This past weekend the Shepards and Nana Audrey and Papa Harold attended a PuppetWorks production of Cinderella.
Although Stella has attended a puppet show before, this would be crazy-Marni's first such adventure. I was pretty sure I would have to remove her from the theater within minutes because she's just not a sit-down kind of gal.
Marni spent all of her pre-show time running around the theater like a lunatic. I figured we might as well let her tire herself out before the lights went down. At one point (for no apparent reason) she sat herself down on the lap of a little girl about the same age as herself. Not sure why.
When the main puppeteer came out to talk the the kids, Marni climbed onto my lap (I was sitting on a mat on the floor in front of the stage). She was riveted to what the man was saying. Stella raised her hand and said "Excuse me!". She then asked the puppeteer if the puppets were going to come off the stage and "get them". He laughed and said no. Then, the lights went down and the show started. Marni was craning her neck to see the puppets and eventually ended up standing in my lap.
Then, slowly but surely, she crept off my lap and sat by herself on the mat. Then she crept closer and closer to the stage. All the time with fingers in her mouth and holding a stuffed dog.
When the first act finished she smiled and clapped with everyone else. During the second act she moved so close to the stage that I thought she was going to climb on. She was retrieved.
She spent the rest of the play either sitting by herself or on my or Lisa's lap. She loved the whole thing and behaved perfectly. Go figure. Oh... by the way... Stella loved it too (from Nana Audrey's lap).
After the performance, the puppeteer brought out the Cinderella puppet to meet the kids. As you can see from the video, Marni was a little scared but got a kiss from the puppet nonetheless.
