Last night Wife, ML (mother-in law) and I attended Son's first display of creative expression in public. We, as his "posse," have seen him perform many times.
- There is "strong baby": where flex's his muscles and gets what appears to be a grimace on his face. When he did this the first few times we thought he was having a seizure.
- There is "singing baby": with a play list of Happy Birthday, ABC.., Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and a medley of all three with Old McDonald thrown in to boot.
- There is "athletic baby": where he high jumps over the side of his crib, plays dodge ball with the dogs and runs from mom and dad.
But last night he was in the public sphere for the first time with 25 to 30 other classmates. The children did a wonderful job of cooperating with the teachers, just enough, to demonstrate that there was a plan to the gathering of snow flakes and reindeers.
The real performance was in the audience.
There was the competition among the fathers, to see who had the biggest camera. I carried a pocket size digital camera and did not qualify as a real father. The winner of the contest was the father who lugged in a camera - with tripod - the size you see on the shoulders of people chasing car wrecks to sell footage to media outlets. He marched in just before the children and proceeded to climb on one of the tables to set up his equipment. I half expected him to ask the lead teacher to wait until he was ready and call action.
The main competition was to see who could arrive the latest and still get the best seat in the house. Placing themselves in front of all of us who arrived early and on time! There were several times when the music leader had to push the crowds back.
In the end it was about the children. Their smiles and laughs. The look on their faces as they saw their parents in the crowed, a few cried but most beamed.
When Santa came in to gave each child a present, Son went up to get his gift with his pants almost falling off but he kept his cool and said thank you.
Before Santa could get away I made sure that I got my request for my Christmas gift, to have bigger camera than "table top" dad.
4 comments:
That guy was a jerk. I'm gonna let the spelling go on this one. I love you and I love that you love Son. Speling doesnt matr. XOXO.
Re cameras: are tripods a symptom of testosterone poisoning?
Remember: the last shall be first! :-)
Overcompensation on the part of table-dad. Tripod - surely some sort of wanted association; even if subconsciously.
I will admit that my husband has a tripod for his camera. I carry a tiny digital that he gave me. His camera is big, heavy, and expensive. If I were using it I would want the tripod so I wouldn't drop it. He isn't obnoxious about it though. But he isn't a dad yet...
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