Weekend with Elmo

Toddlers bear some similarities with wild animals, in the sense that you never know how they are going to react to things (well at least mine). When I heard that Sesame Street Live was coming to town, I thought it would be fun to take A. My husband can usually get tickets for stuff like that through work, so I figured that even if A hates it and we have to leave, it's no big deal if the tickets are free... Also, having been the producer of a local TV talk show in my former life, I knew that the Sesame Street show usually sends characters to the TV show for promotion, so I asked my friend who still works there if she thought A could come for a meet & greet that day.



my coworkers and I were excited to meet Elmo back  in 2007



I guess the Sesame Street peeps are pretty strict about those things and don't want to allow many kids there, but my friend managed to get us in! Yey! 

The idea was so exciting to me... however the day before, I started having second thoughts, what if I asked for this special favor and A freaks out when we're there? Those characters are pretty big and can be quite scary for little ones. Oh well,  I'd take my chances. So I bought A a Cookie Monster t-shirt, watched a bit of Sesame Street with him, and told him all about how we were going to go see Elmo and Cookie at Papa's work.

Friday morning we were ready to go!

And boy was he happy to see Elmo and Cookie! No fear at all, just sheer joy!

He showed off his t-shirt....

                                high-fived and hugged both of them and came back for more.

 The cutest thing was that after each hug, he would say "Merci Elmo" or "Merci Cookie". The whole experience just filled my heart with joy!

On Sunday, we headed for the actual show. Again we had no idea how A would do there. Would it be a big let down from Friday, since there would be no up-close this time? Would he sit still for the hour-and-a half show?(remember, he's not two yet). He did announce in the car "non Elmo, non  Cookie, MyGym!"Once there, he got pretty excited, but had a mini meltdown when he saw we had to go sit in our seats.

He was probably wondering how we would hug our big friends if we were sitting in seats with all those other people. But once we got our friend the pacifier in, everything settled down and we were ready for the show! He totally loved it, danced and clapped and said "encore" at the end of the songs. I have to say they do a really good job with the show, the music and the costumes. Plus, thanks to another friend who works with my husband, we had really good seats, close to the stage, so it felt like we were right there.

Since the tickets were free, we indulged a bit in the junk they sell.. A ended up with one of those silly spinny things that don't really do anything other than spin,

 and he also got a giant Elmo balloon.

 I won't say how much they cost, because I'm a bit embarrassed to be one of those suckers who buys that stuff, but if you've ever been to a show like that, you know..... All that matters is that A had a great time and we did too. And we're ready for our next show!