Better late than never.

So the boy has been 8 for over a month now.

So it's high time I blog about it.

We had a quiet family celebration. Andrew asked for grilled cheese sandwiches for his birthday dinner. We jazzed things up a bit at had a build-your-own panini. Several options of cheese, meat, bread and other toppings. It was our own little version of Melt, complete with a spreadsheet for people to make their choices. The Barneses brought their huge George Foreman grill over and we went to town. Yum.In December Wicked was back in town. I, of course, would be going. My original thought was to take the girls with me, but when I saw the ticket prices, I knew that wasn't going to be possible. However, I , of course, would be going. But who to take with me? Andrew happened to be the only family member who had not seen it, so I decided he'd be my date.

The day after his birthday Andrew and I got to spend the whole day together. First we went to see his friend who was at Rainbow Babies and Children's Hospital after a TV fell on him. Yikes. He was very happy to have a visitor and it was nice to spend some time visiting.

Then we headed to Playhouse Square. As we entered the lobby, I saw the Wicked poster around the corner. I had my camera, and I offered to take a picture of the family standing in front of it if they would take one of Andrew and me. Sure, no problem. I took a nice picture of the nice family. Our turn. Except that when I went to turn my camera on, there was no memory card.

LAME.

And a little embarrassing.

Never mind, I said to the lady.

But instead of just walking away, she offered to take our picture with her camera. Yeah, sure, if you're sure. You can just email it to me.

No, she said, write down your home address and I'll mail them to you.

Well, ok. I'm doubtful, but ok. I gave her the info and we went on into the theater.

Now I must say that for a Broadway play, Andrew isn't the best companion. A sporting event, a movie even--he's great fun. But he wasn't all that into Elphaba and Co. Oh, he watched, he paid attention, but at every pause in the action he whispered, "Can we just go home now?" Yeah it was real fun.

But you know what? Wicked is totally awesome no matter what. And a couple weeks later, guess what arrived in the mail?

(Note: this was taken BEFORE the performance. That's why we both look happy.)

The nice stranger lady even sent a couple extra pictures she snapped of the map and the trailer. How nice of her to go the extra mile. And even if the experience ended up leaning towards the annoying side, I am so grateful to have a remembrance of my day with Andrew. Thank you, random lady at the theater!

One more note about Andrew...

He's gone from this...

...to this.

Can you spot the difference?