Complete Silence? You Must Be Joking.

Jacob went on a field trip yesterday. Of course, that means Mommy and little sister went on a field trip too. For the past six weeks, he has been learning about different composers, types of music, and instruments that make up an orchestra. What better way to learn about an orchestra than to see and hear one perform in person? Our Classical Conversations group was invited to the dress rehearsal of our local orchestra. Jacob seemed excited about it. I was excited about it. Annabelle was indifferent about the whole thing.

At school, learning about the orchestra.

When we arrived, Annabelle was surprisingly well-behaved, especially since she only had a 25 minute nap in the car on the way over. She sat down between Jacob and me and seemed amused by the different instruments. About 30 seconds later, a twinge of boredom set in and she asked for fruit snacks. I gave her fruit snacks. She happily ate her snack while Jacob walked up to get an up close and personal look at a harpsichord.

I overheard another mom ask if she and her children could sit in the balcony during the performance. This was the answer she was given: "Well, yes. As long as we have complete silence. WE NEED COMPLETE SILENCE!"

"Uh-oh," I thought to myself. "She must be joking." Complete silence? Really? With all these children? MY children?? Oh boy.

The performance began. Then came the noise from the audience. So much for complete silence. My neighbor walked out with her little girl (Annabelle's partner in crime). I knew it woudn't be long before Annabelle and I joined them. Annabelle was enjoying herself a little too much. She loved the instruments. "I he-yuh da tumpets!" she yelled...loudly. "Yem-a-see (Let me see) da tumpets!!" I had no idea she would have such an intense fascination with the horn section. I wasn't aware that she even knew the word "trumpet," much less what one looked and sounded like. With her exuberance, I knew we would have to leave. As I stood up to walk out with Annabelle, the "complete silence" lady looked at me sternly, then walked up to the CC director to discuss the excessive noise. I whispered to her, "We're leaving!" hoping to calm her down a little. I quickly ushered Jacob to another row to sit with a friend and ran to the nearest exit. All the while, Annabelle was crying, "Yem-a-see da tumpets! I want to he-yuh da tumpets!"

So, we were basically kicked out of an orchestra performance. Had it not been for our preemptive exit, we definitely would have been asked to leave. Poor Annabelle. All she wanted to do was see and hear the trumpets. Now that a full day has passed, I can see the humor in this little orchestra incident. It's actually pretty funny when I think about it; however, yesterday, it wasn't so funny. It was just a tad embarrassing. Totally expected, but embarrassing nonetheless. Want to hear something else funny? Out of all the kids in the audience (there were several more Annabelle's age) Annabelle and my neighbor's daughter were the only ones who were noisy and had to be taken out during the performance. Again, totally expected. These two girls are very much alike and have been known to cause a little mischief. They are in the nursery together on Tuesdays and I hear a new story each week about what the two of them have been up to.

And yet another funny thing...although Jacob did think it was cool that he got to play a few notes on the harpsichord, when I asked him what his favorite part of the orchestra field trip was, he excitedly said, "When we got to run around and around the steps and the ramp outside." This occurred after the performance. He burned off some energy by running up and down the steps and the ramp leading to the buiding's entrance. Hmmmm...I think we'll wait a few more years before we attend another orchestra concert. A marching band might be more our speed. :)