End of the Year Kindergarten Concert

All three kindergarten classes put on an end-of-year concert for their families. They were forced to wear garish sailor's hats for some reason. They sang several songs. Each song had a sign language component. The kids were all so cute. Well, most of them anyway.


I felt sorry for a couple of them who had obvious stage fright. They cried hysterically. One boy completely freaked me out because he was stock-still except for his eyes. His eyes kept crossing -- sometimes one eye, sometimes both. I honestly thought he was about to have an epileptic fit or something. I watched him intently for a couple of minutes, panicked and ran to check with his mom that he was ok. Apparently that is his coping mechanism in uncomfortable situations. (He's really shy.) Interesting.

I never envisioned myself as one of those moms who boo-hooed at events like this. Normally, I don't. But one of the songs was "Chicka Chicka Boom Boom." This is a song adapted from the book Chicka Chicka ABC. I read that book a thousand times to Oliver as a baby and toddler. They started singing the song and didn't get that far into it when I have this FLASH of Oliver sitting in my lap at about 9 months old wearing a white t-shirt, a diaper and his brace on his feet. I'm reading/singing the book to him.

The flash ends. I look up at Oliver singing a song I used to sing to him and I totally lost it. I mean really. Not just misty. Not a restrained tear or two. BUCKETS of tears were streaming down my face. It was all I could do to remain in my seat. I wanted to run out of the room.

Oliver could see me from the stage and did well to maintain his composure. Finally though, my blubbering got to him and his eyes welled up. I thought, Oh no! Look what I've done now. I willed myself to stop crying so he wouldn't go to pieces up there. I was filming the whole thing for Pete's sake! I don't even know what I did to stop to crying. I think I had to look at the other kids or think about baseball. ha ha ha

If you know the book, the photo above is the part where it goes, "Oh no! Chicka chicka BOOM BOOM!"

The last two photos are (1) Oliver with his teacher, Mrs. Fettig and (2) Oliver's girlfriend, Chun Hui. (She's the one who drew the picture of the two of them under an apple tree sometime around Valentine's Day.)



The final selection in the concert was the cutest, most appropriate song they could have sung. It's called "First Grade."