Sunday Afternoon at the Cheer America Platinum Championship

Miss J had her first cheer "competition" yesterday at NRG Arena. She was so excited to perform especially since she came home sick Friday afternoon and spent Saturday resting so she could hang out with her team - the Lil Diamonds.  We had to be there just before 2:30 and the team Mom advised us to feed our cheerleader beforehand because there was a 3 hour gap between arriving and performing. No one wants to deal with 10, hungry, 4/5\6 year olds before they have to go on stage. :-P

Miss J had a small plate of PLAIN pasta and a little bit of orange juice. . . .or so we thought.  I then did Miss J's hair and makeup (her favorite part) and we hit the road for NRG Arena.  All the way there Miss J was in a great mood and spent most of the car ride singing songs from Taylor Swift's new album.  We pulled into the parking lot of NRG and as my Nerd handing over $10 to pay for parking she announced, "I have to throw up." and then proceeded to do so. . . . .EVERYWHERE!! It was all over her uniform, face, car seat and the backseat of the car.

Hubby quickly parked the car, pulled Miss J out and assessed the situation. . .In a word, it was AWFUL.  I told her, "You won't be able to perform. How are you feeling?" Miss J immediately broke into tears and insisted to me that she was fine and wanted to perform. She was wailing and the only way could get her to stop was to tell her, "we'll figure it out." or should I say I would figure it out.  You see, during this time, Hubby was in fine form using words that really should not be said in public, pacing around the car trying to air it out and clean up what he could.  I, on the other hand, was dealing with a little girl crying, NOT BECAUSE she had vomit all over herself, but because she wanted to perform BADLY.  All we had to clean up the car was a small packet of Purell wipes and 2 small packets of Kleenex - THAT'S IT.

I texted one of the team Mom's to tell her what was going on and she couldn't believe it.  I somehow cleaned J up enough so we could walk through the parking lot into the arena.  The team mom met us at the door and told Miss J, "You do not have to perform if you do not feel well. If you do not feel well you should go home." Well, Miss J, AGAIN, started wailing that she wanted to perform. So, Miss J and I headed to the restroom to clean her up.  Amazingly, probably because the uniform is made of a slippery material, I was able clean her up with wet paper towels and by sticking her under the dryer.

Looking at her hanging out with her teammates you would NEVER know she had gotten sick:

December 7, 2014: Miss J and a few of her teammates chatting before warm ups.

I, on the other hand, wanted to go home, take a shower and forget about this whole ordeal.  But instead, I fed my little girl stale popcorn and Sprite (she started complaining she was hungry) and sat through 2 hours of cheer performances before Miss J hit the stage.

In the end, seeing Miss J BEAMING from ear to ear when she walked on stage made it worth it.  My shy little girl, because of her inclusion in cheerleading, is coming out of her shell, gaining confidence and becoming more of her own person.

Lessons I've learned:

1 - Have Miss J wear a T-Shirt over her uniform or even have her put on her uniform top when we get there

2 - Bring scented bodyspray for me to mask any smells. . . .antibacterial soap only takes care of so much.

3 - No more orange juice! Miss J is known to throw up when she eats too much, has too many sweets or drinks too much juice.  For this reason, she's mostly a water drinker. But she's learned how to pour her own drinks and we had leftover OJ from her birthday party. Needless to say, the OJ has been poured down the sink.

December 7, 2014: Lil Diamonds and coaches after their performance.

Wanna see what I'm talking about? Watch yesterday's vlog!