Commotion in the Ocean

They say that all children tend to have a little OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder) - but I think Ethan has more than a little. He gets his mind set on learning something and he will not stop until he has mastered it, no matter how frustrated he gets. He also gets worried about things and obsesses over that thing.

That's what happened at the beginning of school. The music teacher at his school puts on a big performance with each grade level every year. Apparently, at the beginning of the year the music teacher shared that the 1st graders would put on a performance in March called "Commotion in the Ocean" and everyone would be dressed as ocean creatures. Night after night, Ethan would cry and tell us how he did not want to do the performance. We were boggled...neither of our children have ever shown any stage fright. In fact, to our delight Ethan has always performed with great gusto! So, HG and I would try to comfort him by reminding him of all the other performances he's done and how much he's enjoyed them, we would remind him that everyone would be dressed as an ocean creature not just him, and we would remind him that the music performance wasn't for another 6 months!! But nothing seemed to help until finally after a while he just stopped talking about it and crying about it.

Then, one day Ethan came home from school in January and told me with great excitement that he had volunteered for a speaking part in the musical!! As the performance day approached so did his excitement! Yes...HG and I reminded him again and again how he had worried and cried about it at the beginning of the year. And we reminded him again when the performance came and he grinned from ear to ear the entire time. His speaking part wasn't a major piece...he and several other "crabs" walked across the stage 2 or 3 times saying things like..."I want my Mommy", "I'm hungry", "I want to go home", and "Are we there yet?". But the best part - that I wish I had gotten a picture of - was that each time after Ethan walked across the stage we could see his little head poke out of the curtains to look at us and see our reaction. It was sooo sweet!!






























Double-click on this pic to see it better. Ethan is on the front row with his eyes on us.














Here's a close-up of the cute crab hat. Ethan looks a little crabby in the pic because it was the 3rd or 4th try to get a good pic.