The weekend with Maybelle

Maybelle and I had an excellent weekend together, which included leisurely mornings, few planned events, and exceptionally hot weather (okay, so that wasn't one of the excellent parts--but it made coming back home into the air conditioning quite pleasant).

On Saturday we went to the downtown Farmer's Market, a normally large event which was huge because it's Spoleto time in Charleston.  All of Marion Square Park was filled with food vendors, artists, jump castles, musicians, and dogs on leashes. And there were some guys who'd laid vinyl flooring on the sidewalk and were breaking (I just learned through a web search that "breakdancing" is an inappropriate term, so I'm adopting the preferred term--breaking).  The dancers were just wonderful--they did amazing things that were hard to imagine, and they were obviously having a great time, laughing with each other, even laughing while they were dancing.  Maybelle loved it.  Here you can see her watching attentively. We stayed there for a long time because she was engrossed.

And then she decided it was her turn.  She ran out onto the dance floor.  I leapt to my feet.  "No, no, baby!" I said, reaching between the dancers to grab her.  "We're watching, we're not dancing."

"No!" the guys immediately said.  "Let her dance!"

And lord have mercy, she did.  She ran around the dance area in a bouncy way, arms in the air, while the crowd clapped for her.  And then she threw her body down onto the vinyl, not unlike the way the guy is doing it in this picture.  She wasn't just begging for attention (although clearly that's a big part of what she was doing).  She was also breaking!  The crowd went wild, as did the dancers.

Then I successfully got her off the dance floor with no temper tantrums thrown.  I'd already planned to enroll her in a dance class in the fall, and I think now I'm going to look for something like breaking in addition to the modern dance I'd already planned to find.

That's not all the performing Maybelle did this weekend.  While she was eating waffles at the house one morning, I decided to try to get her on video performing one of the songs that's currently a favorite:  Toby Keith's "Who's Your Daddy?"  This song is pretty wretchedly patriarchal.  And yet it's great to dance to.  I pick Maybelle up, and we do a version of the two step, and she's learned virtually the entire song.  Here she's singing:

You run on a little tough luck, baby.
Don't you sweat it.
Everything is waiting inside for you.
You know I got it.  Come on and get it!
Who's your daddy, who's your baby?
Who's your buddy, yeah who's your friend?
Who's the one guy that you come running to
When your love life starts tumbling?
I got the money, you got the honey,
Let's cut a deal, let's make a plan.
Who's your daddy, who's your baby?
Who's your buddy, who's your mmmmmman?

Please excuse the syrup dripping off her chin, and her runny nose, and all the various kinds of goo stuck to her face.  This is an enthusiastic rendition of this song, and she got cleaned up later.


Maybelle as Toby Keith from Maybelle on Vimeo.