The Many Faces of E...

Given his penchant for the singing and the dancing, Husband and I decided to enroll Ethan in a week-long summer camp called Broadway Babies. A friend of his participated in a session earlier this summer & we went to watch his week's performance of Snow White, complete with its SEVEN Snow White starring roles (talk about divas!) In this camp, each kid gets to pick their own role, even if someone else has already chosen it, too (hence the glut of princesses). It was adorable and pressssshhhhhus and all that stuff & I didn't even know 99.9% of the kids in the production. So imagine my absolute glee when after the final curtain call Ethan announced that he wanted to participate in the camp the next time it was offered (and really? 25 preschooler/kindergarteners trying to get it together to bow at the same time? Herding cats. Adorable, giggling, crown-falling-off-their-heads cats).

So this week, we have been popping over to the camp, a mere three minute drive from the house (pure bliss considering the 20-minute commute we've had for the past 2 years), pinning on a little felt name tag and running to the carpet to sing scales with the rest of his troupe. On pick up of the first day, I caught a glimpse of him through the class room window, front and center of the chorus line, practicing his Rockette kicks and pulling a top hat on and off his head. Also? There were jazz hands. JAZZ HANDS, people!!! I defy you to find something cuter than jazz hands on a 5 year old boy wearing a Beatles shirt and a top hat.

The play this session is The Emperor's New Clothes. The Emperor? You get three guesses. But I'm going to go out on a limb and say that you probably only need one guess. Yup. My kid. Well, you may have also guessed, "Some other kid named Morgan?" and you'd be right with that guess, too, but this blog isn't about her. Only two kids opted for the title role (as opposed to the robust crop of Snow Whites in the previous session. I suppose a naked ruler is probably somewhat less appealing to a bunch of kids than a princess), and mine was one of them.

Ethan is somewhat secretive about his role, although he has revealed that he will be wearing some sort of paper underwear costume--assuring me that he will not actually be "naked in real life, because that's inappropriate in front of a bunch of people I don't know," (someone should perhaps put this tidbit of wisdom on a post-it and affix it to former Representative Anthony Weiner's smart phone--a helpful bit of advice from a five year old).

Husband and I were not the slightest bit surprised by Ethan's announcement that he was "starring" in the play; he was, after all, the angry troll in his pre-K class's re-enactment of Three Billy Goat's Gruff. He looked something like this for that role:

apparently, today's stylish angry troll goes in for a pillow shoved up his shirt, a piece of red felt pinned to his front and a face that resembles a cross between a pirate and someone who has just lost a contact. Noted.

and let's face it, he's been dishing out the drahhhhmaahhh for years now. His ability to produce big fat tears over the slightest sensed injustice or dropping everything to whip out his guitar to perform a Beatles song, or zipping from room to room, imagining himself being chased by crowds of screaming fans, announcing that he is in fact in the midst of the filming of Hard Day's Night and that its important we don't disturb him. So the acting bug has bitten him hard on stage, and off.

Here are a few of the other "recent faces of E" for your viewing pleasure...

All you need is love...and a pair of guitar glasses, duh.

stylin' cowboy

on "stage"

reacquainting himself with a years-old winter hat...in June. In his jammies.

pirate snack time at preschool...

Even cowboys with daddy's sunglasses and a toy walkie-talkie have to stop for an apple juice break sometimes.

Um....

A silly face dance-off contest with cousin Sofia. Hard to tell they're related, huh?

Breaking it down Best-Buy style...

Underwear-head. We're so proud.

Needless to say, I am waiting with baited breath for tomorrow's production. Clearly out space on the video camera as I type.