asked if they had anyone on staff who lived/studied/had a residency anywhere east of Ohio. The answer was no, but a receptionist noted my concerns and said she'd call back after talking to our doctor. I contacted Justine and had her put me in touch with a pediatrician friend in Pittsburgh, just in case. After seeing pictures, the Pittsburgh pediatrician told me it looked suspicious for Lyme disease and she would recommend treating it. Luckily, our pediatrician called back with the same conclusion. A full ten day dose of medicine was called in to the pharmacy. Of course, they couldn't fill it because the one day dose had just been filled and insurance was confused. To top it off, we were supposed to go to Sidney the next day. I called the Sidney Wal-Mart, had them request the prescription from the Lima Meijer, told them that they'd need to order it because it wasn't in stock, and assured them that I would be there the following afternoon to retrieve it. Everything worked out, Olivia got her medicine, and she is now safe from later effects of Lyme disease.

Bryan was making fun of how the underbelly of my shirt got wet while I was washing dishes because I was resting it on the counter. This in and of itself is not unusual or noteworthy. The next morning, however, I was changing and Matthias wandered in and saw my stomach. He immediately started jumping and pointing excitedly while yelling, "Belly! Belly, belly, belly!" Then he ran over and poked it, exclaiming reverently, "Looooook, beeelllly!" Bryan was beside himself with laughter, especially given the timing.

Murry finally decided enough was enough and dedicated a week to teaching Matthias that Steve is named Grandpa. The initial result of this was that Matthias still called Steve Boo Boo Butt, but he referred to Murry as Grandpa. After a little more time, he began calling both of them Grandpa, so Murry started working on Grandma. Currently they're both Grandma.

Olivia is trying to make nicknames stick. She calls Gretchen "Gro-co" sometimes and Matthias "Momo" often. Must be a weird seven-year-old thing.

Jacque and Julian came for a brief visit near the end of June. I was able to put the finishing touches on a nursing dress during their visit and, since my model was here, I even tailored it to fit her a little better. I'm especially proud of this dress since I modified a non-nursing pattern in order to make it work. All four of my kids thought Julian was just great and wanted to be in his face talking to him all the time. Julian, for his part, seemed mildly overwhelmed. On the plus side, though, tummy time has never been so fun! Matthias wanted to hold the baby a lot, which was made funnier by the fact that the baby is over half his size. We did learn that he is completely unfazed by babies crying. He just sits there contentedly gazing at the baby's face and says, "Baby crying." If an adult comforts the baby, Matthias immediately demands that the baby be given back.

Bryan had to be in Springfield for a week, so we took up residence in Sidney so as to be able to see him in the evenings. Murry took the girls to see Toy Story 4 at a drive in movie, which was very exciting. We also got to spend our afternoons enjoying the pool. All of the girls are more comfortable in the water now, and Olivia has a pretty reliable doggy paddle down. She still won't get her face wet, so we need to work on that. Gretchen is working on not tensing up while doing a backfloat. It's a work in progress.

We spent a day in Columbus for Rudy and August's birthday party. Keshia and Tyler moved to Columbus a few months ago and have been working on getting their house ready for visitors. They're still remodeling some parts, but the pool was ready to go so we went and swam and ate cake. Kaitlyn was thrilled to see Rudy again. She'd been missing her since the move (previously Keshia and the two kids had lived with Steve and Murry for several months).

Bryan and I ditched the kids with Murry and went to Sacramento for Jacob and Rachel's wedding. It was a pleasant trip, although everything in California happens too late for this eastern time zoner. I did feel like it was impossible to be tardy for any event, though, so there's that. :) We did wedding stuff, enjoyed the pleasant weather, and on our last night visited The Dive Bar, where a real live mermaid made an appearance in the tank over the bar. It was ridiculous, Bryan can't recommend it highly enough. The wedding was beautiful and the reception was fun. The kids are looking forward to meeting Aunt Rachel next week. :)

Matthias had a birthday! He turned two, and was very confused by it. He sang Happy Birthday to himself, and his standard reply to "Happy Birthday Matthias" was "Happy Birthday [name of person who just talked to him]." He has no idea how old he is, but he was excited to open presents and he blew out his candles like a pro.

Back near Christmas, we asked Murry if she wanted to paint the kids' rooms. She did, but said to wait until the weather got warmer. Spring came, but she had other pressing projects, so we put it off some more. She finally decided that July was the month it would happen. The good news about all of this is that she didn't paint before we rearranged the room setups. We're moving all three girls into the playroom (the former guest room) together and putting the playroom back in its old spot. In preparation for painting, the entire contents of our playroom have migrated to our dining room table. What was supposed to be a beginning of July project has become an end of July project, though, so now we've just been avoiding our dining room for nearly a month. Now that some paint has made it onto the walls, the playroom is also off limits, which is a little frustrating. We have a long folding table set up in the living room with chairs for the kids. Bryan and I get the couch.

Matthias says enough words now that they're not worth listing. His big thing recently has been repeating whatever anyone says in his vicinity. He's a fabulous parrot. He also has a sense of humor, because if you ask him to repeat a specific word, especially someone's name, there's about a 50% chance that he will give the wrong answer and then grin like he's the funniest person he knows.

Matthias is at that inconvenient age where he wants to do everything himself but isn't actually capable of doing much of anything. It's not a matter of me being patient while he struggles with his socks for twenty minutes before finally triumphing, because a day and a half later he still won't have figured out how the tiny tubes of fabric should magically adorn his feet.

Lionel has personal space issues. This baby does not like being touched (or perhaps he likes being touched too much?). Whenever something presses on my stomach, he is fighting back. This has been very exciting for the kids, because they can always feel the baby kick. This has not been exciting for my sleep, since there is no way to lie down without creating some pressure somewhere on my stomach, to which Lionel takes vigorous exception for about half an hour before resigning himself to his slightly squished fate.

Pictures next week because there are so many. And also because then I can feel like I successfully posted twice in a row. :)

June 2-16

Linguistically speaking: Matthias learned the word "shoo" and uses it against his sisters. Kaitlyn calls the zoo the "gazoo." Bryan took Kaitlyn to the store to pick out snacks. Although Kaitlyn would quite happily buy and eat everything in the chips and snacks aisle, she apparently does not associate the word "snacks" with bagged munchies. They came back with bananas and corn on the cob.

The kids and I visited the zoo with Bryan's cousin, Amanda, and her two kids. They live about ten minutes from this year's membership (Toledo, since we've pretty much run the course with Fort Wayne) and will probably join us for most of our excursions.

I had a dream of playing real quartet music (read: not wedding gigs). After several months of hemming and hawing, I finally contacted the librarian of the Lima Symphony, who also happens to be a localish violinist that I am friends with. She had a quartet together within a day. Of course, being composed of members with busy lives and small children, our newly formed quartet had to wait two months before we could coordinate our schedules. We finally did it, though, and got together to play some Borodin and Brahms. It was lovely. Three of us are willing to meet monthly just for fun, but unfortunately, our cellist needs some paying gigs in his life. He also made the point that it's easier if we're working towards a performance of some sort. We are looking into finding some locations that would allow us to play whatever we want, and ideally pay us to do so.

And speaking of playing, Steph and I have been able to pull out instruments to play duets the past two times we've gotten together. And Elesha is able to play piano again now that she's no longer pregnant, so we've dug out music from several years ago (not that she was pregnant that whole time, mind you, but we were busy and unmotivated) and begun playing that as well. So much casual viola in my life!

The whole family visited Pittsburgh for Annemarie's baptism. Since school is done and the Bossards have plenty of space, we were able to visit for most of a week. Opa overlapped with us for several days, long enough for Matthias to warm up to him and develop a fondness for his presence. Bryan worked during the day, but the rest of us visited a park with some friends from Justine's church (there's a family with three girls the same ages as ours), attended the baptism (which Gretchen decided she missed, because she couldn't see anything due to the angles of the participants), and read lots of books. The big kids did some school work, and everyone played outside as often as they were allowed.

Gretchen's lack of athletic prowess was prominently displayed when she tried to throw a basketball to Edward. She tossed it straight up in the air, covered her head with her hands, and ran away. Edward scampered over and caught it on a bounce. Kaitlyn is not lacking in athletic prowess, at least compared to her sisters, but she was running to play basketball and wiped out rather spectacularly. She has scrapes on her knees and palms and a pair of scabbed over fat lips. It's pretty cute.

Matthias is a better athlete than all of his sisters put together, and Bryan claims that Matthias throws better than I do. I maintain that aim matters, so I think I've still got him. Matthias gleefully joins in any game involving a ball and demands to have a turn. He throws small balls, kicks large ones, and tries to dribble a basketball before asking to be picked up so that he can dunk it.

Gretchen and Kaitlyn had checkups. Gretchen is 43 pounds and 46 inches tall. Kaitlyn is 38 pounds and 40 inches tall. Kaitlyn also had to get her kindergarten shots, even though she's only preschool age. Apparently they give them any time between four and six years old, so these were her five year old shots. I told the doctor that it was fine that she get them, but that I didn't think the consolation of not having to receive them next year would help much with the disappointment of this year's visit.

I walked into the living room one day to find Gretchen poking at Matthias's face. I told her to cut it out and she said, "But he's yellow." I looked more closely, and he was indeed yellow. There was a large yellow stripe running from a third of the way into his hair straight down to the tip of his nose. At this point I noticed that a paintbrush that had been sitting in the middle of the counter in a puddle of mostly dried yellow paint was missing. As was Kaitlyn. I yelled for Kaitlyn, and she came sheepishly around the corner from her bedroom. She had a yellow streak down her nose as well, and also stripes around her eyes. I asked if she had painted anything besides herself and her brother. "Just the wall." Luckily for everyone involved, the wall in question was the tile around the bathtub. A damp towel took care of the wall, and I ran warm water into the bathtub and made Kaitlyn and Matthias stick their yellow heads underneath the faucet.

Pictures:

Bonus Post: Sound Bites 42

Me: Gretchen, you have to stop obsessing about the bee.
Gretchen: Why?
Me: Because you're living your whole life whiny and scared.
Gretchen: Well you're living YOUR whole life reading your Kindle and telling us what to do.

Gretchen: I see million flowers.
Me: You do not see a million flowers.
Gretchen: Well, maybe a hundred.
Me: That sounds more reasonable.
Gretchen: Or 29. A million or a hundred or 29. Definitely one of those.

Gretchen: Everyone has a talent. My talent is art. Olivia's talent is reading. Mommy's talent is making. Daddy's talent is making games on the computer. Matthias's talent is running all around everywhere without telling mom and dad.
Bryan: What a talent!
Me: What's Kaitlyn's talent?
Kaitlyn: My talent is jumping on the trampoline! With Daddy!

Kaitlyn: What if we were divers and catched a crocodile and an alligator and a shark?
Me: Where would we put them?
Kaitlyn: At the dentist.
Me: ...
Kaitlyn: Like Nemo!

Gretchen was singing a song from Princess and the Frog that sounded familiar enough to Matthias that he was filling in the second half with lyrics from Aristocats.
Gretchen: Are you ready?
Matthias: Be a cat!

Gretchen: I know how to draw a priest and a human.

Bonus Post: Dance Recital Play-By-Play

To cope with watching interminably long dance recitals, Bryan texts a group of friends his take on the show. Here, for your edification and amusement, we present the play-by-plays from last year and this year.


2018 Play-By-Play
I know you guys weren't lucky enough to get tickets to Ms. Lyn's dance recital today, so I'm taking it upon myself to give you guys a play by play. You're welcome.

Act 2, the 3 year old group. Highlights: grumpy girl with a pacifier doesn't move the whole dance. Only boy tries to jump off stage. Twice. But my favorite, somewhere in this auditorium are two parents who paid $200 to watch their daughter stand and cry on the right side of the stage for 2 minutes before getting carried off.

Act 8, Olivia is up. Botches 2 plies and pirouettes when she was supposed to blasse. 3/10. I show no bias.

Act 14. some 16 year olds aggressively dance ballet at us. In related news, it turns out it is possible to aggressively dance ballet.

Act 18... Not sure if I just watched a genuinely good tap performance, or if the rest of this has just broken my ability to identify good entertainment.

Act 24, some 11 year olds ruin Elvis for me forever.

Act 25, the boys dance. All 6 of them 100% miserable. Fathers, I know it's 2018, but some things are just meant for girls only.

Act 29, the same 11 year olds ruin 80s pop for me. I'm going to find these girls when this is done...

I kid you not, some dad 2 rows in front of me must've just watched his daughter's last one, cuz he got out his 3DS and is playing smash bros. It's going to be really hard to focus from here on in.

Act 31, dad's Link gets crushed by a DK. Not sure if they Wi-Fi is bad and he's lagging or if he's just really bad. Err, I mean, dancing happened...

Act 34, if you are creative enough, you can choreograph a classic ballet to many different kinds of music. African bongos is not one of them.

Couple behind us:
Mom: Here comes Zoey!
2 year old: *continued crying*
Mom: She's gonna tumble, look! Just lo-
Dad: He doesn't care, Cheryl.

It's halftime. The 3 year olds are for sure ahead, as predicted, but getting a much better fight from the oldest group than anticipated. We'll have to see what the second half brings. I am ready to declare a loser, though. 11 year olds. Too old to get a pass for sucking, but still young enough to suck. Surprised it's only halftime? These are a marathon, not a sprint. You guys are 100% my flask.

I think 3DS dad is getting yelled at by anti-3DS wife. So I don't think that'll be back. Also, I've been informed that there have only been 24 dances. Turns out my counting was very liberal.

And after a 15 minute break WE'RE BACK BABY! Stupid 11 year olds up first...

Act 25 in the books. The effort is there. The talent is not.

Act 27, we have a Gretchen sighting. I gotta say, proud dad moment, she carried the team. Super awkward facial expressions. During a partner spin, almost knocks her partner over all 4 times, this coming after a near hand-to-the-face. Then none of them would leave when the dance ended. We have a new front runner.

Act 28, dancing probably happened amidst the sequins, glitter, and strobe lights, but I can't confirm as much. If I ever recover from the seizure I just had, I'll give you my eval.

I'm soldiering this thing out. We are leaking parents, though. Every dance about 20 people have seen the last dance their daughter is in and peace out.

Act 32. True Colors. Such a pretty song. Just a good, soulful, pleasant song. Ruined.

Act 33. I think I just watched a Donna Summer 1974 home workout routine fro 40 year old moms performed by 14 year old girls. I have no idea how I'm supposed to feel right now.

Act 42, Olivia is in this twice, apparently! Some redemption for the eldest Barhorst as it was a solid performance, but it isn't going to scratch what her sister did.

That's a wrap, gents. I was ready to give it to the old group, but the kindergartners stole it in the 2nd. Good game, everyone. Good game. Thanks for letting me blow up your phones. I needed you more than you needed me.


2019 Play-By-Play
Gentlemen, it's that wonderful time of the year. Better than the World Series, more anticipated than Christmas. I am, of course, talking about Ms. Lyn's ballet and tap recital, giving men everywhere a reason to look forward to Mother's Day since 1992. For those of you who did not secure your ticket in time, fear not, as I'll be providing the play by play for the whole 2.75 freaking hours long these things go.

Kickoff is at 6:00. Reply with unsubscribe to opt out of future updates.
*choruses of subscribe, one question about the over/under of songs Bryan knows*

To answer that over/under we have to first answer the over/under on how many songs there even are. Last year was somewhere between 30 and 1000. After 30 you kind of lose the will to live and lose count. My parents bought a program. 43 songs. I bet I recognize about 22 as we go, I promise I hate all 43 by the end. This thing is a money making machine. I'm literally paying them so I can be miserable right now. Never have girls.

And we're off. I feel like I recognize a lot of the girls from last year. If they've gotten better I can't tell... Also, the guy two chairs to my right is shamelessly watching a basketball game. I'm literally 2 feet away from not paying any attention to the stage.

Tiny tots. The perennial favorite. Not one of them left of center even moved with the exception of grumpy girl who got too caught up in the excitement of clapping for a second, but then caught herself and resumed being grumpy.

Song 4, the preschoolers, right most girl steals it. The routine opened with some jumps and there was just no off switch. You wanted jumps and she jumped. For 2 minutes.

This unfortunately concludes the genuinely enjoyable part of the program. Everyone else is too old to be funny but too young to be good.

Song 7. Didn't think you could dance a ballet to "I Need a Hero"? Think again. Actually don't. Your first instinct was correct. It was terrible.

Song 10. Telephone. So much angst and aggression in the dance moves. Very feisty. Super in your face. If you're envisioning the dancers in black leather with some sassy red, you were close: pink ballroom gowns.

Song 14. Generic interpretive dance #5. Here's the formula: Pretend you got shot. Die in slow motion. Get up and repeat 11 more times, except the last time instead of getting up roll around on the ground for 30 seconds. Lights fade. Girls exit. Dads regret everything.

In related news, my dad is to my right and only one seat away from phone sports guy. My dad's gonna buy him a beer after this, he's so happy.

We've got an Olivia. Her group has cans of hairspray and do thur hurr throughout the song. I need to work with Olivia on her aim with an aerosol can. Blasted the whole right side of her face. Spent most of her time rubbing her right eye and trying to get the taste out of her mouth. It was perfect.

Gretchen right after. All I'll say about her is that she's gloriously uncoordinated and I love it.

And it's halftime. Score is Sadness and Broken Dreams: 20, Bryan: 0.

Some guy: Is Rachel in any more dances?
Wife: She's in the finale.
Some guy: Do I have to stay for that?

We're back and we've got tumbling. You know how in gymnastics in the floor routine they slowly build up speed then fluidly transition into their cartwheels and flips? Well this is the exact opposite of that. Full sprint to the middle of the mat, stop completely, do a crappy somersault, get up, and resume dead sprint off stage.

I just watched 12 year old girls in suspenders dancing to "Workin' for the Weekend." Younger versions of myself are so disappointed in what I'm doing with my life right now.

One amendment to my interpretive dance formula: Do everything I said while pretending there is a fireworks display going on overhead and each one violently catches your attention and makes you feel like someone murdered a puppy.

Gretchen's back. She's been front and center both dances and the teachers must just know what we want, because she's easily the most lost out of all of them and it's wonderful to behold. Right there. Dead middle. Not doing anything anyone else is doing.

Not sure which is worse, this remix of "Don't Worry, Be Happy" or the accompanying dance.

I feel like there had to have been a wardrobe miscommunication somewhere. The same pink ballgowns I complained about earlier are back, this time to the 70s disco hit "You Should be Dancing."

Olivia round 2... It breaks my heart to say nothing terrible happened. They all danced as gracefully as 8 year olds can. *sniffs* I'll always have the hairspray to the eye moment, at least.

Annnnd the list of country songs I can listen to is down to 4. "Country Girl (Shake it for Me)," we had a good run, but the 15 year olds tap dancing in overalls is something I can't unsee.

Curtain drops, nothing notable on the finale piece. Til next year, boys.