The Performance

Friday was Family Day for TLC, Kole's Mother's Day Out school at The Woods Methodist Church near our home. Not only is it where he goes every Tuesday and Thursday for 5 hours, but Aunt Kelley teaches in the next classroom over, so it's nice having family nearby. Kole every so often will come home singing a song we didn't teach him, or identify something or say a sentence that we know didn't come from us. He's 2 and his vocabulary is still very raw, so everything he's learning isn't entirely worn on his sleeves, but we can tell he's getting a lot out of it.

But Friday was sort of an end-of-year culmination, where each class gives a presentation of some kind. Kole is in the Frogs class of mostly 2-year-olds not potty trained. Aunt Kelley teaches Turtles in the next room over, 6-months-old to just over 1. Classes go up to pre-K, identified as Monkey and Giraffe classes, etc.

So Friday night was the big show. We were joined by Grandma (Kathy's mom) as well as Pa Pa and Grams (Keith's dad and step-mom). Plus, Uncle Kelly and cousin Riley, who were there to aid and assist the program that Kelley helped lead. The big year-end slideshow music video was dedicated to her, a sort of collective recognition from the teaching staff.

The video of Kole's performance pretty much speaks for itself. It was the youngest class to do an act, and was preceded by the director informing the gathering of 200+ parents, relatives and family friends that these are the youngest and to please understand and be supportive if one or more begins to cry or wander off stage.

And in they strolled, marching along while all holding a rope to all stay together, Kole sticking out in the back since he's a good inch taller than everyone in his class. Some classes would eventually do skits dressed in an Army/soldier theme, or 50's sock-hop themed, but the Frogs came just wearing matching white shirts with their backpacks on their backs. On Kole's last day of school, this past Thursday, we were informed that Kole was singing loudly in rehearsal, and was not hitting the girl to his left in the head, which he had done on Tuesday. I actually had medium-high hopes that he may not freeze up completely and at least sing a stanza or two. But, what we got from him is what we got from every single kid on stage - a gaggle of bewildered toddler spectators, watching as their teachers led them in singing just in front of them. Some moved their hands with the accompanying sign language that goes with "Jesus Loves Me", it got a bit of a head-bob from Kole, but nobody sang a peep in front of the throng of giggly parents.

I was easily the biggest video nerd in the room, complete with Sony minicam and tripod. Everyone else just whipped out their Flip video or iPhones and recorded away. In hindsight, I'm glad I had the tripod because otherwise the video would be a jiggly mess, I was laughing so hard I could not have held the camera straight, especially from a distance. He was just frozen up there, but nowhere near tears or panic. For a little ham bone who so frequently demands attention while engaged in various forms of tomfoolery in familiar company, he was gloriously out of his element on a stage with an audience, making it a very entertaining moment for the family who came to watch it in person.