Sesame Street LIVE!

It’s taken me a few days to get this post up. Somehow, I haven’t found time (or prioritized time) for extending blogging. But this was a big deal and I knew I couldn’t let it go undocumented!

To celebrate Cinco De Mayo (just kidding – the date was a coincidence) Owen attended his first big concert “event” at the Tacoma Dome. 1-2-3 Imagine! With Elmo & Friends – A Sesame Street LIVE production.

You might remember Owen’s first mini-concert back in December – it didn’t go so well. I was hoping that Elmo might hold his attention better than Lisa and Linda.

Owen invited Mom, Dad and Nana to be his special guests at the concert. Luckily, Mom was on the ball and ordered the pre-sale tickets so we had some pretty darn good seats for the show. We got there about 15 minutes before the concert started which was plenty of time to shop for souvenirs.

Owen picked out an Elmo light-up spinny thing that Nana would have NEVER bought for her kids back in the day (the phrase “R.O.” – abbreviation for ‘rip-off’ - came flooding back into my head when I saw the $15 price tag) but she gladly bought one for her grandson as well as the original cast recording CD. I think 90% of the kids in the audience had the Elmo spinner, so apparently it wasn’t as overpriced as I thought. This turned out to be a great distracter during the down times in our seats.

Once the show started, Owen was at attention. Mom and Nana were total dorks and started crying when Big Bird came out on stage and Owen was looking at him like he couldn’t believe his eyes. Whatever, we cry at the Disneyland Parades too, so how is this any different? I don’t think Owen completely understood what was going on, but he really liked seeing these huge real life Sesame Street characters! He definitely enjoyed hearing songs he recognized more than the newer ones. We made it through the first 45 minutes without too many problems – a little squirmy, but not bad.

During the 15 minute intermission, the “moment” happened. There was a little boy sitting behind us. He was probably about 4 years old and came dressed in a full-blown Elmo costume. We got up to stretch our legs and Owen spotted him and made a bee-line over to him. He was busy playing with his Elmo spinner while Owen slowly got closer and closer and *closer* to him (an attempt at a hug.) I think the little boy thought Owen was going for his toy, because the closer Owen got to it, the more his back turned towards Owen. Finally, the boy’s mom said, “Braden, HUG that little boy!” So, with a slight roll of the eyes, he put down his toy and gave Owen a huge hug. It was ADORABLE. When he let go, Owen went back in for another hug. I think he hugged this poor little boy about 5 times, but each time the boy put down his toy and gave Owen a sincere hug. This was worth the price of the tickets!

We made it through about 20 minutes of the 2nd half when Owen decided he wasn’t too interested in the show anymore. This was ok, because it was an awful long time for a 1 year old to sit still and pay attention. We left (along with quite a few other parents of little ones) and finished off our morning with lunch at a Mexican restaurant (because it was Cinco De Mayo!) All in all, a great first “real” concert!