Thursday, June 21, 2007

Mambo Time!


Around three months ago I discovered that suave and debonair Diego was going to be performing locally (well, locally enough it wasn't much of a drive). I called Fred with ten kinds of excitement and told him to buy the tickets! We were taking The Boy to see his most favoritest character in the entire world.


Uh...you do realize that Diego is a character on a Nickelodeon show? Some of you are blessed and fortunate enough not to have your brain slow cooked with preschool shows on a regular basis. I get the full Monty. I get preschool shows in the morning and Billy Ray's daughter in the afternoons and the hormonal Drake and Josh in the early evening. I am so happy when primetime comes because Mama has had her fill by then and I refuse to watch anything G rated after 8 p.m.


We left out yesterday morning around 8 a.m. because show time was at 10:30. We wanted to make sure we had plenty of time to stop for breakfast and gas and make sure we found the place, plus get to the will call window to pick up the golden tickets. Vitt was so excited the whole way there. I did notice something on our drive. Jacksonville is alot like Charleston. A bunch of one way streets that make no sense. You literally have to go around your butt to get to the elbow. I was put out with all of that by the time we got there. The parking lot across from the performing center cost us a sweet fifteen bucks to park there. I just about had a heart attack over that. And a teeny tiny loss of religion. Talk about robbing someone in broad daylight! As we got out of the car, I asked Fred if he had an umbrella because the skies were looking a tad bit heavy. Of course, he didn't.



When we finally got inside and tickets were taken care of, we wandered around and finally decided we would get the boy a "Rescue Pack". It's the ultra cool back pack that Diego wears. Vitt was beside himself with joy. So much so, he has not really taken it off since. He tried to sleep with it last night...which was adorable. It was his day and we deemed it okay to spoil him just a tad with this purchase.


We had okay seats. There were no cameras allowed in the theater. Yeah, right. I'm sure this sign was made before camera phones were invented. And, of course, I took a few before the BattleAx Usher saw me and told me to quit doing that! YES MA'AM I said before snapping another one. I'm such a rebel.


I'm not gonna lie to you. The show started all action packed and when Diego made his grand entrance via the hang glider? The look on my son's face almost made me bawl. It was like he was seeing a dream literally come true. He was hooked from that moment on. He was enthralled with every single little detail happening on that stage.


Vitt's all about some audience participation, too. Fred sat on the end, so he let Vitt dance in the aisle beside him. Most of the kids around us weren't that brave, but when the groove hits? You just gotta go with it, man. My all time favorite moment? They were doing the mambo on stage and Vitt was catching that move and going with it when an older lady usher came by him. He grabbed her hand as if to dance with her and Fred grabbed him back. She got so tickled over that. I honestly think she would have danced with the kid if given the chance. After the show when we were walking out, she made the comment to me.."That's a little Don Juan you got there!" How right she is.
When we walked out, the skies had opened up and it was pouring rain. We literally walked across the street and got right in the car. There was a line going in every direction of people with small kids walking. Some were in strollers. Some were being drug along by the hand as they hurried to parking garages blocks away. I totally did not mind the fifteen bucks as all ten raindrop spots were dry on my shirt by the time we cleared the JAX area. (Did I mention that it looks somewhat ghetto-ish around there? Could be a very scary place to go to at night!)


We were driving home and I turned to look at Vitt in the back seat. He was cool and calm. I could almost see him assimilating all he had seen. He also informed us he was ready to go back and see Diego again. I told him we would go home and see Diego on the television.
The picture you see at the top is courtesy of the show. They take the picture and you can access it online. For free. How about that? I have a few more to share with you when I finally get a few extra minutes to play around and download them onto this computer of mine.


Good times were had by all.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

OK. I will add, that part of the reason I let Vitt dance in the aisle was to keep him from hitting the kid in front of him on the head with all his excitement. But, overall, I have to agree with Hope. As some of you know, I can be quite emotional at times, and when it comes to our kids, I am even more so. There were a couple of times that I was almost in tears over the shear joy that our son was having.

Anonymous said...

Good on you guys! There's nothing like seeing the joy and excitement on your childs face! We took the kids to Sea World last year, and I'll tell you the truth Conan and I were in tears for alot of the shows we were so moved. When we went to see the Shamu show, Harleigh sat on her Daddy's lap. She sat paying attention but you know not really into the show, that is unitl Shamu leaped out of the water the first time. She sat straight up almost in shock, and started frantically clapping in amazement. We've come to the conclusion that it's important to give the kids these experiences and memories because they'll last alot longer than any old toy will!

Looking forward to seeing more pictures!

Mrs. Em said...

What a great experience for all three of you. This makes me look forward to taking Noah to see The Doodlebops in November even more! He's just gonna jump outta his skin! :) I'm so glad you had a great time!

Anonymous said...

Oh my gah mama!! can we go see the doodlebops?!!!?? i wanna go see the doodlebops!! they are so awesome!!!! aggh! pleassseee!!!!!! i ♥ the doodlebops! rooney is my fav, b.c deedee gets on my nerves and moes just..well..ya know.

=]