Monday, September 7, 2009

Puppet Show

A few weeks ago Isabel told me about a Puppet Show happening at the Richmond Point Library. We are normally busy with therapy in the morning, and it's early, but we happen to be free on this particular day, so we headed over to check it out.This was the "count down" Puppet, The Library opened up right at 10:30 and Holly ran right in, and then this little guy would pop up at say "Puppet Show, ten Minutes till the Puppet Show" Then again every 1-2 minutes later.I was surprised that Holly did pull every book off of the shelves, but she was distracted by the other kids coming into the library and the Puppets that appeared every few minutes. She was also very distracted by the cart with the puppet show supplies.She actually paid attention for a few minutes too, I was shocked. She did in fact get scared twice, but it was very brief, more of a surprise, once when a puppet appeared out of nowhere and another time when it disappeared. I think it was more confusion with Object Permanence, not knowing where the things were going.But for the most part she was interested in the Puppets. She is somewhat familiar with them, we have a few at home that we play with, and she sees them on various Baby Einstein Video's. though I am not completely sure she can translate what she has seen on TV to real life.The times she was scared, I just had to go over and get her and give her a hug and she was calm again. This section of the Puppet Show was all about a special little puppy that could do tricks. The Clown people told little jokes that the four year olds loved, and made the parents have a little chuckle.The came the interactive part. This little boy was a volunteer, Holly had to run up to him and check out what he was doing. He was standing in her spot. It was very cute. the Puppet master came out from behind the curtain and said we were about to see a puppet show like none other.He advised the little boy to say "I am the Sun! The Sun the sun, the sun! HahAhha." It was so very cute to here him say it. The puppet master used this gruff voice, and the little boy imitated it with his fake little grown up voice. So cute.He would point, and he would raise the sun and say his lines. The audience loved it. There were several other volunteers too. Some who sat in the audience and had lines at certain times. others were also asked to come up to the front and use various props. Prior to this, Holly was running around all over the library checking in with me on occasion.But once they started this section, Holly was very attentive and wanted to know what people were doing and was listening to what they were saying. Here she is with another little boy waiting to see what was next.Two of the parents were asked to come up and hold the "Ocean" and there were also a few little kids who were holding fish that lived behind the Ocean. Based on what part of the story we were on, the water would rise and fall and the fish would swim or appear on the surface.Once we were ready to start the Puppet Master told a story about Ecology and how the water in the ocean evaporates when the sun comes out, but then later it gets cloudy and raise and the water rises back up again. It was a cute little story with lots of parts for people to help with. The kids ate it up.After a while we went back to a regular puppet show, but the Puppet Master wanted to show the kids how they could use every day objects as puppets to tell stories. This was the story of the 3 Billy Goats Gruff.He used three books to form the bridge and then three different size purses to act as the Billy goats, first a change purse then a large wallet and finally a regular bag. It was really cute to see each "goat" trick the troll into letting them over the bridge.Finally there was another little doggie, pet to the Clown, who had special skills, like that of making his own airplanes. It was really neat. it was at this point of the show that the little girl sitting next to us stood up, pointed at the puppet and said "Doggie, Doggie goes woof woof!" I talked about this in my previous post about services, and how shocked I was that the girl was only 14 months old.This was pretty much the end of the puppet show. But the kids stayed and lingered around for a really long time. Sarah was being well behaved and sitting in the back watching the show. holly and I were near the front so she wasn't in the crowd and it was easy for me to get up and chase after her.So once the show was over Holly found Sarah and Climbed up into the chair to sit by her and the girls had a little snack. It was so cute seeing her sit like a big girl, and I think she was pretty proud of herself too.
Here is Sarah having a Puff. The girls eat a lot of snacks together and share there food it is really cute. Holly sat in the chair for a really long time, I was amazed that she was balancing so well. Here she is even asking for "more" snack.Here Sarah snapped a puff right out of my hand that I was holding up for holly. Holly got a little irritated, but not for long, as I quickly gave her another and she was fine again.We let the girls play for a while at the library, but Sarah was getting tired, it was time for her morning nap, and she was ready to go. Sarah has been "weened" from her bottle, but sometimes I wonder if a sippy cup is really so different. Isabel is holding it for her and she is sucking away, it seems very close to the way Holly guzzles down her bottle.We are sometimes thinking of weening her though, we of course still give her one before nap and bed time, but on some days other then the morning wake up bottle that's all she gets, but on others, when we are out and about she really wants one in the afternoon too. Anyway, that was our morning at the puppet show. Lots of fun.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Holly looks so interested in the puppets. What a great library to have stuff like that. And how fun for Holly and Sarah to do stuff together.
I'm looking forward to the New York trip posts!Love, Granny

CarolineThomas said...

Hehe, I love puppet shows, cute looking library. Love that close up of Holly, she is gorgeous and the one of her sucking her fingers, awww. Sounds like a great puppet show and like you enjoyed it too. Great little kid size chair Holly is sitting in, she looks so grown up now. Katie was advised a while ago to make the switch to sippy cup as it encourages different muscles in the mouth that help with speach but he isn't saying anything still. Isabel looks so different in her glasses. Sarah is a cutie.