My first real mommy and Eli date

Last night, I had the BEST time with Eli. My friend Erika got us free tickets to the Gazillion Bubble show, which was playing down in the theater district. I knew that Friday night at 7pm could be pushing it, but also knew that if he got a good nap in him, he'd be ok. I told him about it Thursday night, and when he woke up on Friday, one of the first things he said was "Can we go to the bubble show?" Allllll day long he was asking when we could go, and when, in the afternoon, I told him that we could go as soon as Daddy got home, he actually went and sat in his stroller and told me he was going to sit there until Daddy got home. SUPER cute.

Daddy got home a little later than normal, but as soon as he got home, Eli and I left. It was freezing cold, but neither of us cared. I dressed him up in a nice shirt and told him that it was important to wear something nice when you're going to the theater. :) We were planning on having a sit-down meal at McDonalds (I wanted to take him out to dinner, too) and he told me that he wanted "chicken nuggets, apples, french fries and a TOY!" Since we were running late, we had to take it to go...but he totally didn't care. When we were waiting in line, he held my hand (unheard of!) and told everyone around him that "My name is Eli and this is mommy." He was super excited to go on the "Choo choo" and it was the first time it's been just the two of us (sans stroller, even!) on the subway since before Liam was born. He loved sitting next to me "like a big boy" and loved looking out the window at each of the stops, asking me "what that one number is." He also very much enjoyed pointing out the sleeping people on the train (very loudly.... "Mommy! That guy is SLEEPING over there!"). He was so excited that he ate his entire meal (I could have fed him anything and he would have shoveled it in...not paying attention). We transferred trains and made it to the theater with about 10 minutes to spare before the start of the show. It was fun to get off the train and walk out into times square.... Eli was like - "It's night time, mommy??" I carried him to the theater cause he was walking slow and it was cold....but he would have done it if I let him.

As soon as we got in the lobby, he saw Tita Erika and Tita Susan and instantly turned into Mr. Performer... dancing around, showing off his ninja moves, twirling and spinning. He was VERY excited. Susan asked the usher... are you guys ready for him?? to which he replied - oh yeah!! We walked down the big staircase and headed to the theater, where the usher gave us playbills (Eli's first one!!!) and we found our seats. The theater was pretty empty... there were maybe 50 people there and at least 1/2 of them were little kids. We had seats off to the side, with the row to ourselves, which meant that if I sat in the aisle, Eli had about six seats and then a wall all to himself...so he could run around back and forth to his little heart's content, without distracting a soul!

When the show started, Eli was super excited. I was so proud of him for not being scared of the dark parts or loud parts. He was pretty much mesmerized by the bubbles. There were definitely some low key parts when they were setting up, and I thought we were going to lose him there, but luckily I was able to distract him enough and he never yelled out "I WANT TO GO HOME!" Lol. I had a few favorite parts of the show:

-When tons of bubbles started coming from everywhere and Eli jumped down from his seat and tried to go punch them all. It was like his little mission... he was just punching and hitting with such a serious face. Super cute.

-When the laser part of the show came and I told him Luke was up there with his light saber. He was SO excited. When he got home, he told Daddy he saw Luke!

-When he called out - "I want to pop a bubble, man!" to the bubble man.

Oh it was just so much fun. It was the perfect amount of time - just under an hour and a half - and he truly had fun the whole time. Near the end of the show, he was starting to get tired and actually came and sat in my lap for a while. Eli is not, and has never been, a cuddly child...so when I have those rare moments of cuddle time, I cherish them.

Coming home was fun, too. It was just fun to walk through the city with my little guy, take the train, see things through new eyes, etc. I WISH it hadn't been so cold outside, cause I realized he's never seen times square at night!!! But it was just too cold for that to be fun for him.

I really had the best time spending the night out with Eli. I'm going to try to do it at least once a month, hopefully more often, from now on. :) Next stop (hopefully) will be the motorcycle show with Daddy next weekend.