Darren's First Concert Performance

BJ Kindeeland had its 19th Annual Concert and Graduation Ceremony last Saturday at Southern College. Ahh... brings back memories of Daniel in his costumes, haha. This time it was Darren's turn, and it was his first stage performance! He has been practicing his solo poem recital for a month.

When we arrived, we dropped him off at the gathering site where some kids are already in their costumes. Some parents were putting make-up on their kids and such. Crying was heard too. I can't tell you how funny such events are, and how awesome the teachers are! Imagine handling 30-50 kindergarteners in costumes!

So, we passed him to his teacher to dress him up. Now, this was the mistake we did. We stood there. What we should've done was to walk away. Just like a child's first day in school. Always walk away. Out. Of. Sight.

What happened? We started to fuss over him. Like adjusting his this and that. Then he didn't want to wear his headgear. I tried persuasion Level 1. Didn't work. Persuasion Level 2, didn't work either. By Level 3, eyes were swelling already. Uh-oh.... you know what happens when one domino falls. It is a catastrophic effect. OK, no headgear then. 

Before drama started...

I was the strong one. I left the site and went into the hall to sit. Then the husband calls with a serious tone "Come quickly".

He wants to go home. Uh-oh. Not in a mood huh?

We tried to leave him and as we entered the hall, we heard him crying. Uh-oh. Maybe we should go home. The teachers made the kids queue to go backstage, and while all the others were already walking in lines, Darren still refused to budge. A teacher gently but firmly pulled him along as he wailed even more... "DOWAN! DOWAN!" Oh dear, did we do something wrong?

I said a little prayer.

So, we sat on our seats, hoping for the best and expecting a no-show. We paid for the tickets, might as well enjoy the rest of the concert right? Maybe Taylor Swift might appear as a guest...

I told Daniel that his brother is crying and wants to go home. I think he felt a bit sympathetic and started to feel nervous for him because he was talking non-stop... hahaha, a mother knows.

And so, we sat through performances after performances... Darren's was the 7th show, during the 6th show, my heart was beating like crazy. I'm usually cool about these things but don't know why, I was getting nervous! I think it was the suspense. We were clueless what was happening backstage. Did he settle down? Or was he traumatized? No idea...

When the 6th performance finished... my heart jumped out. Jeng jeng jeng..

And there he was... walking out from the side of the stage curtain, together with 3 other friends. 

Our jaws dropped. He looked ok.

Then he walked to the center of the stage where the mike was, and started to recite his poem. He was cool, clear and smooth. AND I WAS NOT RECORDING IT! I think we were flabbergasted. Thank goodness there will be a CD recording of the event.

After all the 4 kids finished reciting, they scurried back to the stage, and the curtains drew. 

The music started and two main characters did a play first. Darren was the male lead! Our jaws dropped again. Then I laughed a lot. So he is this butterfly flying around and gives a bouquet of flowers to a girl and they danced around the stage with the other 'bees', 'trees', 'plants' and 'ladybirds'. So cute. The song was a touching piano and vocal one which had the words "I can fly". Watching my little firecracker dancing innocently to that song evoked a heartwarming feeling and I almost cried!

*Sob*... he is growing up so fast....