Jazz Fest 2009: Day Two

Today was a good day but a LOOONG day. For the past few weeks, Maddux has woken up around 6am and cried out for maybe one minute. Then she goes back to sleep for 2-3 hours. We don't go in and check on her. We're not sure she's awake. But she cries out. She did the same thing this morning, but being in a hotel, I didn't want her to cry at all because Eli was in the same room as her (and Lehr and I). So I went in. And she never went back to sleep. This was a problem since Jazz Fest starts at noon, so we'd be skipping naps. We ended up taking a trolley ride after breakfast, and Lehr took Maddux up to the room to take an early nap. She maybe got 30 minutes before we had to leave. Better than nothing, I guess.

We got to fest and had a really hard time finding parking. Then the lines for ticket will call were really REALLY long. Finally we made it inside and got some food for us and the kids right away. We'd planned to camp out at one stage all day which worked really well. It was a larger stage (crowd wise), but we went to the very back and alternated going for food or other entertainment. I took Eli to the Economy Hall Jazz tent for a few songs. Last year he loved dancing on the dance floor at that tent. Then I took Maddux to the kids' tent where an African drum corp and dance group performed. She loved every minute of it, dancing along a few times. At the end of the day, Maddie was so exhausted she almost fell asleep on my lap, but she would not give in to the fatigue. About a mile away from our hotel, both kids nodded off.

I had planned to go 'out' with Dave and Carolyn tonight while Lehr watched the kids, and we picked an early show. This meant Lehr was on his own for baths and bed, but he was a good daddy and even took the kids swimming first. The pool ended up being too cold to swim in, but Eli and Maddux enjoyed getting dressed in suits and dipping their toes in. Once the three adults arrived at our show, I turned to Dave and told him I wish I'd have realized how neat the venue was because the kids would have loved this show. (We were at 'The People's Jazz Festival' at an elementary school cafeteria in the Lower Ninth Ward. It was very kid friendly and Eli loves the main act performing: Michael Franti of Spearhead.) Lehr thought the same thing around that time (he went to the same concert last year), and he called us to tell us he was bringing the kids. Even though they were totally exhausted and we'd already had a really long day, this was a great decision. Eli loved it. All of it. He stayed with me and stood front-row for the whole set. He got to see Michael Franti really up close and personal. (He didn't wear shoes...even when he was outside and that was all Eli could focus on for a while.) Eli even got to stand on stage for the closing song. My only regret is I didn't have the camera. Lehr had it, but he was several rows back on Mad Dog duty. (The picture was taken by Lehr - Eli and I were even closer.) It was the most amazing experience to look down and see Eli clapping along and raising his hands during the concert. So so so cool to share this experience with my son.