Bittersweetness

The long awaited Christmas performance was last night. The boys were SO excited! Since this was Andrew's first time he was pretty nervous about being on stage and about "all the people".

The music teacher at Carpenter School is amazing! She and those kids put on an amazing performance every year. This isn't the Christmas concert from my school days. When I was a kid we sang the same old Christmas carols that you hear every year. These shows are more like a play with original music, choreography and costumes. It is truly amazing!

Since there are so many kids in the school and limited seating in the auditorium there are two shows. The principal and staff at the school do their best to get kids that are related in the same program but this year we had to attend two shows, back to back. It is the same show so I am very grateful that we love the performances like we do!

Both my parents came, my younger sister Dana and my younger brother Loren and his girlfriend Emily came for both shows as well. Alex was home sick as was Dad's wife Sue. They missed one heck of a performance!!


Dana - by Zachary



Grum - by Zachary


Emily - by Zachary


Zachary - what a cool dude!

Zachary was up first. It was neat to watch Andrew during Zach's performance. Since it is the same show, Andrew watched very intently and sang most every word. Zachary did wonderfully! There was a "rap" portion and he was so darn cute! He also played his paper saxophone like he was a jazz king! It was great!


The show

As soon as Zach's show was over Andrew burst into tears! He thought that was the end of the show and he wouldn't get to do his! It was so sweet! Kirby and I reassured him that he would get to do his show and we brought him to meet his aide (who was going to stand on the side of the stage in case of any mishaps).

The second the curtains opened for Andrew's performance I burst into tears. It was so bittersweet! To see my little man up there...I'm not sure I have the words. My heart filled my chest, I was so proud of him. He is getting to be such a big boy! And he was in his element! Understand, the same thing happened to me with Zachary's first show but it wears off after the 3rd.

Andrew sang and turned around and watched the kids behind him and sang and waved to Daddy and sang and got distracted by his aide off the stage...it was adorable! We were very lucky that he had a "stage buddy". It wasn't set up, but the kid next to him was sure to redirect him any time he got distracted (which with Andrew can be very often).

It was just beautiful!

Unfortunately, the auditorium is very dark during the performance so we weren't able to get too many pictures.

It was an amazing night...though bittersweet to see my baby boy growing up!

On another note...

More bittersweetness:
We were informed this morning that Allyson (my step daughter) had a little baby girl last night. Charity was born at 11:26pm on Tuesday. She weighs in at 8lb 8oz and Kirby says she is just beautiful.

I worry that Allyson and RJ have a tough road ahead of them and hope that she realizes that we are here for her. Only time will tell.