Show week... yeah.

Kyle and Natalie had their last Little Gym class of the semester on Tuesday, and their class put on a little show for the parents. I was really hoping for a few good pictures and a nice little blog about how wonderful they were, but we're all going to have to settle for a handful of not-so-good pictures and an irritated blog instead.

The whole ordeal started out in a very promising manner. The kids all had to sit together on 'the big red mat' and introduce themselves. Kyle and Natalie were last in line, and when it was Kyle's turn to introduce himself he said, "I'm Kyle, and this is my sister Natalie." And then he put his arm around Natalie, and the two of them smiled sweetly while all the parents laughed gently and said, "Awwww!" It was nice. Here's a picture.

The show even progressed smoothly through the kids doing their individual tumbling on the mat.

Then the kids were asked to go sit along the wall while they took turns on the balance beam. Kyle wanted Natalie to sit next to him, so she did. But Kyle wanted Natalie to sit right next to him--with no space at all between them. Natalie didn't want to sit right up against Kyle, so Kyle started crying. This continued for 20 minutes. The kids moved from one wall to another to show us their tricks on the uneven bars, and still my children were fussing. Kyle would scoot up against Natalie, she'd get up and move away (smiling innocently so that no one but I knew what she was up to), Kyle would cry then follow her, repeat. Here's a picture of Kyle on the balance beam in between crying jags.

I tried talking Kyle down from the edge of the cliff that was his need to sit right next to Natalie to no avail. I tried asking Natalie sweetly to sit still to make her brother happy--also to no avail. I pleaded with them to be nice so the other parents could pay attention to their own children. I even tried asking Kyle and Natalie if they realized everyone was staring at them and wondering why this brother and sister (who were cheesily sweet to each other only 20 minutes earlier) had turned on each other. Nothing worked. I started ignoring them. The ordeal continued until the end of the 'show' when the teachers said the magic words, "We have milk and cookies for everyone in the other room."

Milk and cookies?! Milk and cookies, darn it!! Why didn't I think of saying there would be milk and cookies if they would just leave each other alone?! Argh.

I wish I could say I've never been more embarrassed, but that would be a lie. Not a week goes by when I'm not embarrassed by some aspect of my kids' behavior in public. But that was definitely the most embarrassed I've been so far this week... but then again, it's only Thursday.