First Concert

Before the concert

When: Saturday (July 25)

Where: Caramoor

Details: This past Saturday we took Tali to her first concert - Peter and the Wolf. Since she loves music and being outside, we thought this would be the perfect thing for her. Unfortunately, it was pretty much a bust. We decided to get there early and have a picnic before the concert. In order to work with Tali's schedule, we left right at her nap time so she could sleep in the car. Well, she cried for most of the drive and only slept for the last 20 minutes. As soon as the car stopped she was up (she's good at that now). Once we got there, we grabbed a quick snack (the lunch food wasn't out yet) and then walked around with her, hoping that she'd fall asleep. Unfortunately, she never fell asleep. Then it was time for everyone's lunch so we all ate (Dan and I had sandwiches, Tali got breast fed) and then put Tali on the picnic blanket so she could play before the concert began.

The concert was scheduled to begin at 4:00 and with only a 20 minute nap (usually it's 1 - 1 1/2 hours), Tali was a bit tired. Caramoor had broken up the audience into two areas - children under 6 and children over 6. Naturally, we went to the under 6 area but we should've snuck in to the older kids group. This wasn't really a concert but more of an interactive story telling for the kids. There were three musicians (violinist, pianist and flutist) and within the first half hour there was about two minutes of music. The rest of the time was interactive story telling. For example:

Violinist/narrator: What instrument is this?

Kids: Violin!

Violinist/narrator: How do you play the violin?

Kids: With the bow!

Violinist/narrator: How does the bow move?

Kids: With your arm!

Whenever a musician would actually play a few notes, Tali would stop whatever she was doing (bouncing on my lap, pulling my hair, grabbing H's glasses, etc.) and focus. But since there was so little playing and she was very tired, we left. We were very disappointed because Tali would've really liked an actual concert. Oh well. Guess we'll go back in three years when she can identify instruments and body parts.