A Star is Born

Little Guy goes to a small pre-school/daycare that is run by one of the nicest (and most patient) ladies who ever lived.  She clearly loves teaching young children, and in turn the children she teaches love her.

This week they had their Christmas Program.  The group is small.  Little Guy is one of six children (two 2 year olds, three 3 year olds and one 4 year old).  They are a happy little band of friends, with only one girl among them.  The format of the program was very simple.  The children had learned several Christmas songs, and they were going to sing three.  Three of the boys were asked to pick the song they each wanted to sing, and then the group would sing the song selected.

First up was Isaac (Little Guy’s best friend).  When the teacher held the microphone in front of him, he leaned in and clearly said, “Up on a Housetop”.  He then went back to the row the others were standing in, and they all sang (with accompanying hand motions).  Next was Little Guy’s turn to choose a song.  He was supposed to lean in (as Isaac had done), state the name of his song and then fall back into formation to sing it with the others. 

That’s what he was supposed to do.

That’s not what he did.

Instead, he took the microphone from his teacher, announced he wanted to sing “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer”, and promptly began to do so right into the microphone.  He loudly belted out the words, standing front and center.  Behind him stood his classmates, happily singing along as if they were Barry Manilow’s back-up singers.  Little Guy knows all the words to this song by heart, and sang three verses.  When he got to the end, he went right back into the third verse again – the other kids all still following his lead, sang along.  When he started to sing the final verse again, his teacher kindly took the microphone so the program could continue as originally planned. 

Even after the mike had been removed from his tiny grasp, he beamed with happiness.  Never has a boy been so excited, as was my Little Guy that night.  We are so proud of him, and hope he applies that energy and passion to other parts of his life.

The only downer of the whole night was when I discovered that I had misunderstood the direction for the evening’s “gift exchange”.  We were supposed to buy one small gift for each child.  I had thought we were buying just one small gift.  Needless to say, Hubby went shopping right after the program and LG’s classmates got their gift from him the next day.

Even with that one draw-back, it was a fabulous evening, and a wonderful example of the sheer joy that can come with raising a precocious toddler.