Eli's Debut

        On Wednesday we attended a performance of Pinocchio put on by Eli's Preschool, Minigente.  I could not believe how much work the wonderful teachers had put in to put it together.  The story was so cute and each kid was included, but best of all, have you ever seen a 4 year old play Geppetto?  It was stinking funny.  And the more the audience laughed the more he laughed. 
        The show was put on at the Embassy of Argentina.  They have the most beautiful theater that was a perfect set-up for the performance.  The turn out was amazing, it was standing room only (so glad we got there early), but of course it would be in a culture like Paraguay's, where families are so close and so supportive.
       I showed up in levis and quickly realized that I was WAY underdressed.  Many people were dressed in sequins and heals.  But others (the late ones) showed up dressed down so when I was leaving I didn't feel quite so out of place. 



Very Underdressed Eli Supporters

      As for Eli....well he was a riot.  He is very stubborn and because he is speech delayed it often times makes it hard to have a conversation with him.  So when it was almost his turn to go out on the stage he ran out about a third of the way and stopped just looking at the audience.  He smiled while his teachers were whispering, "Eli vení, nesicitamos esperar."  (Eli, come here, we need to wait.)
       He just looked at them and said, "No."  Then continued smiling at the audience.  He was the only one doing anything so all eyes were on him.  He loved it.  I think because he is fair skinned and blond people tend to think he is adorable.  So the audience laughed; and he soaked it up and smiled.  We all knew that if they tried to drag him backstage it would be all down hill from there with kicking and screaming, so they just let him stand there until the music started. 
       Once the music started and his classmates joined him on stage he realized that the music was very loud.  He covered his ears and soon began to cry.  So that was it for Eli.  He spent the rest of the show down in the dressing rooms playing and watching TV (probably where he wanted to be anyway.)  --  The video above shows his cute classmates, but we missed his "performance" in the beginning.
       We got to sit next to our good friends, who I will miss dearly when they leave next month.  Their daughters were wonderful on stage, and did exactly what they were supposed to.



Proud parents and sisters