You know, I remember when I thought about Dance Show so much that I just HAD to blog about it. In fact, keeping it to just one blog post per week was a huge restriction. I wanted to talk about Dance! Show! all day, all night. Where have those days gone?

My younger sister was here to watch dance show with me this week, and we were talking about how this season’s All-Star format is a direct rip off of Dancing With The Stars. She said that people do not watch Dancing With The Stars for the format, they just wanted to see crappy half-celebrities fall on their butt. SO TRUE, NIGEL. You have somehow sucked the life out of dance show for me, and believe me when I say I am your biggest fan. FIX IT.

(Still wondering if the tour is coming to Canada, though. I should check that.)

Anyway! This week I learned that boy-on-boy contemporary just does not work for me. The Kent/Neil number was fine and all, but I don’t know, the deep passion and bare feet and blah blah just does not resonate for me as a typical male relationship, you know? I didn’t like it. Kent’s disco also kind of sucked, but Kent is invincible, so it doesn’t matter. He may as well come out and just wave at the girls in the front row and then skip off stage.

Also, Denis Richardson may be a dance god, but his choreography is ho hum at best. Adechike was robbed.

My favourite number of the night was actually the Lauren/Pasha tango. I’ve read on the internet that everyone else thought it sucked, though. So maybe I was just really tired. I also liked her number with Ade, but I love everything ever that has Ade in it. In fact, the only reason why I’d consider going to the tour this time – I’ve never been before – is because Ade will be there. He is so amazing!

And so, we come to the end. I was surprised that Adechike was the one to go home – undeserved, I thought, but after such an obvious campaign by the judges, I guess I should have expected it. I understand the judges are meant to offer their “professional” opinion, but their obvious agenda where Adechike was concerned was too much. It left a bad taste in my mouth and is yet another reason I’m not super excited about the finale.

Speaking of which, finale predictions:

• The “super legendary” dancer who will be doing the hip-hop routine with Twitch will be NIGEL. GAG ME.
• The boogie shoes number will be showcased or else you will hear me screaming in NIGERIA.
• Kent will win. SHOCKING, I KNOW.
• I may just fall asleep early. Sigh. Here’s looking toward Season 8.

I have another Summer of Awesome post up at Kids in the Capital, on The Changing of the Guard and how it sucked. Don’t miss it!

Also we are just about to leave for the last AMC Summer Movie Club, which is on this morning at 10 a.m. It’s How To Train Your Dragon. If you see us there, say hi!

Captain: Hey Mom, check out this Lego war I am building between the bounty hunters and Jedi. Who do you think will win, the good guys or bad guys?

Me: The good guys.

Captain: Why?

Me: Good always triumphs over evil.

Captain: I should mention that the bad guys have a deep-fried turkey.

Me: What? How is that going to help them?

Captain: Okay, I just said that to be funny. But they do have a sausage.

Me: A sausage.

Captain: Yes.

Me: And what do they need a sausage for?

Captain: In case they get hungry, of course!

Me: Well, I guess that means the bad guys are going to win!

My youngest sister, LittleSis, is staying with us this week. She’s off to a wedding tonight and tomorrow with her husband, so she’ll be leaving her 4 1/2 year old son, H-Man, and her 7-month-old son, S-Man, with us. It’s a little scary to go back to doing the baby thing – not to mention having five kids (!!!) all to myself today – but I’m sure we will survive. It’s kind of nice, actually, to have a little extra time with the boys, since they live in Toronto and we don’t get to see them that often.

We’ve already spent the past few days learning the boys’ schedules and especially how to feed the baby – how much, how to prepare it,and when to serve it. She’s leaving us scads of pumped milk and little cubes of frozen prepared baby food and lots and lots of diapers.

My sister and I are alike in parenting style and most of of our parenting decisions. Taking care of the boys for a couple of days shouldn’t be much different than caring for our own. But when we’re going over the rules and schedules, there’s the odd thing – always a tiny, little thing – that comes up where we differ. It’s not bad or good, just different decisions we made, ways we did things in a slightly different way.

And I must say, when it comes to raising kids, forcing yourself to do things someone else’s way is pretty tough.

This kind of sounds strange, but I feel like this is a little glimpse of what it will be like to be a grandparent. I’ve been thinking about grandparents a lot lately. When our kids were babies, we sometimes had conflicts with our mothers over the way things were to be done, and my attitude was always, “WE are the parents now, what WE say goes, please respect that.”

So I’ve given a lot of thought about how I want to be as a grandparent, and I hope I will remember what it is like to be the parent of a newborn and how protective you can feel and how incredibly important it seems that your kid go to bed at SEVEN, not one second later. But even when I was a brand new mother, I knew I was only seeing half of the experience.

As a teenager, I remember telling myself that I would always, ALWAYS, remember how it felt to be a teen, so I could be a better mother when I grew up. But now that I AM a mother, I can see my mom’s side to all those arguments as well. And you know what? She had a point. I remember the teen angst, oh yes I do, but now I can see it in the perspective of actually living in the world. So when I get to that point with my own kids, I suspect I’m going to be more Mom, and less I-Can’t-Believe-She-Said-That- Let’s-Bash-Her-On-Facebook.

Likewise, I wonder how I will react as a grandmother. At this point I can only imagine what it will be like to have a child come into my house that I love to bits, and have to take care of it completely by someone else’s specifications. I’m getting just a taste of it with my nephews here, and I have to keep reminding myself that my way was great, but my sister’s way is great too, and it’s important to her, so just do it already.

Maybe I should have that last sentence put up on an embroidery sampler, so I don’t forget when I’m 75 and giving my grandchildren ice cream for breakfast and keeping them up until midnight.

Anyway, until then I’m trying hard to see my own kids’ grandparents in gentler, more understanding tones. I’m trying to allow other people to care for my kids in their own way, and to respect that as being just as valid. And I’m trying to respect other parents and their decisions, knowing that what we do in our family is right for us, but not necessarily right for everyone.

And now, I must run, because, FIVE KIDS. I mentioned that, right?

I have another post up at Kids in the Capital, on the Centennial Branch of the Ottawa Public Library. See you over there!

The new city activities guide is out, and that means it’s time to start thinking about fall classes for the kids. I don’t want to be too busy or overbooked, so we are trying to limit each kid to swimming and just one other activity.

The Captain is easy. He wants to do indoor soccer. Done.

Gal Smiley is a lot harder. She wants to do about 20 different things. When we forced her to narrow down the list, she picked skating. We’re happy about the skating, but a little sad that she didn’t pick piano lessons.

She’s bugged us for piano lessons for the past two years. All this time we’ve been waiting for her to turn six, so she’d be eligible for the city-run programs. Then, this summer, we found a teenage girl up the street who was willing to give Gal Smiley lessons over the summer. It has worked out great and we’ve been very happy. Gal Smiley is making fantastic progress. When we tell her it’s practice time, she practically skips over to the piano and wants to play every song again and again. She invites her brother and sister to hear mini-concerts.

So you’d think she loves it, wouldn’t you? And yet, when we asked her about fall activities, the one thing she said was, “I don’t want to take any more piano lessons.”

I swear I do not understand my kids at all.

Anyway, I am not usually one of those parents who thinks kids should be forced into taking stuff that they aren’t really interested in, but this one gives me pause. I mean, she really seems to like it when she’s actively playing. And she’s doing so well. It’d be a shame to just let her quit.

But I don’t want to make her unhappy either, and she’s starting Grade One in the fall and that’ll be crazy enough without three activities on her plate (assuming we add in the piano).

Did anyone out there take piano lessons as a kid? Did you resent your parents making you take lessons long after you wanted to quit? Or did your parents let you walk away, and now you regret it?

I’d love to hear some advice on this one.

Well. I don’t even know what to say.

But of course, I will try.

What is UP with all the injuries this season? Injuries are boring. Injuries mean less dancing and predictable eliminations and fewer and fewer dancers availble to appear in the finale and on the tour. They suck. Cut it out, injuries. Be gone!

I do like their elimination solution this week, however. The judges obviously would prefer to keep Billy over Robert or Jose; however, sending one of them home and keeping Billy, when Billy actually could have danced but didn’t, seems really, really unfair. So keeping all of them — interesting choice, and we’ll see how that plays out.

Side note to Billy: last year on SYTYCD Canada, Emanuel Sandhu sprained an ankle AND broke two fingers on his hand, and yet danced every single week. Now that’s a dancer who wants it. Grow a pair, Billy.

(You’re still cute, though. Kisses.)

What’s up with Russell, out of nowhere, being added to the tour for this season? Was there no tour after Season 6? It’s a very odd mix of people they are bringing along this time. Of the all-stars, I’m really surprised they are not bringing Twitch or Comfort. As for this season’s choices, obviously Lauren and Kent will go (top girl, top boy) — but who do you think will be the “four dancers to be named later”? They implied last week that Ashley would go…I’d reckon Adechike, Jose, and Billy will be the other three. Thoughts?

Two will be eliminated this coming week…who will they be? Let’s look into the crystal ball…

1. Kent. Memo to screaming girls in the SYTYCD audience: STOP SCREAMING. I MEAN IT.

2. Lauren. LOVED her number with Twitch this week. One of my most favourite and fun hip-hops ever. Speaking of which, Twitch was a total MVP on the show this week. It’s too bad Billy was out but that stepping number with the clapping and stamping and stuff with Kent transcended into a classic just by the addition of Twitch. I adore him. So why isn’t he on the tour again? In other news, Lauren’s beach party number with Robert sucked. However, Lauren was great. (Sorry, ROBERT.)

3. Adechike. Is it just me, or does he get handsomer every week? I AM COUGAR. Thanks for the shirtless paso, Dmitri!

4. Billy. Here’s where the rankings get tough. I assume the voters will punish Billy for his “you can’t make me” attitude to Dance! Show! this week – but will the judges send him home? I think they’ll keep him over Jose, who they are gunning for, or Robert, who has somehow morphed these past two weeks into a cheeseball shaped as a human. Still, Billy could be in danger if he doesn’t put in a really solid performance this week.

5. Robert. Robert is still a good dancer but holy mackerel, does he ever need to get serious. He was okay with Lauren (the all star one, not the competitor one) – I didn’t love it, but it was passable – but his samba with Lauren (the competitor one, not the all star one) was awful! The faces! The overdone hip swivels! The goofy eye rolls and tongue action! Ugh.

6. Jose. I really, really adored the number Sonya did this week for Jose and Allison, along the edge of the stage. I thought it was brilliant and Sonya’s best routine ever. It was so different for her, and I’m loving this new direction. Jose himself was fine, but I do think this piece could have been so, so legendary with Kent or Adechike dancing it instead, which I guess suggests that Jose just doesn’t dance as well (duh). He also cannot rock a paso doble anywhere near as well as Legacy (Legacy — the original cougar bait! Yay!). So, I’m guessing it’s Jose who will go home. He’ll still get put on the tour over Robert, however, so he and Dominic can do their B-Boy thing in the really big show.

I’d also like to mention: totally called it on the Wade Robson routine for Neil and Lauren in their all star showcase. Oh yes, I am a Dance! Show! Goddess. In other news, having Allison and Lauren strut around behind Enrique was a little scary, don’t you think? Yipes.

Next week – two go home! Ade dancing with Allison, or maybe Kathryn dancing with Dominic! Here’s to an injury free week!