Last week I took Xavier to his very first play: Miss Nelson Has a Field Day at the Lutcher Theatre in Orange. The 45-minute drive from Beaumont was well worth the experience. When we arrived there were about 500 little kids bussed in from all over southeast Texas and southwest Louisiana. Xavier was fascinated by their sheer numbers. I don't thing he realized that many kids existed in the entire world before that.
Thanks to a friendly Lutcher volunteer, I found a quiet room to nurse Xavier in before the show. While I'm not against nursing in public, I wasn't ready to become the science/civics lesson experiment for so many children all at once!
Once Xavier was well fed and ready to sit still we found our way to our seats. The powers that be put all of the non-school folks and homeschoolers together in the same section. Xavier and I had two seats although we both sat in one together. Having a little space turned out to be a good thing. The poor woman to my right kept getting smacked by Xavier whenever he got really excited. Xavier was waving his yellow lovey (known around here as Lovie Smith) during all the songs...second lining skills must be transmitted through the placenta!
What was fascinating to me was what types of things would capture Xavier's attention since he obviously couldn't follow the storyline. Lighting played a huge part in directing his attention to the stage. He had little interest in the straight dialogue but loved it when there were patterns such as a teacher asking three kids the same questions. His favorite by far were the dance numbers. Whenever I found myself getting bogged down in the plot, sure enough, Xavier's attention was beginning to wander. I think that every director should rent a baby to help identify the lagging parts of a show.
Thanks to a friendly Lutcher volunteer, I found a quiet room to nurse Xavier in before the show. While I'm not against nursing in public, I wasn't ready to become the science/civics lesson experiment for so many children all at once!
Once Xavier was well fed and ready to sit still we found our way to our seats. The powers that be put all of the non-school folks and homeschoolers together in the same section. Xavier and I had two seats although we both sat in one together. Having a little space turned out to be a good thing. The poor woman to my right kept getting smacked by Xavier whenever he got really excited. Xavier was waving his yellow lovey (known around here as Lovie Smith) during all the songs...second lining skills must be transmitted through the placenta!
What was fascinating to me was what types of things would capture Xavier's attention since he obviously couldn't follow the storyline. Lighting played a huge part in directing his attention to the stage. He had little interest in the straight dialogue but loved it when there were patterns such as a teacher asking three kids the same questions. His favorite by far were the dance numbers. Whenever I found myself getting bogged down in the plot, sure enough, Xavier's attention was beginning to wander. I think that every director should rent a baby to help identify the lagging parts of a show.
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