Seeing A Pantomine With Ethan

I decided we must, really must choose a show to watch. Of the three children's show available at this time of the year, Sinbad The Pantomine Featuring The Little Mermaid seemed the most desirable. So we spent £25 on two tickets for the 21 November, 2pm. On top of that, this time, the show was not held at somewhere within walking distance like the Festival Theatre, but at Brunton Theatre in Musselburgh. So we had to take a bus there.
So, on Saturday, leaving Jethro in the good hands of Jianming, the two of us left for Musselburgh. As we had to change buses, despite the short bus journey, it still took us about 1 hour to reach there and we were nearly late. It was a rainy Saturday but it was cheery in the theatre, with so many children and parents accompanying their kids.
Barely 15 minutes into the show however, Ethan was crying to get out. It was the evil Sea Witch. He didn't like bad guys, you see. He was also appalled by this big guy impersonating as a woman, but I quickly pointed out to him that 'Saucy Nancy' was a good character. But I couldn't do much about the Sea Witch. Not in the theatre itself anyway. So, half an hour later, unable to bear his cries any more, we left the show.
Ethan wanted to go home then, or go somewhere else. But I couldn't forget the £25 + £3 for bus fare. So I tried all means to persuade him to watch it again. I tried:
1. chocolate - he ate it and still wanted to leave.
2. "There are songs and good people in the show too. Don't you want to know the story?"
3. "Let's see how they fight the evil Sea Witch. It will be a happy ending."
4. "You need a bad guy so the story is more interesting."
5. "The bad guy is really not a bad guy in reality. She's actually a nice lady pretending to be a bad guy. After the show, she will be a nice lady again."
6. "This is not a cartoon on the computer. We can only watch it this time, now. Don't want to watch, no more. No such things as next time then watch."
One or a combination of these arguments must have worked on him, for he agreed to go back to the theatre. Phew!
We didn't go back to our seats, however. Ethan absolutely refused to. There was a railing at the back, behind which sat a row of elderlies. Ethan stood behind the railing to watch. Poor me had to kneel, squat, even sit on the floor, beside him, for the sake of my £25.
Then there was the interval. As we walked down the steps again, he said now we could go home. I told him this was just the interval, the story hadn't finished yet. He looked at all the people going down the stairs as well and said, "They are going home too." I didn't know whether to laugh or sigh as I explained that they would go back to the show after the interval.
Down there, they were selling Di Rollo ice cream. I have always tried very hard to avoid giving sweet treats to Ethan just to get him to do something, but this time I must be really desperate: "I will buy you an ice cream, but you must go back up after the interval." Ethan did not say anything. After some time - we were in the queue - he said, "No, I want to go home." "Then no ice cream! Why do I buy ice cream for you if you want to go home already?" I said. Finally, he agreed to stay for the show.
While eating ice cream, we talked about the bad witch a little more. He was calmer by then and I felt quite sure he would continue with the show. He wanted to see how they would fight the witch.
We went back up, I realised there was a wide seat that was unoccupied in the same row as the elderlies. So Ethan and I shared a seat there. We didn't get to see any fighting. This was a rather mild children's panto actually. The witch decided to be good in the end, when Neptune the Sea God was resurrected. So it was a happy ending for everyone. It's good that Ethan stayed to the end and got to see the witch become 'good'. There was an action dance at the end and he was quite ready to join in (needless to say, I had to, as well). I also explained to him when all the actors and actresses came out to bow to the audience, how they were all just ordinary, good people like all of us, and were only 'pretending' in the panto.
So overall, it turned out to be a good experience, I suppose, for both of us.

Ethan after the show at the Brunton Theatre (yes, there were 2 Christmas trees):

We made a short detour to River Esk for a little while:

How Young We Are

Ethan wrote these numbers.
He said, "4 is Ethan, 55 ('five five') is Daddy and Mummy and 1 is Jethro."
I had a strong suspicion what he meant, but I still wanted to make sure. So I asked him, "What does 5 mean?" He gave some random answer.
So I tried again,"Why am I 5?"
This time he said it: "Because you are 5."
"5 years old?" I grinned. He nodded.
"Is 5 bigger than 4?"
"Yeah," was the immediate reply.

Oh For A Break!

Almost everyday, after a morning of preparing ingredients for lunch and dinner, seeing Ethan to nursery (usually by Jianming but occasionally by me if I need to buy grocery), bringing Jethro to playgroups, fetching Ethan back from nursery on my way back, cooking and feeding everyone, I will sit on the floor against the couch and attempt to read a story book. I don't sit on the chair itself because if Jethro wants me to hold him, he'll be able to touch the things on the chest of drawers next to it. He is less inclined to ask me to hold him when I am on the floor.
Invariably the 'reading' is interrupted in short intervals by:
1. Jethro screaming next door (either he can't get something out from under the bed or he hurts himself or Ethan has done something in retaliation to Jethro's doing something)
2. Jethro in the kitchen for more than 30 secs (then I have to go and see if he's touched the untouchables such as some eerie nooks and crannies or worse, worse and a thousand times worse, the rubbish bin)
3. Ethan screaming next door (usually because of what Jethro has just done to his toys, to his drawings etc...)
4. Jethro going into the toilet instead of next door (we usually close the toilet door so he won't be tempted to go in - closing the toilet door can't stop him if he really wants to - but sometimes we forget)
5. changing nappies
6. everything being too quiet and peaceful for more than 5 mins
7. administering to a myriad of various small things
I am this 'relaxed' because I am waiting for Jethro to feel tired and go (cry) to sleep. If this doesn't happen, a bottle of milk when the time comes and he has to! Sometimes after playgroups, he falls asleep for that half an hour on the way back and I can expect him not to feel sleepy till evening, in which case I have to prevent him from falling asleep in an agitated state on my part ("No, Jethro, don't sleeeeeep!").
I rely on Ethan alot really. To keep Jethro happy mainly (unconsciously on his part by just doing what he does every day, every minute, every second), to sometimes help me shepherd him from the kitchen or toilet, to sometimes shout out warnings of what mischief the bugger is up to when out of my line of sight.
Of course, Ethan is not helpful when I am trying to get Jethro to go to sleep or when they are fighting over the same toy or when he's whining for something himself, but one can't always have one's cake and eat it, can one?

Photos at the playground taken by my sis. After a short while, there was a huge downpour which sent us scuttling back. What's worse was that we did not bring along the rain cover for the buggy due to the sunny weather earlier.


A walk in Princes' Street Gardens after seeing my sis off at the train station.


Jethro being too helpful:
Daddy says: "No, Jethro, I don't want to wash them. Give them to your brother." x times.

Wiping his toys. We've got to find a cleaner cloth for him.


Activities at the museum:
Soap carving. Jianming's was very deeply carved and detailed, but he didn't have time to finish. Mine was sort of completed but not well-defined enough and way out of my original design. Ethan's well... more like etching really. It was meant to be a car.

Drawing your face in a spaceman helmet in celebration of the 40th anniversary of the first man on the moon.

Just walking around. The museum is Ethan's favourite destination.


Ethan the hippie pirate. I have a video of him singing a song about Jesus (inspired by VeggieTales) which suddenly, unaccountably, changes into a song about pirates but I am just not good at putting up videos.

Ethan the monster


Autumn trees and a walk (to Farmer's Market on a Saturday morning)

The Flodden Wall, an ancient relic. Life in Edinburgh in olden times is rather well documented and seeing these remains of the ancient past seems to make one feel closer to the lives of people long dead.


'Babysitter' Ethan




Old MacDonald had a farm... Old MacDonald had a zoo...


The fascination with hats:


Waiting for his share


Fun with Joshua and his toys




An afternoon out with Ethan (Jethro napping and Jianming typing):

(he thinks that by covering my eyes with his hands I won't be able to take his picture...)