I have been wanting to take Mason to a live concert of one of his favorite shows but it seemed I either missed the date or I'd be $150 poorer. I love my child but I'm not willing to spend $80 per ticket for costumed people to run around and sing! He's not yet 3 and I was also not sure he'd be willing to sit in a seat for over an hour.
When I got the Groupon in my inbox for Yo Gabba Gabba at a reduced price, I didn't hesitate to buy the tickets!
51% off! So that worked out to $24.00 each (Regular $49.25 per ticket). So myself along with 190 other smart parents scooped up two tickets for the 5pm show (there was also a 2pm show).
After spending Remembrance Day celebrations with Mason's Dad's family in the morning to early afternoon, Mason and I headed back to my place to catch a nap. Unfortunately he didn't go down straight away and left us little time to sleep. This was a big deal because the last thing I wanted was a cranky tired child at a public place with 1000's of other little Yo Gabba's running around!
The show started at 5pm so we had to leave at 4pm earliest to drive downtown and get parking and walk to Queen E.
So I wake up, have a shower and let Mason sleep as long as possible. I get him up and hydrated and proceed to dress him in cute clothes (he resists) then I run around grabbing our outing bag containing the usual [Diapers, wipes, toys, water, snacks, and camera]
I grabbed a container out of my cupboard that held cheerios. Assuming it was air tight cause those cheerios have been in there a while....POOF. A green mushroom cloud appears as soon as I take off the lid. Yuck. Moldy cheerios. I then head to the computer to print off my tickets (I don't trust my recently toilet dunked phone which amazingly came back to life a day later). Groupon.com is bogged down and I can't print. Lovely. So I write the ticket #'s down on a piece of paper. I pray that they accept this or I'd be having a tantrum at the ticket booth!
Finally get us out to the car and it's 4:15pm. I wonder why, as a Mother of an almost 3 year old, I can't be organized enough to get us out the door early??
The drive downtown was quick and I had difficulty finding a parking lot, I didn't want to pay for street parking as I had no idea how long the show would last. Finally I decided to park across the street from the theatre. I head to the meter only to discover it's not working (well at least not for me) so I buy parking by phone. 2hrs for $8.50.
Carry Mason across the street to see all the other parents shuffling toddlers and pushing baby strollers in the same direction. We walk past a man with a cat on his shoulder (Precious is the cats name) and spy a costumed gingerbread man advertising a Christmas fair.
We have no line-up (great!) and the lady accepts my chicken scrawl and ID and gives us two tickets.
Finally we get inside. I haven't been to the Queen E in over hmmm 5 years? I saw Phantom there with a friend. I know they've been doing a lot of reno's...it looks quite nice.
We are told to head up to the Mezzanine and locate the stairs around the corner. I stop to take in the chaos that is this place:
We find our seats and settle in. We are up higher in a little section on the right above the main entrance. Mason ha a clear view of the stage but putting my heavy jacket over my daybag gives him a boost to see more.
And about 5:15 the show starts! DJ Lance introduces all his friends and they start to dance and sing!
The first thing I noticed was that it was loud, like concert loud and I was surprised of the high level considering that the audience was under 5 (aside from the parents). There was a 3 month old baby sitting directly in front of me that didn't seem phased by the noise (I was totally expecting over stimulation from the lights and sounds but she remained calm). I noticed her Dad? had toilet paper in his ears to block the noise.
The show lasted 2 hrs with a 10-15 min intermission. I was glad for the toy Mason brought and for YouTube on my phone which kept him occupied and in his seat.
Instead of attaching the 15+ 10 second videos I took, I glued them all together to offer you a 3 minute montage of the footage I took of the show.
!
I never really paid attention to Yo Gabba Gabba on tv so I wasn't sure what it was all about. The tunes were catchy and there was a lot of rhyming. At different stages of the show there was explosions of glitter and other projectiles from the ceiling! The show was almost entertaining to the adults as well. I thought 'this is the oddest concert I've ever been to lol'.
My high points of the show:
- 00:52 Rap Guy
- 1:06 - We be buggin'
- 1':19 - The turntables come out!
- 1:41 - Don't stop Till You Get Enough
- 2:10 - It Takes Two (Rob Base & DJ E-Z rock)
- 2:39 - Falling 'leaves'
- 2:51 - Falling 'snow'
As we were heading into the elevator, Mason's water bottle 'cork' dislodged and soon I was leaking water onto the floor. All the contents of my bag were soaked. Lovely.
Then we headed out to Boston Pizza as Mason requested pizza for dinner and I had my discount card for a free meal (cheap date!). As soon as we got seated I realized that the card was in my other purse, in the car. Had a nice meal and then Mason spontaneously started crying loud. This is very unusual for him as he's not a crier. He was full blown bawling. So I went over to comfort him and asked him frantically what was wrong? Did you hurt yourself???? As I pulled him into a hug, I determined the issue. He peed and his pull up leaked. This was the 3rd time this happened with his pull ups which are usually great. His diaper wasn't overflowing so I'm wondering why the sprung leak. His bottom of his jeans were wet. So off to the washroom we went to clean up as best we could. Then I had to run out to the car to get the card, left Mason with the waitresses. He ran around, fell...crying ensued (I'm sure the restaurant patrons are loving us by now). When I returned inside Mason was holding a gummy worm. The waitress offered him a treat and said he had to wait pending my approval. I had to explain he couldn't have it as it contained gelatin. Mason didn't seem mad when I ate his worm, he had a cookie instead. I took myself, wet purse, wet bum child back to the car and headed home.
What a full day!