Ballet

The highlight of this week is that we took Linus to see the Colorado Ballet perform The Nutcracker. Leading up to yesterday we read the story and watched a DVD of it. That provided Linus plenty of opportunities to drill me with questions about it before we attended the performance. They provide cushioned booster seats at the Ellie Caulkins Opera House, so he was happily perched on the seat between the two of us. Matthew walked him down to look into the orchestra pit before the show and Linus told me the musicians sounded beautiful. What a joy it was for me to look over at his beaming face during the show. He especially like the dresses on the dancers for the Spanish dance. What a treat it was to have him lean over and whisper into my ear, "Their dresses are beautiful!" Some of the teenage performers were in the lobby after the show, holding boxes for donations. Linus was painfully shy about going up to one. He did manage to put the money in the box, but he was frozen in place when the ballerina spoke to him.

At dinner last night Matthew asked what everybody had learned that day. Linus told us he learned some new dance moves. He is still thinking about it today and told me yet again how much fun it was at the ballet.

Here are some things Linus has said recently:
When building a parking structure with blocks he said, "I'm being scientific in how I build this."

While playing with the letter magnets on the fridge: I'm going to spell omnivore." (In case you are wondering, he did not actually spell it.)

Spoken casually over breakfast: "So, when are we going to South America? I want to see all of the animals and pet a toucan."

We were settling in to play farm with the Playmobil and he explained to me that "First the farmers need to plow the fields. And then someone needs to go buy vegetable seeds. A whole lot of seeds because they are planting a lot. Then they plant the seeds. Do you like that agenda?"

I just took the snowy picture. Linus and Matthew are outside playing in the snow. We are all excited to have snow and tonight are going to see the lights at the Gardens. There are so many fun things to do in December with a child.