If You Give a Mouse a Cookie!

Colin attended his very first play this morning!! The performance was at Texas Women's University in Denton and the show was "If You Give a Mouse a Cookie", which is a very popular children's book. I found out about the show early last week from my friends and went out and bought the book for Colin. He loved the story and we have read it several times a day since I bought it. I told him that I had tickets to a live performance of the book and tried without much success to explain what live theater is. I told him about actors and what they do as best as I could and he was pretty excited about the whole thing, although I think he was picturing a movie or cartoon. I was very nervous on the drive over...you just never know what Colin is going to like and I knew that the chances were high that we would not even get into our seats without a meltdown about the crowd. Once we arrived at the box office (after I got lost looking for the theater on campus), I was told that they only accept cash! I ended up having to run across the campus with Colin in tow to find an ATM at the student center. We were sweating bullets by the time we got back and the show was literally starting. This meant that Colin and I had to take seats at the very top of the small theater in chairs set up for extra people. My mistake and subsequent lateness ended up being absolutely perfect. Colin was not crowded into the regular theater seats with all the other kids and parents and was able to move around a little bit as he wanted to. Our chairs were facing the ledge of the small balcony and he propped his little arms on it and rested his chin on his hands as he watched in awe when the lights came up. It was so precious that I could barely contain myself. He immediately yelled out into the quiet theater, "Are those the actors, Mommy?!" ...I was chocking on my laughter!! He would frequently yell out the following: "Where is the mouse going?! Is that the drawing?! He needs to put it on the fridge! That's so silly!" I could not believe how much he loved it. I kept whispering to him about not talking and being quiet and he quickly caught on and behaved like a dream. The mouse actually popped out of a hidden door behind our seats to enter the show and run down the stairs to the stage. The big spot light landed right on us and the mouse stopped and nibbled Colin's ear on her way to the stage! He was absolutely thrilled by this!! The show was about an hour long and he watched the whole thing! Honestly, I was so shocked and overwhelmed that he loved it!! It was a precious show and I am so glad that I took the risk and bought the tickets. The theater was tiny and the whole thing was perfect for Colin. We stopped at McDonald's afterwards for lunch and as he ate his chicken nuggets, he said, "Mommy, what was your favorite part of the play?"...could you just die?!?! What a wonderful date with my sweet boy!!

Colin standing outside the theater.

Standing on the stage after the show!

He was all smiles the whole time!

The view from our seats...the show had just ended. Look at that face! He had a blast!