The Wizard of Oz

This was the best date I've ever had!  I'm almost positive.

For those who don't know, yesterday my wonderful boss told me that she had tickets to The Wizard of Oz at the Lexington Opera House tonight but wasn't able to use them and offered them to me cause she thought Ethan would enjoy it.  So I called Sarah, my wonderful cousin, and she agreed to watch Alex so Ethan & I could go as Steve had to work.  So when I got home from work, I told Ethan about it - that we were going to see a play today and it had a scarecrow and a lion and a wizard and a tin man and a witch and even a little doggie, too.  He thought that sounded like a great thing to do.

This morning I'm giving kisses as I'm leaving for work and Ethan says, "I want to go to the play Mama."  I told him that we would go later tonight.  He said, "but I want to go now, Mom.  I want to see the scarecwoe."  I said, "Honey, Mama has to go to work and you are going to go to Kay's [the babysitter] and then Mama will pick you up and we'll come home and eat dinner and Sarah will come and watch Alex and you & Mama can go."  E:  "But I dust want to go now, Mom.  I don't want to wait."  I told him we couldn't, that it wasn't on now, it would be later tonight.  E:  "They are closed?"  Me:  "Yes, honey.  They are closed but they will be open later tonight."...This is apparently what I should have said in the beginning cause now he was fine and gave me kisses so I could go to work.

The plan was for me to leave work, get home, feed the boys and change clothes and Sarah would be here by 6:15 for me to head to the theater by 6:30.  However, I learned as I was leaving work that there was a UK basketball game at 7:00 tonight as well and the Opera House is 1 block from Rupp Arena which meant traffic and parking would be a problem.  I called Sarah and told her I was going to need to go a little sooner so she was going to meet me at 6:00.  Then I realize I'm not going to get it all done because I forgot that I actually have to have travel time to pick up the boys and then get home.  So I alter the plan:  pick up the boys, get them dinner at McD's and head home.  I got home at 6:01....Sarah was on time so she beat me there.  In the house, I proceed to change while Sarah gives Alex his nuggets.  Ethan had his burger in the car and Sarah tried to get him to eat a few fries but he was too excited to eat I think.

Ethan was conflicted - he wanted to stay home and play with Sarah, but wanted to go to "see the wizard," too.  I got Ethan changed and myself ready and gave Sarah the low-down on Alex (which was basically:  his bottle is in the fridge, he will want to go to sleep at 7 - make him wait till at least 7:30 cause I don't want to get up at 5, give him the bottle and lay him down - if he needs something before bedtime, give him watered down juice....the rest is like any other kid).  We headed out the door and into the car.  I'm backing out and Ethan says, "Mama wait, Owix isn't in the car with us."  I told him Alex was staying home with Sarah.  E: "But he needs to go see the Wizard, too, Mom."  Me:  "No baby, Alex is just going to stay home and play with Sarah and you and Mama are going to see the Wizard."  E: "But he just needs to go, too, Mom.  Owix wants to go, too."  Me:  "Honey, I don't think Alex would like it; he's too little."  E:  "Owix is dust not big enough?  (no pause for an answer) He would dust be scared.  I won't be scared though.  You won't be scared either Mom cause I'll be with you the whole time."  .... He continued talking through the 40 minutes of traffic we waded through to go roughly 5 miles to the Opera House.  All of it about how he wasn't scared of the witch and I wouldn't be scared either and I'd be with him and he'd be with me and he'd tell Alex about it later, etc, etc, etc.

We get downtown and there is no parking near the Opera House because it's now 6:55 (the play starts at 7 as does the game).  I can't park too far away cause Ethan won't make it and we'd be too late and I'm afraid they may not seat us as I'm not sure exactly where the seats are and if it's too disruptive to find the seats, they won't let you sit after the performance begins.  I'm sitting a red light wondering what I'm gonna do and asking Ethan to hush a minute so I can think and find a parking spot (it's sometimes hard to think when he talks incessantly - I now know how my parents and other adults near me must have felt when I was little as I'm pretty sure I never shut up either).  The car in front of me turns illegally into a parking lot by a sign that says "one way" and is pointing the opposite direction.  It's directly across from the Opera House; it's no 6:57 so I went for it.  This is a small lot with signs at ever spot that say "reserved" and have the lovely blue sign indicating if you park there, Bluegrass Towing will happily remove your car to their own lot and you can pay them for the service later.  The guy who turned into this lot ahead of me parked so I decided to throw caution to the wind and parked also.  There's no attendance at this lot since they didn't really want people to park there so it's free and I'm thinking that really means it'll be about $100 to get my car out of impound when we're done but I'm taking Ethan to the play and will deal with it later (yeah I know, totally unlike me).  I figure, the lot is for parking for people who work there and it's a law office so unless all of the people who work there are going to the game or the musical, I'm hopefully ok.  We run across the street and we're in.

It's 7:01 and we're seated (by a woman who thought Ethan was adorable and that he'd really like this).  There are several other children here as well yet there's a booster seat left for Ethan so now we're all set.  Ethan is excited - he wants "my book Mama.  Give me my book" (his program).  He flips through this and keeps asking me, "When is the moosie going to start, Mom?"  "My moosie is going to start soon, Mom?"  "Isn't the moosie going to start, Mom?"  Rapid succession here - it was only about 4 minutes wait (yes, I realize time is relative and when you are 3, 4 minutes is more like 4 hours).  The lights go down, Ethan starts right off, "where's the witch, Mom?"  Me:  "Shhhh honey.  Just be quiet and watch.  You'll see her soon."  Toto was an actual dog - possibly some kind of Yorkie - definitely a small shaggy lap dog that brought "awwwwww" comments from everyone upon his first appearance.  Ethan was a little antsy at first until Dorothy landed in Oz and it was much more vibrant and upbeat.  He clapped everytime a song ended (along with everyone else).  A few times he was even dancing in his seat - kind of a head banger move he has that is uniquely Ethan.  Each new character that came out, Ethan would tell me that he wanted to go talk to that person.  He wanted to go pet the doggie.  "Mom, where's the puppy?"  "Mama, I want to go see the witch."  "Mom, let's go talk to the witch."  "Mom, I want to go touch the scarecrow."  Each time, I'd tell him to be quiet and watch or that we'd talk to them later.  The doing it later thing stopped worked and he'd get more and more adament that he wanted to go up there until I started telling him that they were busy now, or they were working.  These answers were ok with him as he knows he can't bother people when they are busy.  He alternated between sitting on the booster, sitting in the seat with no booster, standing on the floor on the booster or sitting on my lap.  He watched the whole time though - during the first act anyway.

Intermission - we went to potty and then got M&Ms and a pop to share.  When the lights flickered, we finished our drink and found our seats again.  We now had more people sitting around us for the 2nd act - not sure if they just missed the whole first act or scoped out the empty seats and decided to sit with us to have more room or what (forgot to mention that had we been a few minutes late, they would have seated us as they did for many late comers....as there were more people in the theater in the 2nd act though, I think there is a cutoff to how late you can be and still get seated).  I had told Ethan we would see the Wizard when we came back so he asked repeatedly, a little too loudly, where the wizard was until we finally saw the wizard and then I had to use the "he's working now, we'll see him later" thing to get him to hush about it.  He was much more antsy in the 2nd act as he was really tired by now and is a very active boy so 2 hours of sitting still isn't his strength.  He did do some more dancing though and even was patting his legs to the beat in one of the songs.  I noticed the people around us that saw him doing this would smile at him and make sure the person with them saw it, too (the couple at the end of our aisle who grinned at us as we took our seats for example - husband looks over and then pokes wife and she looks and they both grin and watch him rather than the dancing on stage).  He really enjoyed it for the 1st half of the 2nd act and then was pretty much done.  He started playing in the floor - ducking down and now really watching.  10 minutes before the end he says (in a stage whisper - so pretty loudly), "Mama, let's go home now."  I told him it was almost over and we would in a few minutes (the Wizard was giving out the heart, brains & courage so we really were minutes from the end) and to be quiet just a little bit longer cause the other people were trying to watch.  He then whispers (in a real whisper this time) "but I'm tired, Mama."  I told him to sit on my lap and lay his head down.  When he'd been on my lap earlier, he'd been sitting facing forward and enthralled in the singing, dancing and the dog and lion, etc.  This time I had him sit sideways and he laid his head on my shoulder.  He still had too many ants in his pants to just sit though so he hopped down after a minute but then it was over.  He clapped wholeheartedly and kept saying how much he liked it when it ended.  Everyone immediately around us told me how well behaved he was and that he was really cute.  Even the couple in front of us who likely heard all of his chatter and who he kept accidentally touching when he'd hang on the seat.  Hey, if they made a point to tell me, "he really was very good - so cute," I know it's true.  I knew it anyway though - so much fun. 

We left and he kept saying, "I really liked that, Mama.  I really liked the Wizard.  I want to take it home with me."  We walked back across the street and sure enough, the car was there so I totally parked illegally but got off scott free - AWESOME!  I sang, "we're off to see the Wizard" as I was buckling Ethan in and he said, "sing it, Mama, sing it.  I like that song."  So I did.  He was so good, we stopped on the way home to get him a treat - a Frosty - and then finally made it home where his first question as we walked to the door was "where's Owix?"  I told him Alex was asleep and then he said, "look, Sarah's here and she turned the TV on for us."  He told Sarah a little about the wizard and ate his Frosty and after Sarah left, we called his Daddy who was on break and told him, too, while Ethan finished his Frosty.  Sarah said Alex was really good but when he got really whiney at 7:00, she gave him a bath (though she'd asked & I said he wouldn't really need one before we left) to take up some time as she thought he'd like it which he did.  Smart girl - if you can't put him to bed yet, distract him completely.  Ethan & I said prayers downstairs though so we wouldn't wake Alex by doing them in the room where he was sleeping.  Giving kisses and getting tucked in, we woke Alex anyway - but just long enough to share the kisses and give him his paci and he was back out. 

Ethan enjoyed himself so much and liked it so much - I think that's what made this so much fun for me.  He did wear himself out though cause he was asleep within a minute or two I believe.  Such a good time - what a great way to end the week!