I'm going to take you back to the 19th of December, when Jake made his performance debut in Calgary as "Jacob {said in a French accent} the reindeer". Grandma was out here for a visit and we all packed ourselves out to head over to Jake's school for the Kindergarten Christmas Concert. As I feared, Jacob's early arrival meant that we were going to have a difficult time keeping Owen and Will in order until the show started. The long walk through the school halls into the gymnasium was pure torture for Will when he saw the many tables in the halls, lined with the trays of goodies that parents brought in for the reception afterwards. It appeared that I'm not the only mom who only had time to run out and purchase her 'baked' good, because Will found at least 5 tempting, yellow Timbit boxes.
While all of the families waited in the gym for the stars to arrive, Owen and Will joined the kids in the back of the seating area, to basically run crazy and see who could shriek the loudest. They had such a good time. It's amazing how Owen comes alive when he's in a room full of people. There are definitely certain things that can trigger a meltdown for him when he's in certain overcrowded areas, but there is also a real appeal for him in crowds. He loves to hide behind people's legs and is the master of hide 'n seek. NOT a safe feeling for Mom and Dad, I assure you. Never had it been more apparent than that evening, that we need to work a program into Owen's behaviour therapy, to teach him not to grab strangers by the legs. Because for his height, it's not the legs that he's grabbing, if you get my meaning. I saw at least 3 men turn bright purple either in awkward embarrassment or in pain (?) when Owen grabbed for them. It might have been something that people would tolerate when he was younger, but as he's getting older, it is obviously not something that is very socially acceptable. Owen also managed to work his way into at least 3 family portraits that night and none of those 3 included any of his own family. There was one point at the end of the end of the evening where I looked up from the back of the gym, to see a family of 10 posing on stage for a family portrait, and there sat Owen right smack dab in the middle of them all, grinning from ear to ear. Fortunately for us, the family seemed to enjoy the fact that they had an interesting conversation piece to share once their pictures were developed.
When 6:30 rolled around and the show was about to start, it was nearly impossible to calm the boys back down to sit nicely through the performance. Surprisingly, it was Owen who couldn't sit still. Will actually really enjoyed hearing the singing and we heard him humming along with some of the songs he knew.
Jake looked absolutely adorable when he came out. It's when you see him amongst all of his little friends from school that you remember how young he really is. He was definitely nervous, but he stood a lot more confident than I thought he would. Jacob's a born performer. I did my best with the camera, but there were a lot of big heads in front of me. Jake's friends were Carson to his right and Sammy to his left. Jacob's best friend, Joshua, unfortunately can not be seen in the video.
So Jake's performance was stellar and he made his family very proud. It's amazing how quickly he has picked up French. He even does a great job of mumbling through words he doesn't know in a French accent so the average English-speaking person doesn't hear the difference. We've got a future Elvis on our hands! (said entirely for his Granny's benefit).
1 comment:
i might even let jake sing back-up for my band. MIGHT....
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