Listening and dancing to music...

... is AWESOME!!!
-Super Music Friends Show, Yo Gabba Gabba

We'd been anticipating the night for many months, and last night was the big event.

I realize that people generally fall into two camps when it comes to this show: love it or hate it.  That's cool.  I don't love the same music or movies or children's programming that you love.  Haters - feel free to ignore this post, and definitely feel free to keep comments to yourself.  But as for me and my family, we LOVE Yo Gabba Gabba.

Once upon a time, our little guy was pretty sick.  He got pneumonia 5 times in as many months.  We didn't know it at the time, but he was in congestive heart failure because his mitral valve was so badly functioning that fluid was backing up into his lungs.  To open his lungs a bit and help him breathe, he had to do a nebulizer treatment every night.

Ever tried to make a two year old sit still for 30 minutes and breathe scary-looking, funny-smelling smoke?  Yeah, me neither.  He fought the treatments like crazy, and I didn't have a clue how to get him to settle down.  So this anti-TV mama resorted to the one thing I knew had a fighting chance of keeping him still for that long.  Television. And all he wanted to watch was Yo Gabba Gabba.  So we watched.  Every night.  And he'd sing along through that blasted fish mask.


In a really interesting coincidence, I learned about another little girl named Davy who also has Congenital Heart Disease (among a number of other congenital issues).  Her mom writes an uber-cool blog, the mom, and I got hooked.  Know who the mom is married to?  None other than Scott Schultz, co-creator of YGG.  Yep, the guy who comes up with the creatively awesome ideas for this show has watched his little girl endure heart surgery and weeks in the hospital and medical procedures galore.


Then, in August 2010, we went to Philadelphia for his open heart surgery at CHOP.  And as soon as we got there, we saw an ad in the airport for the YGG Live tour.  Jay was SUPER excited to see the Gabba friends welcome him to the airport.  We'd planned for 2 weeks in the hospital, and the show was scheduled to be in Philly a week later.  We were hopeful that we'd be back home and into regular life by then.  Of course long time readers will remember that he was still in ICU at that point, and home was still many, many weeks away - with "regular life" many months behind that.

So when the chance came along to see them in Raleigh, we jumped.  (We didn't jump for the $117 dress circle tickets, but the view is lovely from the back row, too.)  When the Gabba friends came on stage and I saw the ecstatic look in that little boy's face, I gotta admit, it got me.  There were tears rolling down my face.  We joked in Philly that he had complications intentionally, just so that we'd still be there and he could see the show.  But the truth is that I feared he'd never live to see Yo Gabba Gabba in person.  Or that he'd have endured so much time without oxygen that he'd be in a wheelchair, or unable to express himself through language, or any of the other millions of debilitating, life-altering issues that could have happened so easily.

But last night, this boy was fully and completely alive - in every sense of the word.


He clapped.


He hugged himself.
You put your arms out wide, wrap 'em around, squeeze tight!
Hugs are fun - Hugs are fun - Hugs are fun!


He danced during Dancey Dance time.


He was, in a word, enthralled.  Completely focused on those silly-looking, lovable creatures.

But he wasn't the only one!  Oh no.  Derek, Luke and I had every bit as much fun as Jay did.  Luke sat in his seat and clapped enthusiastically at the end of every song, even standing in front of his seat to dance.

And when Biz Markie came out (oh yes - THAT Biz Markie!) and started teaching the kids beatboxing for Biz' Beat of the Day, Derek and I were like "Is this for realz?!"  Oh yeah.  Loved every minute.

After the show, we had to check out all the confetti and paper leaves that came down.

  


Yeah, it was THAT fun.