Life With The Shirleys: the performance of the century

Wednesday, March 2, 2011

the performance of the century

Today was The Mayor's spring concert at school. You just never know what you are going to get when you get a whole bunch of 2 year old classes up on a stage and expect them to perform in front of a packed house of moms, dads, grandparents and loved ones. And you really don't know what to expect when you attempt to get The Mayor up there. I had spoken with his teacher last week and she warned me he might not want to participate, that once he got up there he may freak out and want to get off stage. I told her I had no expectations and was fully prepared that he wouldn't want to sing or be on stage. But boy were we wrong! He. did. awesome.

The theme of the concert was Children Around The World and each class represented different countries. Two classes represented Africa, another two classes represented Latin America and the last two classes (one of which was The Mayor's class) represented Israel. The kids looked ADORABLE in their outfits. The Mayor walked proudly in with his class wearing his shirt with the Star of David on it and made his way to stage. He didn't sing much in the beginning; he mostly looked around, "Whistled" (putting his finger in his mouth and saying "woowoo"), messed with his hair...you know, what typical 3 year olds do when they are expected to perform. At one point he got too close to the edge of the stage and got upset when his teacher tried to pull him back. But after a few seconds off the stage, he was ready to get back up there. When he got up there, he quickly went to his teacher, sat in her lap and sucked his thumb. He sat there and cuddled while the other kids were "singing". But when the finale "He's Got The Whole World In His Hands" started, he got excited, jumped up, made his way to the front of his section, started clapping and singing. It was precious. And made my heart so happy.

Words seriously can not express how happy The Mayor makes me. And to see the changes in him over the course of this school year makes me tear up. We started the year with him screaming and crying as they took him from the carpool line, to having to be bribed every day just to go to school to performing on stage in front of a crowded room of strangers. This is one proud momma.