Date night with Sebastian

He had no idea where we were going. I gave him a hint earlier in the week that it had to do with music - he assured me we were going to a concert. I told him that his guesses were futile, and that I wasn't giving away any more information. He would just have to wait and see for himself when the day finally arrived.

And it did.

I put on my black dress and heels, donned red lipstick and asked him how I looked.

"You look really pretty, Mommy. REALLY pretty!"

That's my boy.

"Really? Thank you, Seb. You look amazing, too!"

Which he did. He's so beautiful.

Once we were on our way, he turned on my iPod, and of course "Ain't No Reason" was his choice of song. I smiled at his selection - it's so Sebbie.

"The only way you can listen to this is if you sing with me."

He rolled his eyes, but not in an annoyed way, more of a slightly embarrassed/happy to be asked way. He obliged.

A song later, he turned on Phantom of the Opera.

"I haven't heard this in forever!"

Wow. Really? Right now? I couldn't say anything about the coincidence. I had to keep it to myself, but I secretly thought it was so neat that he would choose that song for this night. That boy, I'm telling you....

We drove to Tempe, talking about the evening in between Taylor Swift songs. From afar he spotted Gammage and told me he'd always wanted to go there. I was genuinely surprised - I hadn't known this about him. I suggested we take a look at it up close, and as we turned into the parking lot and actually parked the car - I told him he would finally get to go inside.

The expression on his face made my night. 

He was elated. 

He didn't know what musical we were seeing at that point, but the thought of going inside the building was exciting enough at the moment. Once we walked through the doors, I revealed that "Phantom" was on the agenda for the night. 

Now, you have to understand that the Phantom of the Opera isn't just some random musical I thought I'd take my son to just for the heck of it. He has loved the soundtrack ever since he saw the movie a few years ago. He would literally play it over and over in our kitchen, at very high volume I might add, and never tired of it. In my last post I shared a picture of him as "The Phantom" for Halloween. It has very much been a part of his life - musically, anyway.

After he found out we were set to see one of his favorite musicals ever, he kept saying thank you over and over, and his smile didn't fade all night. We bought candied almonds and found our seats, which were AMAZING. As we waited for the show to start, we talked about the actors shown in the Playbill and if the curtains would stay the same throughout the entire show. I told him I didn't think so - turns out I was right. The patience of a 10-year-old boy is not very long, so when it was 6:35 he said they were way behind schedule (Showtime was 6:30). I assured him it would start very soon.

I honestly didn't know if he would last for the entire show, but his attention didn't waver for one minute. He couldn't believe everything he heard was live, and I think that made him really appreciate the show and all of its facets. He loved the giant chandelier and candelabras onstage. He thought the "Masquerade" part of the show was beautiful - so did I.

I bought him a poster at intermission and we shared a Snickers bar. He gave me the last bite.

We finished our night with a trip through the drive-thru and some boy humor....a.k.a.....farts.

It was really funny.

It was a really wonderful night.