On with the show

While driving to the zoo, I overheard a conversation between Kayliana and her friend Zoey.

Zoey, says, “Do you have a boyfriend, Kayli?”

Kayli (thankfully!) replies, “No.  You don’t have boyfriends until you’re a teenager.”

Then Zoey says, “Oh, well, I have five….or ten.”

Then the conversation moves on to marriage.  Zoey  says, “You get married and then you kiss and go on your Honeymoon.”

Kayli adds, “Yep, and when you’re married all you do is smooch all day and take silly pictures to send to each other.”

I asked Kayli, “Do daddy and I do that?”  She quickly responded in the affirmative.  Huh!

So, this past weekend was the Zach-show.  Zachary had a BIG weekend.  He was in his first real on-stage play!  He’s done several classes and camps where at the end they put on a mini (ten minute) production in the classroom just for the parents, but this was the real deal.

The show was at the Youth Theater (right near where I grew up and close to where my mom and brother Chris live).  It was called “Cinderella Rockin’ the 80’s” and it. Was. Awesome.   Totally cheesy, very much geared towards the parents in the crowd who actually remember the 80’s.

The first night I went to pick Zach up from practice, the cast – including just one other boy and a gaggle of giggly girls – were singing Cindi Lauper’s “Girls, Just Wanna Have Fun.”  They spent an entire evening of rehearsal going through the script with the two directors explaining every 80’s reference to these younguns.  (Honestly, I’m not sure the directors were old enough to have lived through the 80’s, themselves). 

Zach landed the part of “Prince Cruise Swayze’s” sidekick Charles.  Friday night – opening night – Zachary was a perfect combo of nerves and excitement.  I was those plus a bit emotional.  Nearly our entire neighborhood showed up to cheer him on (post-bus stop Happy Hour).  We were all there plus my mom and her friend.  My oldest brother Timothy came Friday night and Chris came Saturday night (with my mom again).

Now, obviously I’m biased.  But really, I feel like sometimes I’m reversed biased.  Because they’re my kids, I’m actually a little more critical of them.  Maybe I had (and am ashamed to admit) slightly low expectations.  From the few times that Zach said a couple of his lines to me…well, I wasn’t expecting to be wowed.  But…No lie…No joke...No exaggeration.  He stole it.  Took the show and ran…well, he and maybe 1 or 2 others.  I’d say 3 of the performers really carried it and he was easily the leader of the pack.  I was so proud and just so super…impressed!

We celebrated afterwards by going out to ice cream with the whole fam – Grandma’s treat.  She pointed out that it was the exact same Baskin and Robbins we went to after celebrating my first ever opening night (of a middle school musical).  I realized that subconsciously I must’ve known this is ‘what we do’ since we went to Dairy Queen after Matthew’s first band concert back in December.

So, two performance nights – Friday and Saturday and then Sunday brought a different kind of ‘show.’  Zach altar served for the first time at Mass!  I was, once again, a little nervous, but once again, very impressed.  We – the rest of the family – were asked to bring up the gifts for Communion.  Super special to bring up the gifts to Father Todd who then handed them over to Zachary!  Proud mama weekend for sure.

Alas, not to be outshined (outshone?!) by my own kid, I did the only thing any good mother would do – and started a YouTube channel.  Actually, it’s something I’ve been planning on for a while.  And with the Kindergartners preparing for a little show for their parents, the teachers asked if I might leave them with music to practice next week (while I’m gone on Spring Break).  I thought – well, the easiest way would be to just sing it all out on video.  I also did several drum videos.  My primary goal with these is to help other early childhood music educators.  There really just isn’t a lot out there, so I might as well start sharing some of my tricks and tips.  I plan to do playlists for each of the different instruments we use and then playlists for all of my different themed songs.  After doing this (toddler/preschool music-deal) for 12 years, I have a heck of a lot of ideas to share.  Maybe it’ll just be my mom who watches them, but, whatever!  It’s out there. Little Ditties Music Academy YouTube Channel