Life According to Laura

My friends, Jason and Allison, helped organize a Spring Fair for their son’s preschool in Manhattan. A couple months ago Jason asked me if I would be willing to sing and play my ukulele as part of the entertainment for the fair. Flattered and frightened, I said yes.

This morning I woke up with butterflies in my stomach. Joe took the kids and dog to the park so I could warm up my voice and fingers(I also did some jumping jacks to get the jitters out).

I took Sophia with me for moral support. On the way to the fair I began telling her how I was feeling a little nervous but was glad she was going to be there to help me. Little did I know how literal she would eventually take my words.

After Jason introduced me, I sat down on my stool and Sophia popped up from where she was sitting on the ground and climbed up on the stool next to me. I quietly asked her to return to her seat.

The first song I sang is one of Sophia’s favorite songs of mine. Its a song about an imaginary friend named Sally. During this song Sophia jumped up, grabbed the mic that was aimed at my uke and began singing along with me. I kept singing but shook my head “no” and she got the point.

After completing that song I smoothly moved right into the next song “You Are My Sunshine”. Well, Sophia wanted to sing “Sally” again. So while I’m trying to sing the next song, she began asking me, “Mom! Sing ‘Sally’ again. Mom, ‘Sally’!” I kindly ignored her. So, she got up from her seat, came over to me, and “whispered” in my ear to sing “Sally” again. I basically had to stop singing, tell her no and motion for her to sit back down.

But that’s not all. A little later Sophia starts telling me that she needs to go to the bathroom. Now an important thing to remember here is that I am new at this whole gig thing. Its requiring intense concentration just to remember notes and words. So all of these little interruptions keep throwing me off.

Finally, after feeling completely ignored, Sophia gets up (again), comes over to me and (its no longer a whisper at this point) says, “Mom, I gotta go pee-pee!” Thankfully my friend Jason was able to call her over and point her in the right direction.

I guess along with the “so thankful you’re going to be there with me” conversation we had on the way over, I should have included some basic “how to conduct yourself when Mom is performing” rules. Oh well. The more I think about it, maybe I should have let her join me on stool in the first place. The girl can saang!