Ashley’s School Concert

Today is Ashley’s concert day. She has been showing me her moves at home.

She has been telling me, “momma, I plakthish like this, like that”, showing me her moves. The closed fist rolling towards the chest in clockwise and anti clockwise motion, spreading her 3 fingers upward and almost pinching her cheek with her forfinger and thumb, lying down on the ground …. and I had guessed that she would be a kitten.

Ashley has always been one who likes to dance. I thought she could dance really prettily too, swaying her hips and clicking her feet gently to each other to the left, to the right. All the hands moves.   She would dance in fast rhythm whenever she hear fast music, unlike Kimberly, who like to sway to slow music.

Anyhow, true enough, today when we reached her school, her teacher handed me a brown leopard print tee and pants. We were told to send the kids to school by 3.30pm cos the concert starts at 4.30pm.

You would have thought that with all her showing off to us at home, she be eager to groove away.

Not so ! haha…

The little one was overwhelmed at her school being flooded with so many strangers aunties and strangers uncles (parents of the kids) that she clung to me. When I tried to get her to wear her costume, she abandon me and clung to her father, getting her father to get away by straining away from me.

I knew that Ashley is a timid one, but then she has also been an obedient one. And one who would eat when her teacher told her to, even if she doesn’t feel like eating.  So I wasn’t prepared that she would balk at performing.

Anyhow, seeing her distress state, we decide that we would just watch the show instead. So we went right to the back of the hall and settled down to watch.

After a few video clips, Ashley was settled enough to want to go back to her class , where all the kids were waiting their turn.  So we walked back to her class. And she let one of her teachers take her from me.

Her teacher got her dressed in her costume.

I thought I checked her out, and what do I see. Crying again. Haha.

So I sat on a chair besides the stage with her to watch instead , and see if by the time it came for her turn, she would be ready.

2 other kids, Dale and Aidan, about 6 months older than Ashley, were crying too, but they had settled down and sitting with their classmates already.

As for Ashley, each time, her chieh chieh find it fit to remove herself from her friend, Diana, whose kid brother ,Dale, is also in Ashley’s class, she would walk over and yell at Ashley over the noises, pointing towards the stage, with 2 hands on her hips, befitting of a chieh chieh,

“It’s your turn, Ashley, sit there with your friends !!”

Ashley would then burst into tears again. haha. And each time one of her teachers came by and kindly say,”Ashley, you ready to dance or not?” she also burst into tears as well. haha!

Anyhow, come her turn, I nonchalantly maneuver her to standing position from my laps, then pushed her to the back of the lining up kitties.

She hesitates but I nudge her along with the line. She walked up obediently to the stage…but stood there with quivering mouth, with eyes about to swell up with tears and holding back her sobs. haha. Okay, okay, so I went forth and took her back. The poor thing.

So this is the little kitty who didnt perform. haha.

Not her first show anyhow.

Fortunately, come the last part of the show, where everyone in school sang a song, she deem it comfortable enough and condescend to walk up the stage together with other kids without nudges and sang a song, It’s a small world.

So we managed to catch some memories of her concert (with her participating) on the video cam after all. And I quickly snap lots of pics. Whatever I could anyhow. haha.

I didn’t catch a lot of the show on camera cos she was at my lap and I had left my camera at my seat.

Managed to catch these only.

At the end of the show, the school provides some light snacks for the parents. 

This is Ashley posing with her classmate, Aidan, at the end of the show.

Two parents had quarrelled when they couldn’t catch video clips of their kids.  And one parent seems to “deliberately” bump another parent while walking past because the fella keep blocking her view despite her reminders. 

These little fights seems to happen quite frequently nowadays. sigh. I see them at Barney shows at One Utama, at Barbie shows at Times Square etc.  Mostly at kids shows where eager parents tried to catch moments of their kids on camera or video and were obstructed.

Anyhow, had to leave early cos the kids’ Koh Poh were admitted to the hospital. FIl and MIL is down and had spend some time with her at the hosp. The kids’ Koh Poh is FIL’s elder sister and lives next door to FIL. We are quite close to her. She is a real lady who had it tough in life and managed to bring up FIL and other siblings when their parents passed away. She then married into a comfortable lifestyle and continued to raise her siblings till they were of earning capacity age. I admire her for her strenght and her resourcefulness and I do hope that she will be alright.

So that’s the day of Ashley’s concert. Her very first concert !