Sunday, June 13, 2010

All You Need Is..

a Beatles tribute band.

On Friday evening, Ethan, Husband & I headed up to a town center near ours to enjoy the musical stylings of a Beatles cover band. Let's just say the concept of "cover band" was a tough one to explain to Ethan; I don't really know why--it's a band who plays Beatles songs. But they're not the Beatles. That's pretty clear to me. But I'm not a 4 year old obsessed with the Beatles.

Also, sometimes dealing with the memory of a 4 year old is like that old SNL skit w/ Tom Hanks--Mr. Short Term Memory. Remember that one? Where he's on a game show with Tony Randall and he keeps forgetting that Tony Randall's standing next to him? Every 25 seconds, he turns & exclaims in surprise, "Tony Randall!!!" That's kind of what having a 4 year old is like. (by the way, I spent 30 minutes looking for that skit online. To no avail. Sigh. It is classic funny). My mistake was telling him we were going to the concerts hours before we actually left. The next several hours sounded something like this, "Are we going to see the real Beatles?" "No, honey. We're going to see a cover band. They aren't the Beatles, but they play Beatles songs." "Oh, okay." Go about life for approximately five minutes. "Mommy, are we going to see the real Beatles?" Sigh.

After a spin around Whole Foods for vegetarian picnic food (hello, hummus & fruit), we drove up to Husbands' Super Cool Tech Company, picked him up and headed to the concert. We got there with no time to spare & let me just say, I'm not really good in a crowd. If I get there early, with time to spare & can spread out my blanket, and what not? I'm cool. If I get there late and the place is already wall to wall with people who had the audacity to get there before me and spread their business out all over the place? And they brought chairs and folding tables and a bottle of wine? I get a little twitchy. It's not their fault. I'm just unreasonable that way.

At first, Ethan was not so thrilled. Husband and I know that with Ethan, pretty much every single thing we do is going to be hit or miss. And there is little rhyme or reason to what hits and what misses. And what hits today? Big Fat Miss tomorrow. And vice versa. If we were making a family yearbook & doing superlatives? Ethan would totally be voted Most Unpredictable.

After getting used to the noise level and having a bit to eat, though, and hearing his latest Beatles favorite, "Lady Madonna," he warmed up and had a good time. He didn't even freak out when the hippies-with-boundary-issues who were sitting next to us let their dog off his line which resulted in said dog coming over to our blanket to eat our strawberries.

Indulging in a little mini-pita & hummus sandwich. Face rainbow courtesy of last-day-of-preschool party earlier in the day. But a nice touch for my little hippie.




Singing a little "Let it Be" with daddy.

It wasn't the real Beatles (and people, someday I'm going to have to explain to him what the deal is with the real Beatles. He is not going to take that well. At all.) And honestly, whether it was the band or the sound system, they really weren't that good. But Ethan had a good time. And that's what it's all about.

5 comments:

Becca said...

Yay for the hit!!

And he is a total hippie. SO cute!! What a perfect outing for him.

Anonymous said...

So tell me, did you see the REAL Beatles?

Uncle Al

Corinne Cunningham said...

Looks like it was a lot of fun :) I'm the same way in crowds... twitchy is the right word for it when there's no space!

Sarah said...

Ugh-- the hippies with boundary issues sound like a PITA for sure. Looks pretty dreamy though!

My town has concerts every week on the capital lawn, and the picnics and picnic accessories people have are INSANE. They are not messing around with their outdoor eating in this state,

cicadalady said...

so cute!

your hummus comment had me thinking about vegetarian picnics. when i was eating vegetarian for a month (and i find i still eat far less meat than i used to) i got really into roasted veggies. they are super easy - red peppers, onion, zucchini, etc - just throw them on a tray w/ some salt and olive oil and cook at 400, checking regularly. and they go well in everything. on friday night we threw them in with some garlic & onion israeli couscous (can find at whole foods) and it was a delicious picnic. it's also great on rolls with mozzarella cheese. anyway, just thought i'd add to your menu :)