The Hundred Acre HollyWood

We took Kiernan to see "Disney Live! Winnie the Pooh" on Saturday. The show took place at Hollywood's Kodak Theatre, the venue that has hosted the Academy Awards since 2001. Actually, when I say "we" I don't just mean his mother and I. Née Née, Kiernan's godmother, was there too. She was the impetus for our going at all; she did a good amount of work on the show (she works for Disney) and called us a couple of months ago to suggest the three of us take Kiernan to see it. We in turn called his doctor to make sure Kiernan could go to a big show a few weeks after the surgery, and he gave us the green light.

I am constantly amazed at how becoming somebody's dad has changed me. A year ago I would have found attending a show like this to be nothing short of excruciating. As the title suggests, the show is pretty much a Winnie-the-Pooh story brought to life on stage, with actors in giant character costumes and huge happy-go-lucky musical numbers. Think Disney on Ice without the ice. Renee's excellent work aside, I would have sat there surrounded by gleefully screaming children rolling my eyes and clutching my head. Now...well...Now things are a bit different.

I loved the show.

Absolutely loved it. I thought it was fantastic and fun and hilarious. I had a great time. Thing is, I saw very little of the actual show because I was staring at Kiernan so much of the time. He was just flat out enthralled by the whole thing. He loves being around people, so just going to the Kodak Theatre was a thrill for him. Children running everywhere. Clowns hamming it up with the crowd. He was so excited. Then the show started and he was mesmerized. Just ten months old and he's such a good theatre goer. Far better than his dad.

This is the third show we've taken him to. First we went to see a new musical my friend Karen wrote, the excellent "Atalanta". I think Kiernan was six months old at the time, so I didn't know how he would react to being in a dark theatre for a full length show, but he was fantastic. Next Wendy took him to see "Legends of King Arthur"--another children's show written by Karen, only this time one of the actors was me. He was great at that show too. So I wasn't surprised that he was well behaved at the Pooh show; I was surprised, however, with how much he actually paid attention to the show, how much he got into it. He really watched the action on stage. He smiled some, and even danced along with many of the musical numbers while on Née Née's lap. By and large, however, he just watched the production unfold with wide-open eyes and a wide-open mouth, wonderment written all over his face.

I'm sure anyone looking at me, looking at him, would have seen the same thing.