Favorite Photo Friday: Brandon

Brandon and I ended up unexpectedly on a mother/son date last night. I had two tickets to "The Music Man." I was going to take one of the girls but they were both happily busy with friends on this, the last Friday night of summer break. I called around last minute looking for a friend to go with me (Bryan having refused on the basis of him hating musicals) but no one was home. So I asked Brandon if he wanted to come. He asked for a synopsis first and then, after warning me that he might fall asleep in the middle of it, agreed to come. I was rather delighted...for so long Brandon was my constant buddy while his older sisters were at school and before Lilian came a long. But now that he is older, he and his dad have become fast friends and it's been a long time since the two of us have had any one-on-one time.

Warnings of sleepiness were premature. Brandon was happily entertained through the whole show. Have you seen "The Music Man?" Think back to the four members of the school board. The ones that wander the town constantly singing after Professor Harold Hill turns them into a barbershop quartet... remember? And they sing this one song... "Goodnight ladies, goodnight ladies, goodnight ladies, we're going to leave you now...." When that song started Brandon turned to me with this HUGE grin on his face. "Mom!" he whispered, "Mom, this is the song that I used to sing to the girls every night!" And then I remembered. Back when Brandon was 2 and 1/2 years old Disney re-did "The Music Man" with Matthew Broderick and Kristin Chenowith as a Sunday night special for TV. The kids and I watched it together. And then every night for months and months afterwards, we'd put the girls in their bunk beds down stairs and say family prayers, and then as I carried him out of their room and up the stairs, Brandon would sing "Goodnight Ladies" to his sisters. It was SO cute! And I totally forgot about it until we heard that song again last night. Frankly, I'm shocked that Brandon remembers...it was so long ago, but glad. Because what a sweet memory. And how fun to re-live that again last night together.