About six months ago, I received an email from the theater informing me that the Lion King was coming to town. I debated what time to go, and decided we’d be around for Thanksgiving, so I purchased two of them with the intent of taking Brandon. Finally, today arrived. I was going to head up with Brandon on BART. As we were getting ready to go, Peyton said, “Goodbye, Mommy, see you later.” She wasn’t the least bite upset by not being able to go, as I told her before that it wasn’t for kids under 6. She said, “But I don’t want to see Scar.” So that settled that. Dave was fixing my car; the automatic door lock on Peyton’s side has been out for a few weeks now. We had to order the part, then we were out of town, so we couldn’t get it done. With a little Youtube magic, Dave set to work on it. Earlier in the week, he couldn’t get it done, but he wanted to try once more, as we learned it would be $300 in labor to fix. Right as we were about to leave, he told me he was done with the door, and he was putting the window framing back together. We’d know if it worked once he got things back together. He said he’d be able to take us up there, and then hang out with Peyton. Initially, I’d wanted him to do that, but it was asking a lot, especially if he was needing time to get the door lock done. So, I worked on getting Peyton ready, as both Brandon and I were already ready to go. We headed up in no time, since there was no traffic, and then Brandon and I were dropped off in front of the theater. I brought a lunch for us, and we picnicked out by the farmer’s market. The doors hadn’t opened yet anyway, so we had a little time (about an hour) to spare. By the time we were done with lunch, the doors had opened. We found our way to the mezzanine, and then had to wait until the curtains to that section opened. In the meantime, we went to the potty. Brandon was surprised he was in the women’s bathroom, but I told him I didn’t know where the men’s was, and that it was safer for him to stay with me. He went first, then washed his hands and waited for me just inside the bathroom area in an alcove. It was like a little hiding space for him, as he wasn’t totally inside the bathroom area, but he wasn’t outside with the general public either. We waited only about 5 minutes before the curtains were drawn back in our section. We found our seats right away on the aisle. I let Brandon pick either the aisle or one in, and he chose to sit on the aisle. I’d forgotten that I’d chosen the aisle, but we were 5 rows from the front of our section. The usher offered us a booster seat for Brandon, and we accepted. Brandon put it under his bottom and said, “Hmmm, this is comfortable!” He was busy looking at the Playbill and the theater insides for the next 30 minutes. We talked about the different sections of the theater, and he looked around at all the lights, the ladders to said lights, and the intricate ceiling in the theater. Then, we talked about how Dave and I had gone to see the same musical a long time ago (probably 1997 or 1998? Talk about “Circle of Life”!). He mentioned how he wants to see Wicked and also Mary Poppins. Wow, he’s totally getting into it 🙂 After he was done with that, he kept asking for my phone, but I was using it to text Dave. They ended up at the mall, and they even found a Santa to take photos! Normally we go this weekend to get photos to avoid the crowds, but with the musical, we didn’t really have a chance today. But since Dave found a photo op and Brandon was dressed, there was only one thing stopping us. Peyton wasn’t dressed for pictures. So my suggestion was that she needed a black or white party dress for my work holiday party, so maybe he could find something. He was also telling me he missed the showing of Wreck It Ralph, since she’d wanted to see it, too, after hearing Brandon talk about it. Instead, he had lunch with her at a yummy steak house. By this time, I put the phone away, as the lights went out. Brandon was complaining that people were late and it was delaying the start of the show. Again, impressing upon him the importance of being on time to events, especially when there are others waiting. When the show started, Brandon was very excited, though he was tired. He kept yawning, and I was afraid he’d fall asleep in the dark. But the set and the characters were so fascinating, he was able to work past it and watch the whole thing! He was drawn to the characters that were within the audience, especially in our section. I had forgotten about the characters who enter from the orchestra section. He laughed when appropriate, and clapped appropriately, too. He was surprised when then used inappropriate words (“stupid”). When the lights came on for intermission, I whisked him up to the restroom. We made the first round and didn’t have to wait. I put him in the same spot to wait for me, and I went, too. I’d had coffee on our drive up, and it was hitting me. When we left, the line was down the section, at least 30 people deep! There were only 5 stalls, so it looked like it would be a bit of a wait for the 15 minute long intermission. Brandon told me he was hungry and thirsty, so I had him finish up the sandwich from his lunch, and gave him some water. I told him there was a granola bar in it for him, but only after the musical was done and we were on our way to Daddy. He agreed. We came back to our seats, and waited just a few minutes before the next act started. This time, we benefited from the aisle as one of the performers was standing right in front of Brandon. He got to watch him sing and twirl the bird around above us. It was pretty spectacular! The second act went by quickly, though it looked like I might lose Brandon a few times. I would look over, then he’d flash me a smile and got back into it. When it was done, we headed out, and touched base with Dave. We were going to head to the mall, but it was a few blocks away. A few sketchy blocks. I pulled up my big girl pants, took my boy by his hand, and headed out. I was scared as all get-out, as I’m more of a country mouse rather than a city mouse. We were walking at a pretty quick clip. If I’d been with Peyton, I would have had to pick her up and carry her since she wouldn’t have been able to keep up. Brandon was walking double-time to keep up with me. There was a guy smoking weed in front of us, and Brandon bursted out with, “Mommy, what’s the smell?” Again, I put my head down and told him to walk with me, not answering him, as how was I supposed to answer THAT one. We passed a policeman who was waking up a homeless man sleeping on the street. I eased up a bit knowing that the policeman was there, but hurried up our pace since the guy looked a bit dazed and confused. We passed by a bunch of guys just hanging out playing games on card tables, and some that were just hanging out talking on the streets. I didn’t make eye contact, but I’m sure Brandon was staring and taking it all in. Less than sanitary language was being used, and I was hoping he wasn’t focusing on that either. He started laughing as we heard some guy throwing around F-bombs, but then he said, “Look at that dog.” Was he deflecting? Or was he really looking at the dog? Who knows. I suppose I’ll find out in the next few days at school/after-school. We finally made it to our destination, and Dave was in front of us, but didn’t see us at first. When he looked down from his phone, he saw us. He’d been shopping! We walked up to see Santa, then Dave started digging around in his bag of tricks. While Peyton napped, he shopped at no fewer than three stores to buy her a Santa-worthy ensemble – dress, shoes and even tights! Fixes cars by morning, and outfits his little girl by day. He did a great job and was even a savvy shopper, getting a sweater dress for half off, three pairs of Nordy’s tights for $10, and even a pair of ballet flats for $10. We changed Peyton, then headed over to take our picture with Santa. We walked around the mall a bit more, making it Dave’s 5th lap around the area, and then headed to the sandwich shop, ‘Wichcraft, on our way to the car. We’ve been there before for their ice cream sandwiches, and since I’d only eaten a small snack, as Brandon chose the larger of the snack packs that I’d gotten, I wanted the pumpkin sandwich – pumpkin with mozzarella and hazelnut brown butter. So, we all split one peanut butter cookie/peanut butter ice cream sandwich, then I took the savory sandwich to go. We drove home, and the kids were so excited to see one another, they talked to each other the whole ride back. It was perfect, since we both thought Brandon would fall asleep having been out all day long. But since Peyton was being goofy with him, he stayed up. The kids finished up Peyton’s pizza from lunch, while Dave and I split a salad. Both kids read their Raz-kids, then bath, and in bed with lights out by 715pm. No complaints from either one as we returned to the school schedule, after having had no real schedule while on vacation. Definitely leaving lots of time for me to blog 🙂
While putting Brandon down today, he said, “Yeah, I think I do want to be in a performance when I’m older, like 9 (the actors playing young Simba and Nala were both 9). He’d previously declined after I asked him after seeing Beauty and the Beast. He was totally singing the opening song, as well as some of the other songs.
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