We recently took the kids to see "The Fresh Beat Band" Live in Concert. This was the first concert for both kids and my husband and I were rather nervous about how they would respond. We were more concerned about our son because he had (in the past) exhibited sensitivity to large crowds and background noise. Obviously what we were doing was taking him to a facility with a lot of background noise (yelling kids/parents talking or yelling at their kids) and a large crowd. My husband and I both anticipated that we would not last the entire concert and that if we could just last a half hour we would consider our excursion a success. That being said, the price of the tickets were not cheap and we really wanted to get our money's worth!
Well, we timed it so that we would arrive at the venue a half hour prior to the start time of the concert. This would give us time to find the venue, find parking, find our seats, go to the bathroom, get refreshments and settle in to our seats with as little lag time as possible. We found our seats and were surprised that we were seated in a section that only had 4 rows and were up against a wall that actually worked as a nice buffer to the sound in the concert hall and reduced the background noise considerably. The section also made it seem a little less crowded since there were only four rows and unlike the seats on the floor we were not looking around at a sea of people. With both obstacles tackled, we looked forward to the start of the concert. I was a little worried that the music would be too loud for my kids but they did not seem bothered by it once the concert started.
During the first 15 minutes or so, I ended up with both kids on my lap because Daddy was seated behind another daddy so neither kid could see. I was seated behind a little girl so both my kids climbed on my lap. As they sang along to the words of the songs, the little girl would alternatively stand up, climb on her seat, or sit down on her knees so that she obscured the view of both my son and my daughter at various times. Finally, after she moved to the aisle, both kids were able to see.
Soon after my legs fell asleep, so I plopped my son into the aisle as well. At first, he just stood there and then he realized the step was wide enough so that it allowed him to dance to the songs while still at the same time watching Kiki, Marina, Shout, and Twist. With this realization, my son came alive and just started to boogie. Me, as a over-protective mom, tried to move him back so that he would not accidentally fall on the step and tumble into the guard rail overlooking the floor below or worse roll and fall onto the ground floor (do not ask me how many feet he the ground floor was below us - I did not look). I was rewarded with a nasty look from my son for interrupting his dancing. Then, since I could not stop his dancing, I tried to surreptitiously grab the bottom of the back of his shirt so that he again would not fall. This too failed since my son would turn to look at me and see my arm extended toward his back and just start slapping my hand away. After a few times, he finally got exasperated and stopped and yelled at me "Mom! Stop It!" At which point, I resigned myself to the fact that if he did fall off the step he was dancing on, at least there was the little girl in front of him and perhaps she would break his fall and prevent any rolling down the steps on the part of my son. Additionally, his sister joined him in the aisle and on the step and standing of to the side but in front of him also proceeded to dance and sing.
All in all it was such a fun experience for the entire family and when the concert was over, my son kept asking for more and saying "again". Luckily, we had the first Fresh Beat Band CD in the car and playing that on the way home.
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