Spring "Performance"

Both boys had their choir spring perfomances at church tonight. Hayden performs with the 1st-6th grade children's choir and Brandon is in preschool choir. Here are the highlights from their performances:

Hayden's musical was called Lifesong, and it included singing, dancing, and acting. He performed the moves flawlessly and sang beautifully. How do I know he sang beautifully when he was 1 child in a choir of around 170 children? Well, he's been singing along to his Lifesong CD for a couple of months now. Even I know all of the words. Really, he has such a beautiful voice - I think God has given him a gift to sing. This is him before his performance in his performance get up. They had to dress "beachy" and his side of the stage had to wear these orange bandanas somewhere on their body - many of them chose this Survivor doo rag look. He wanted to wear sunglasses too, so you could barely tell it was him. The other side had blue bandanas - it was a Survivor-style competition musical. They all had the same Lifesong t-shirts, but could wear whatever "beachy" attire they wanted to with it. Hayden wore his swim trunks with fish on them. We couldn't get pictures of his performance - it was too dark, but we will get the video. It was very cool.

Brandon's musical was called Little Love Notes, and it included singing, hand motions, and acting. The kids were supposed to wear solid primary color shirts. Brandon, as you can see, rebelled and insisted on stripes. At least he was in a primary color, so I let it slide. As soon as Brandon got on stage we realized he would be doing an off-script preformance. It started before the music even began as he worked for a full minute at attempting to pull his elastic-waist pants all the way up to his neck. Behind us we heard someone laughing and then say, "look at that little boy pulling his pants up." They continued to laugh until Brandon stopped tugging at his pants. As he stood there looking like Ed Grimly, he decided this would be a great time to perform arm pit farts. So under his shirt the hand went, showing off the two pictures he had tattooed to his belly a couple of days earlier. Luckily he hasn't perfected the art of the arm pit fart so we couldn't hear anything, but it sure looked effective. The couple behind us laughed hysterically as the woman said, "look at him now." Somehow she caught on to us and asked, "is he yours?" Michael said, "yes." I said, "NO, I don't know him." :)

The fun didn't stop there. Brandon's assigned spot was on the floor of the stage in the very front row, clear for all to see. He rocked his head a few times and raised his hand presenting the #1 symbol high above his head a few times - all unscripted. At some point he sat Indian style and leaned his head across his legs resting his face on the floor for a good minute. When he came back up, he appeared to be finger painting on the floor where his face had been resting. I feared he may have been spit painting, but I kept that to myself. When his painting was complete, he decided he needed a rest, and as he reclined onto his back he raised his legs high in the air, giving a clear view of his Scooby Doo crocs and his... uh-uhm... bottom (Hayden is reading this as I write and insisting I write "butt" instead of "bottom," but I just refuse). This lasted briefly and finally he rested back on his elbows and kicked his feet out in front of him and crossed them. He lounged like this for the last few minutes of the performance. And through it all, he never sang a single word despite the fact that he's been singing his songs at home for a couple of months now.

My mom said, "He's not the only one not singing. There are quite a few up there not singing."

Yes, I thought to myself, but are the others arm pit farting, doing Ed Grimly impressions, and spit painting on the floor? The answer would have been no.

A few minutes later mom said, "Maybe Brandon just isn't going to be the performer that Hayden is. Maybe it's just not his thing." ----- Ya think? :)