Sunny and I had our first adventure as a Mommy/Daughter pair to the theater. As a kid, I loved nothing more than putting on a party dress, patent leather shoes and my “fancy” winter coat, complete with mini-fur muff, to go “into town” to see a proper musical or ballet on a stage with big, bright lights and filigree laden embellishments. I’ve been looking forward to this moment from the time I first envisioned life as a mother.
Needless to say, “Sesame Street Live” is not the most glamorous of affairs, but nothing with a 21 month old should be glamorous. It would be a waste.
The show was appropriately filled with fellow squirmy, noisy, busy, attention-deficient toddlers who ran up and down the aisles, danced on the seats, spilled popcorn all over the floor, and screamed and stomped in frustration when their parent would not buy them a $50 light up Elmo doll or $10 Elmo balloon.
There is nothing crueler nor more strategic than those damn Elmo balloons that they brought out by the hundreds at intermission, taunting every child in the room. Sunny was one of the less-fortunate children whose parent determined that spending $10 on a balloon that would then need to be “stored away” during the second half of the show was a bat shit crazy and stupid idea, and thus refused to purchase one. And bottom line, $10 on a balloon? I think not.
And boy did I pay with screams and tears of fury.
Fortunately, Elmo’s appearance on stage minutes later diverted her rage.
She spent most of the time standing in front of me, dancing. And best of all, the lead character in the show was Elmo’s friend, the Sunflower, aptly named Sunny. There were songs all about Sunny, and Elmo even asked the audience to say, “HELLO SUNNY!” at full volume.
It’s the toddler equivalent to Jake Gyllenhaal standing atop a stage and publicly declaring his love for me.
Yeah, my Sunny was pretty pleased.
Although, 10 minutes before the show’s end, she started putting back on her coat and demanded, “Mommy. Coat. ON!” over and over. That whole attention-deficit thing at work. Hey, we almost made it to the end, and there’s always next year.
