My Little Ham

     We received a flyer home on Tuesday or Wednesday inviting us to a presentation at our sons school of The Grouchy Ladybug. Usually, when we get these invitations, it means that the grade or multiple grades are putting on a performance and that our son and his class will be there somewhere mixed in with all the other kids. As a dutiful mom, I always go, but truthfully more often than not I find it to be a little dissapointing. My son can usually be found standing off to the side, kind of part of it but really doing his own thing. He always looks adorable but his participation level is usually pretty low. Sometimes we might get a minute of some cute dancing or clapping, but usually not. And so, when I saw this flyer I will admit, I kind of felt like skipping it.  I will even go as far as to admit, that when Friday at 1:15 rolled around I ended a meeting with a colleague a few minutes early saying  that I had to go to yet another annoying play at my kids school.
     I could not possibly have been more wrong! What awaited me when I got there was probably one of the most special things I have ever experienced. To give you some background, my son is in a special ed class in a typical school. The class is for kids from kindergarten through 2nd grade.  The performance was being put on by the kids in my sons class only. They had invited all of the grades in the school in that age range as well as all of the staff members that work with the kids in this class and their parents. One of the aids from the class narrated the play and each kid had at least one part. My son played the part of the stag beetle as well as a walking clock telling us what time it was. Each of the kids playing the various parts were adorable.
     As I said, usually at these performances, I do not expect much. So as you can imagine, when my son walked on stage to play his part of the stag beetle, I assumed he would have no clue what to do. I sat there thinking to myself "oh great, my kid is going to be the only one to mess this up" but to my astonishment that was not at all the case. The first thing I noticed when he walked out was how almost every kid in the audience smiled and said "oh look, there's Yonatan" or "it's Yo Yo". Everyone in that school knows him, he is seriously famous in those parts! The second and far more astonishing thing was that he walked right out onto the stage and went straight to the microphone and after getting over a bit of a, wow everyone is looking at me stupor, said his part! Now, I won't pretend that it was super clear, or that if everyone didn't already know that the line was "if you insist" they would have understood him. But who the hell cares! He said it, and in front of an entire audience. He then turned his cute little tush around and exited stage center. I. could. not. believe. it.

     And as I sat there, sitting in a row with all of these parents who probably in varying degrees also thought they would never experience this moment, I couldn't have been more amazed or proud of our children. Because, as I often say, when you are a parent you find so much pride in the things your children do but when you are a parent of a child with special needs the feelings of pride are indescribable. So when I looked around at all of the other parents, experiencing what I was experiencing, I thought to myself: today I am so happy to be a part of this club.