when I grow up I want to be . . .

I've been waiting for this moment.  Several friends have been posting lately about what their 3 year olds have said they want to be when they grow up so I have been eagerly awaiting Harrison's declaration.  This weekend it finally came.  Our shy, scared-of-noises, hates singing and music child wants to be . . .  wait for it, - - (and I can honestly say that I did not see this one coming) - - a PUPPETEER!
We went to see Paperhand Puppet Intervention at the N.C. Museum of Art on Friday night and he became a different child.  All week I had been telling Harrison that we were going to see a giant puppet show with music and he wanted no part of it.  He resolutely did not want to go.  However, since we had already bought the tickets, he did not have a choice.  P.P.I. is a puppet, theater company based in N.C. and I have been wanting to go see them for a while now.  They have giant puppets (a fifty foot long dragon was his favorite) that tell a story set to music.
Words cannot explain how excited I was to watch him there.  The museum has an open-air amphitheater with plenty of grass and space to run in, but he sat, spell-bound, without so much as a peep.  I cannot emphasize how uncharacteristic this is of him.  After the show he said he wanted to walk down to the stage.  As we were walking around it, he said "I'm going to come back here tomorrow and be on the stage but first, I need to get a black shirt (all the puppeteers were dressed in all black)."  I have never seen him so excited, involved, and animated.  I asked him if he wanted to be a performer and a puppeteer and he said "YES, I'M going to be puppeteer tomorrow!!"  Even though I will probably be a little creeped out if he actually does turn out to be a puppeteer, I couldn't be more proud.  I think I was just so excited to see how his imagination had been captured and it was fun to see how seriously he was taking his newfound profession.  I told him that I wanted to come to all of his shows and he said, "no, you can't be in the show, only me."  He said that he would be "very careful with [the puppets] and carry them on stage."  I also asked if I could get in for free and he also said "no."

A puppeteer with business savvy, a dangerous combination!