A Dream Come True

This past weekend, we packed up the car (minus Scarley), and headed up to Greenville (about a 3 hour drive) for the weekend. My mom had made the trip all the way from Ohio (about 9 hours!), to spend the weekend with us and to take Alli and Aiden to see Sesame Street Live! For all of you that know or follow Alli, you know that she has been an Elmo and Sesame Street fan for years. No lie, years. She has loved watching them and singing along with them, and I am pretty sure I have to credit a lot of her potty training excellence to Elmo's Potty Time DVD. Anyway, Aiden has sort of gotten to follow along and watch whatever Alli wants to watch, so he's also gotten into "Mo Mo" as he calls Elmo, and dances along to the Sesame Street theme song. It's adorable, but of course, he's still only 17 months old, so sitting still and watching a 90 minute show was going to be a challenge... at least we all knew that and were prepared.

We got to Greenville Friday evening, with just enough time to visit for a bit and then my mom took the kiddos and kept them in her hotel room while E and I got to go explore downtown Greenville a little bit and get some dinner. The big partiers that we are, we were back to our hotel room by 9:30. Woo hoo. Saturday morning, our lovely lil peanuts came in to wake us up and have breakfast, and then we all got showered and ready for the show. Mom had gotten them Meet & Greet tickets to meet the characters beforehand, and this was the part I was waiting for. Alli had told us for weeks that she was not going to be shy, that she was going to run up to Elmo and hug, kiss, and pet his fur. Ha! She was so shy, barely wanted to go see them, but after she sat with Elmo and after she gave Grover a big hug, you should have SEEN the look and smile on her face. She was over the moon, you could tell. Aiden was trying to photo bomb all the other kids' pictures and ran right up to Elmo to say "hiiii" in his lil southern drawl. We spent some more time in the backstage room just killing time before the show started.

Once the show began, both kids sat, entranced at all the lights, singing, and entertainment right in front of them. And I mean RIGHT in front of them... we were in the second row! After about 10 minutes, Aiden was over it. Ha! So, we all took turns walking him around but once we were walking around checking things out, he was fine to watch the show while we were moving and while he was being held, go figure. Alli sat totally star struck and amazed by it all. Cookie Monster came by her seat and touched Dad-E on the head, and she about flipped out, laughing and carrying on. Then, it happened again when Rosita walked by... this time, touching Alli on the head, and her face and laughter was priceless. I think seeing the expressions on her face made the entire drive worth it for my mom.

She could not stop talking and laughing about the show afterward, and even the next morning, she asked to go see Elmo again. It was so cute and I really think she had the time of her life.

Thanks again mom, we have enough pictures and videos that we'll never let her forget that she got to meet her favorite character of her toddler years.