Ethan-Baloo

Today was Ethan's last day of preschool and they put on a play for all the adoring parents to see. They did an adaptation of "The Jungle Book" and Ethan got to be Baloo-the-Oso. I have to admit that when I opened up the program and saw that he only had 4 or 5 lines I was a little disappointed. In just the past 9 months he has gone from knowing absolutely no Spanish, to speaking well and understanding even more. It truly amazes me! So I was a little disappointed we wouldn't get to hear more from him. Of course it all turned out great in the end and we laughed our heads off at Ethan and all the other kids.
Their school is just in a tiny house so they used a local church with a stage for the show. Here's the whole group with Ethan in the middle in the dark brown. I was amazed by the costumes and the set especially for such a small preschool.

I think he's adorable and am just grateful he's willing to be dressed up with a painted on nose for a few more years.

And a close-up shot.
This was the only video I got where he was speaking clearly enough to understand. He says "Hola, yo me llamo Ethan, y yo soy Baloo" "Hello. My name is Ethan and I'm Baloo".



His big part came halfway through the play. If you've seen the movie you know Baloo meets Mogli in the jungle and teaching him to eat fruit and ants. Because the kids were so little there wasn't much dialogue and instead they let them dance around to the songs from the movie. So Ethan got to dance around to "The Bear Necessities of Life" and "eat" fruit off the trees (other kids).



As a proud mother I will admit I was truly impressed by his dance moves- especially the repetitive leg hops and kicks. Not sure where he got those moves. I love that when they went around to the trees to let them say their lines, he made them repeat it if it wasn't loud enough for the parents to hear. Maybe I should worry about him being bossy but I hope it made some parent's day that they got to hear their child even if Ethan was blocking the view.
And then I made a major mistake as the primary photo-video taker. I thought the scene was over so I switched the video to photo mode so I could take some still shots. I didn't realize the funniest part was still to come. After they asked the trees what fruit they were, he laid down on the ground and let Mogli scratch his back. It was truly funny. And then, as in the movie, Baloo got up and scratched his back on a tree. Which in this play happened to be another kid so it was hilarious.
I caught the end of his tree-back scratching and then where he scratches his back with a loose branch. I think he stole the show with this routine- at least from my unbiased view. Especially with his thumbs up to the crowd as he's exiting the stage!


I'm not the only one who enjoyed the show. Here's the proud Grams who laughed her way through the whole performance and also complemented Ethan on his dance moves.

A shot of the adoring audience. I left Miles with my wonderful neighbor since he prefers to nap in the morning and is also in the loud babbling stage and would have been very distracting. Isaac was a very good audience member and watched the whole thing quietly on his dad's lap.

Couldn't resist a few last photos with favorite friends. He will truly miss these guys when they move on to different Kindergarten classes next year.
L to R Darwin, Mika, Cassidy (Ethan's little crush), and Ethan (still with his Bear nose on)
And one last friend, Carolina who also stole the show with her booty shake dancing.

In case you can't get enough of these cuties (like me) here's just one of the 6 songs they performed and danced to. The booty shaking of Ethan and Carolina the panther next to him are to die for. Love it!