Here's to you...friendly balloon man

This morning, Laura and I loaded up our kiddos and headed out to see Big Bird and the gang in a Sesame Street Live performance. It was awesome! Jordan was crazy about all of the characters, and would yell out their names when they came onto the stage. When they would leave, she would sweetly ask for them to come back. So precious! Eleanor was very into the dancing and clapping aspects of the show. Even Cyrus, who is only six months old, got into the singing and dancing frenzy at one point. Eleanor also enjoyed waving her little baby hand wildly to the characters, even though we were about halfway to the nosebleed section. My favorite part of watching her watch the show was when Elmo would come out and she would yell, "El-bo!"

At intermission, we headed down the the floor to purchase an Elmo balloon from the nice, little balloon man. By the time we got through the line and up to the man, Eleanor was saying, "El-bo boon! El-bo boon!" Well, then the nice, little balloon man (I just don't know what else to call the guy that sells balloons) said, "That will be eight dollars." Eight bucks?! For a balloon??! We exchanged some friendly banter about what a ridiculous price that was and such, and then I forked over the eight bucks. Have you seen my kid's face? She was staring at the El-bo boons with those big, brown eyes and a huge grin across her face. You would have bought her the eight dollar balloon too.

Anyway, so Big Bird comes on with an announcement that if you bought a balloon, you need to kindly put it under your seat so that "all our friends can enjoy the show." So, I very responsibly obey the rules and shove the eight dollar balloon under my seat. For the entire second half of the show, I was gripping Elmo's head with my heels like I was on Wrestle-Mania and he was my arch rival. The end of the show comes... I get up, fold up my seat, and Elmo floats away. Insert expletive here. Eleanor immediately makes her way up to the family behind us and asks them to adopt her because her mommy is a total dufus, and they still have their El-bo boon.

On the way out, Laura convinces me to tell the balloon man what happened, and see what he does. So what did he do? Did he say, "Sorry, Charlie. Next time, don't be a moron"? No. He gave me another balloon! I love you, Mr. Balloon Man. Almost the entire way home in the car, Eleanor sang, "El-bo, El-bo, El-bo" as she stared lovingly at her giant balloon. She briefly fell asleep, but I bet you can guess what the first thing she said when she woke up was.

I didn't take my camera to the show, but here are a couple of pictures of Eleanor playing in her brand new Zoe tutu!

This is the way she looks at her Elmo balloon. I think she's in love.