On Saturday my parents and I took Ironflower to see the Nutcracker. My mother has been looking forward to this occasion since Ironflower was born and I'm pretty sure she was the most excited. Though I was pretty curious to see the old production - we saw the same one that I was in as kid (choreography was the same, but at the costumes are improved). I prepped Ironflower by telling her the story several times before we went.
Naturally a huge man came in and sat right in front of her just as the ballet was about to start. And just as naturally, my daughter would not switch seats. She would not sit on laps, either. If she hadn't consented to sitting on everyone's coats, she would have missed the whole thing. Sometimes her stubbornness amazes me. During the intermission we even showed her that she'd be able to see better if she switched seats, but she just wouldn't do it. She started screaming when we tried to overrule her.
Other than that, her behavior was pretty good until near the end. During the Sugar Plum Fairy's solo, Ironflower lost her PlayDoh. She had held on to it the whole time, rolling into it a ball and then stretching it out. I think it had really helped her focus (I used to have an ADD kid who was able to listen whenever he had Silly Putty in his hands, regardless of whether he took medicine or not, that's where I got the idea) and remain relatively still. But dropping the PlayDoh and not being able to find it was too much for Ironflower to bear. She started whining and crying, her brother's PlayDoh would not do. So we had to go into the lobby and wait.
It wasn't until the next day that Ironflower wanted to talk about the ballet. And while she was able to tell her father about most of it and name her favorite costume, all she's really wanted to talk about is how Fritz broke the Nutcracker in the party scene.
"Why did Fritz break the Nutcracker, Mommy?"
"Because he was jealous the Herr Drosselmeyer gave it to Clara."
"Why was he jealous?"
"Because he wanted his own Nutrcacker."
"Why did he want his own Nutcracker?"
"Because he liked it."
"Then why did he break it?"
"Because he was jealous and mad."
"Why was he jealous and mad?"
And so on and so on. We have now had that conversation four times.
And I thought seeing the Nutcracker would cause her to pester me about ballet lessons.
7 comments:
Oh, dear. But, Why? Because... I can't wait until I get to this phase!
Wow...I remember when I first saw The Nutcracker. I hated it. I thought rats were scary and I was confused the entire time. I'm actually rather impressed that your daughter made it (mostly) the whole way through.
ah, the mind of a three yr old! ;)
I too am impressed she watched almost the whole thing. My daughter loved that show too. I guess my favorite parts are where the harlequin dolls dance, the Russian dancer and when the little dolls run out from under their mother's skirt.
the play doh is a good idea!
That's impressive that she stayed so interested so long. What a girl!
Julia is in that circular questioning stage, too. I never used to understand parents who said, "Because I said so," until Julia hit this phase. Now, I totally get it.
My Mom took my 5 year old daughter (and my wife) to the Nutcracker for the first time this year. Bit of a family tradition for the ladies. She had fun, but all I heard about afterwards is the train and taxi cab rides! They were pretty exciting I guess!
PG - I'm sure that's all we'll hear about when we go to the one in NYC!
I was listening to Trans Siberian Orchestra's "Mad Russian's Christmas" yesterday...I bet you and Ironflower would like that version...
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