Dim the house lights...

Is there anything better than getting the chance to give your child fun, interesting, educational, or otherwise just awesome experiences?  There is one thing I never stress (or, at least I stress far less) over and that's spending money on doing things with Jude.  You can not go wrong in giving your child EXPERIENCES over mere things.

Case in point.  This past weekend we took Jude to Imgao Theatre's touring production of ZooZoo!  I discovered this little gem thanks to those bastards of the computing world cookies and Facebook with their plethora of advertising, which I no longer find that annoying actually.  We weren't sure how Jude was going to take it all, so I made sure to get seats on an isle for ease of escape should it prove necessary.  We'd taken him to one full length movie in the theatre thus far (Tangled) and he did really well, but live theatre is a whole other ball game.  Same general field, totally different game.

Now, on a side note, I use to work in live theatre.  I've been on-stage, back-stage, in the house, all over.  So I'm well aware of how most theatres, and their crews tend to dread children in the audience.  ZooZoo! while directed at a youthful audience didn't strike me as specifically directed at toddlers, so I was a little worried.  I needed not be.

I packed a few quiet toys (and a few quiet snacks, shhh, don't tell the ushers), and we crossed our fingers.  Jude had fallen asleep in the car ride over, and in fact slept through the first 10-15 mins of the show, but we arrived at the theatre and were delighted to see a very large population of young children.  The average was likely around 8-10, but there were other children Jude's age (2 1/2), and even some younger, so we sighed with relief and found our seats.

When Jude woke to find himself in a dark theatre with fantastical looking hippos fighting for the covers of their slightly too small bed he was captivated!  The anteaters licking imaginary ants from the stage with their long tongues, the frustrated cat stuck in a giant paper bag, the penguins playing a rousing game of musical chairs... he watched enraptured by it all.

The show was truly wonderful, and the performers were a delight with their ability to bring so much character to creatures with mostly static features (masks) and primarily no verbal skills, but the best part, the part that has me grinning from ear to ear just writing this ridiculously long run on sentence about it, was my little boys joy in getting to see it all himself.  He still talks about it, and is now hopping all over the house like a frog chasing a fly, and I would happily give up my next new pair of shoes to see it again.

Next on the agenda?  A little more commercial, but still looking like a ton of fun indeed, The Imagination Movers live (again, thank you cookies).  Yup, he's going to be so excited.