Thumbs up, chokes up

There’s really nothing in life better than having your son proud of you. I had one of those moments today.

I volunteer in the library at my son’s elementary school and the kids are quite used to me reading fun stories to them. Since the kids don’t get to take a book home this week, I asked the school librarian if she would like to put on a puppet show with me for them.

So I wrote a script, threw in some music clips in between scenes, she brought in some puppets and we were set. I used summer reading as the theme and even included some info from our local library’s summer reading program. I threw in a shortened “Who’s on First?” routine, since my son and I love Abbott & Costello, and used the names Ollie, Louie, Mr. Stanley, Mrs. Abbott and Buddy (the dog) for the full old-time comedic effect.

We had our first performances yesterday for the kindergarten classes and they really liked it. But the real test (for me anyway) was today. This afternoon we put on the show for Aaron’s first grade class.

It was wonderful to hear them laughing and singing along to “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” at the end. But the best was when my son was walking out with his class. He looked at me, smiled, and gave a big thumbs up. That’s when the big lump hit my throat.

There’s really nothing in life better than having your son proud of you.