Bringing up Biscuit: Peter Pan at play

Jeff's Mom gave us all of his Little Golden Books. Remember those?

Well, in the stash, Biscuit found two books about Peter Pan, and he quickly became obsessed. We've had to read those books at least 80 times each!

I have to play Wendy, and Jeff has to alternate between Michael, John, Smee and Captain Hook, depending on which adventure Biscuit as Peter, of course, wants to tackle. Tinkerbell is apparently small enough that we can just pretend she's around.

On one of the shows Biscuit watches, the kids went to a play. Ever since then, Biscuit has been asking if we could go see one. "Cinderella" came and went. "The Ugly Duckling" came and went. I knew "The Wizard of Oz" was coming up, but that one still scares me!

So when I found out that one of the colleges in town was doing a stage production of "Peter Pan," and they had a show on the night of Biscuit's birthday, well of course we had to go.

I told him that he would have to take a nap after his party, and that if he woke up in a good mood, we would go see a play.

He woke up ready to go. We dressed him in a nice sweater. I told him to wear the sweater zipped up halfway because he was wearing a shirt under it that made a matching set.

"But Mom," Biscuit explained, "zippers are made to be zipped."

That was not a battle I felt strongly enough about to fight.

We got to the college and found our way to the theater and then our seats. Poor little Biscuit didn't weigh enough to keep the fold-up seat down. If he slid to the back of his seat to lean against the back, he would start to fold up like a jack knife. Jeff finally propped his leg on the edge of Biscuit's seat to help hold it down.

My biggest concern about the whole thing was that the play might not keep Biscuit's attention. That was not an issue.

The first time Captain Hook appeared, Biscuit slid right up on the edge of his seat. He laughed in all the right spots. When someone was in peril, his eyes got really big.

One funny thing was that when Tinkerbell drank the poison, and Peter encouraged the audience to join him in saying, "I DO believe, I DO, I DO," Biscuit just looked at me like he had no idea what to do. We had explained to him that he couldn't talk out loud during the play, and here was Peter Pan asking him to do the very thing we said not to. And to his credit, he was obeying us perfectly.

I assured him that it was okay to say what Peter was asking him to say because it would help Tinkerbell. So he started saying it and clapping his hands. All the kids around us were doing the same thing. It was actually sort of a moving moment.

The cast was made up of students from the college. The guy who played Peter was quite an acrobat. He scaled towers and rocks and trees and all sorts of set pieces. You could tell that he had worked on his stage choreography. But toward the end of the play, Peter and Captain Hook had it out, and Peter sent Captain Hook overboard. Peter ran back to the front of the stage where he was supposed to hop up onto a wooden crate and give his final big speech. But as he hopped up on the crate, his foot caught the edge of it, and he went tumbling.

All the adults in the audience gasped loudly, but the kids didn't know the difference. They just thought it was part of the act. The guy playing Peter just did a quick somersault and jumped right back up.

As we were leaving, I pulled Biscuit over against the wall to help him put on his jacket before we walked to our car. This young student was sitting on a bench with headphones in his ears.

He pulled the headphones out, looked at Biscuit and said, "Hey lil man, did you like the show?"

"It was called 'Peter Pan,'" Biscuit said. "It was about Peter Pan and Captain Hook, but Peter Pan was the hero."

"Cool," the young guy said. Their short conversation just made me smile.

Biscuit said he'd like to see another play sometime, so I'll keep my eyes open for something good.

Here are some pictures I took that evening: