Nutcracker bliss

Jordan and I went to see the Nutcracker last night with Bekah, Suzie, and Ava, and wow, what a great time.  It was risky:  the 5:30pm performance meant dinner at 4pm and a purse full of snacks, and a late bedtime after that since it's a two-hour show.  It was Jordan's first full-length performance, and first big theater experience... who knew how it would go?  But he was enthralled.  He wore whiskers and fierce eyebrows and a pink nose like the Mouse King (courtesy of Mommy's makeup drawer - Ava and Suzie were elegant ballerinas with pretty dresses and their hair up tight).  For the whole show, he sat on his booster cushion watching every inch of the action and co-conducting the orchestra.  He was thrilled when I told him that some of the dancers were young kids:  he looked up at me with his face shining and said "The same age as me, Mama?"  He whispered excitedly with Ava about who they liked the best.  Every new scene brought a new persona for him to fantasize about - the Mouse King, the Nutcracker Prince, the Whirling Dervishes, even the Peacock.  The production is really amazing - the visuals are all by Maurice Sendak, and the stage effects have his cartoon-drawing sensibility rather than trying to look "real."  I loved every minute of it.  It was amazing to be there half as a kid myself and half as an adult, remembering when I had seen the Nutcracker with Mom in San Francisco, now realizing how beautifully the dance and music convey the story even to a four-year-old.  I think this is the beginning of a great new era of parenthood:  getting to do wonderful kid stuff, and appreciate it fully because you are with your kids.