I was so glad after the Ugly Duckling show we stumbled upon a quiet spot with favorable lighting for picture-taking. What I’d like most every year for Mother’s Day is a nice picture with my sons!
Vincent had to take a lot of pictures to get a couple good ones for me and the kids because either I looked terrible or the kids weren’t looking at the camera or both, but of course the first one I took of him and the boys, the kids were adorable! No fair!
For Mother’s Day, I made plans to take the kids to their first “play”. It’s actually more like a recital since there are two narrators—the adult narrator who’s the storyteller and the child narrator who plays the role of the Ugly Duckling. Classical music performed live interspersed with the narration and there’s a “slide show” of scenes in the back. The main reason I wanted to go though was that the show is narrated in Mandarin. Darren thoroughly enjoyed the show, especially since I asked a family from his Kindergarten class to join us, although Cameron was a little scared and had to keep asking what’s going on because he doesn’t understand Mandarin—unlike Darren. Besides the show, there were kid-centered activities outside the concert hall, like face painting, which the kids loved of course. Like at the San Francisco Zoo, Cameron requested to be a lion…
Today Cameron’s school had a Mother’s Day brunch and performance. I had an inkling of what the performance would be since Cameron sang the song to me for the first time a couple days ago. It’s one of my favorite songs and it always brings tears to my eyes when I sing it to the kids. With the crowd in the classroom, Cameron raised his voice and wasn’t singing as nicely as he did in private a couple days ago, but I loved his enthusiasm. 🙂
Cameron has been going to Gymboree since he was 5 months old! Amazingly, after 2 years and 11 months, he still loves going there every week. He loves Gymbo, Teacher Rose, and his buddy Ronan. Teacher Rose told me recently that Cameron is to be credited for helping Ronan blossom in class because before meeting and befriending Cameron, Ronan was pretty shy and kept to himself. Well, my little goofball certainly knows how to bring a smile to my face, so I’m glad that he’s sharing his talent with others!
The two little friends shared lots of hugs before parting ways!
It’s an end of era for me too—Darren started going to Gymboree when he was 11 months old, so I’ve been going for almost five full years! Goodbye Gymboree! Thanks for all the songs and memories!
