Little Sugar Plum
We've pretty much got the Nutcracker CD on a continuous loop around here these days.
Ever since we went to the Candlelight Nutcracker on Sunday, Peeper's been somewhat obsessed, with the dancing (on YouTube), the music (on CD in the house and my iPod in the car), the book (from the Dollar Tree, that she got for her birthday), and the "uwwuh book" (that AuntieKay sent, not even knowing about the newfound obsession).
(Btw, thank you, AuntieKay! I meant to email you and ask if that was from you, but then you saw it in the photo before I got around to it. Oops.)
She goes around asking "Hey Mama? You 'memba da stowwy?" and "Hey Mama? You 'memba dat doo doo-da doo-doo doo doo doooo?"
Today, she was wearing her tutu, and told Shrike that she was the Sugar Plum Fairy. (Or she might have just agreed, when Shrike asked. I'm not sure.) Shrike reports that she was also dancing.
I was in the other room, but I could hear her clapping and saying "Yay!" at the end of the song.
After a bit of research (calling the ballet company and checking Wikipedia), I've figured out that what's happening in a few weeks is a double-feature ballet performance of The Gift of the Magi (about thirty minutes - supposedly very colorful and entertaining) and The Nutcracker Suite, which I now understand is basically the very beginning and then Act II - no battle with the mice, it cuts straight to the Sugar Plum Fairy and friends.
That's essentially what they did on Sunday, but this will be full staged, with backdrops, lighting and such, and will include the Mother Ginger number, which they didn't do, because there was no way to get the costume upstairs to the venue.
It's on a Saturday, when Shrike is scheduled to work. She was hoping to do a switcheroo of some sort, but that didn't work out, so I suppose Peeper and I will be on our own.
The ballet school in Shrike's work town does a performance of the full ballet each year, so we're hoping to take her to see that next year.
Very cool!
ReplyDeleteYeah, the book was from me. I had planned to stick a note in saying it was something just for fun, but somehow I missed the spot on Amazon where they let you do that. I had sent you a note on FB telling you to be looking for a surprise for Peeper in the mail.
I thought after she went to the thing the other day that she would like it. I hope it is age appropriate, it looked like it would be. Most of the options were too text intensive, with not enough pictures, but this one looked good, from what I could see online.
Have fun at the bahw-ay. :)
lk
I saw the FB note shortly before it arrived, otherwise I would have been completely confused.
ReplyDeleteIf I'd noticed that the box was addressed to her, I probably would have opened it sneakily and possibly saved it for Christmas, or at least for one of her advent calendar drawers, but ironically, she was helping me to open it, because I thought it was the nursing bras that I'd ordered, and was saying "Hey! Mama's new bras are here! You want to see them?" and she was all excited, "Yes, I want to see them. Show them to me!"
Then I opened it and WHOA - That's not my bras!
She looooves it, though, so I guess I'm just as glad that I went ahead and gave it to her now.
And it is very age appropriate, although I do change the ending and say that the prince invites Marie (Not Clara, oddly enough - turns out that in the original, she was Marie and the name was changed for the ballet. Who knew. Well, Wikipedia knew, actually.) to "come visit him in Toyland when she grows up," as opposed to "Come be his Queen when she grows up," because, seriously, they are much too young to get engaged, no matter how much candy he has.
I will say, though, that as your prince-proposes-they-live-happily-ever-after stories go, this one is better (in our opinion) than many, because it is Marie/Clara who rescues the Nutcracker, by loving him "despite his appearance" and breaking the Mouse King's curse, turning him back into a prince.
ReplyDeleteAlso, by whacking the Mouse King in the noggin with her shoe and either killing him or slowing him down so the Nutcracker can kill him.
Not bad for a little girl, huh?