It's Signing Time!!

The girls I homeschool have been learning sign language from the Signing Time series, originally shown on PBS. The girls bought all of the DVDs and had learned all the signs when I started working with them. It was exciting that they had been interested in it because I had taken sign language as my foreign language in college and was always looking to practice and sign with somebody, anybody. I started borrowing the dvds to refresh my skills. Cam started watching them with me and soon he was singing the theme song and has ended up loving these shows and watching them over and over and OVER again. I wake up to Brenden needing his midnight snack or a binkie replaced and these songs just continue where they left off from when I was falling asleep, "Down on Leah's farm there is one yellow chicken, one yellow, one yellow, one yellow chicken." They are very catchy and get stuck in your head which can get a bit irritating as a professional, but most of them are really quite cute.

A few weeks ago, Cam and Rhett found an ad in the paper for Signing Time LIVE! coming to SLC. Of course, we just had to go. So we got backstage passes for the four of us (Anni and Kylee from homeschool and Cam and I) and tickets to the concert. Cam and I brushed up on the signs and the music, listening to the CDs in the car and watching the shows every chance we got.

Finally, the night of the show arrived (last night)and it was a blast!

We arrived at Cottonwood High School and got out to take pictures only to realize that the camera we brought had a dead battery. So I pulled out my good ol' trusty iphone and took pictures throughout the night. Pictures from my iphone are great with good lighting, but horrible for an indoor event, which you will see. Sorry!


As we got inside the school, I noticed one of the girls who was in many of the dvds, multiple times. I specifically noticed her in the dvds because she was a little girl in a wheelchair with the most adorable smile and it reminded me of when I taught in Cali and those sweet, wonderful children I used to spend my days with. I almost cry every time we watch the dvds and it shows her struggling to sign with a huge, bright smile on her face. So as we walked in the door, there she was eating some dinner with a helper or her grandma or someone. I said, "Hey, you're one of the girls from the video. How cool! You are such a good signer!" (or something like that). She smiled and I shook her hand and then we headed to the back for the backstage extravaganza...

They gave us each backstage pass necklaces and literally took us back on the stage. There was a red carpet leading to a Signing Time backdrop and Alex, Leah and Rachel were there waiting to shake our hands and get their picture taken with us. The girls had been practicing fingerspelling their names, so one of those pictures is Anni signing her name. Rachel asked Cam his name and he said, "C-A-M." She thought that was cute and she picked him up and held him for the picture.



We took our seats and got ready for the show. They handed out birthday hats to everyone because it was Hopkin's surprise birthday party. Hopkins is the little frog who plays with Alex and Leah on the show. We were sitting pretty close to the front.



Rachel came out and started the show. They sang the theme song and a few other songs from the series. They also sang songs from their new volumes that they were selling at the show.


They showed Hopkins doing random things around town with the "Hopkin's Cam" because he wasn't there yet. They played Pin the Tail on the Tadpole (Hopkins as a baby) and Who's Got the Frog. Alex and Leah came in the audience and passed out frogs to everybody - all thousand of us. Rachel kept inviting people on the stage and Cam was freaking out wanting to go on the stage. He kept calling out to Rachel to get her attention so that he could come on stage. He almost had a tantrum because I wouldn't let him on the stage. But here he is trying to get Alex to see that he has a frog so they would invite him on stage (the lady behind him must be totally bummed that she didn't get a frog).

Hopkins finally came to the party and we all yelled surprise. Then, whoever had a birthday in October got to stand up while she sang some happy birthday song and Hopkins came around the audience hugging birthday people. He didn't make it to us but Cam was just eating it all up.


They had kids from all over SLC perform on stage and the kids were so adorable.

The last song that Rachel sang was about a caterpillar. She explained that she had written this song for her youngest daughter, Lucy. Lucy is confined to a wheelchair and she has had so many struggles, she told us. The song was about a little caterpillar who turns into a beautiful butterfly and is finally able to fly away. The dancers under the sheet on the stage were all kids with muscular disabilities (cerebral palsy, muscular dystrophy and other disabilities) and they were dancing with helpers as the butterflies in the song. Most of them couldn't walk and could barely move, their arms and legs so stiff and bent. Her daughter, Lucy, was the main butterfly and spoke the words at the end of the song. You couldn't tell exactly what she was saying, but if you knew the song, you knew the part and could pick out bits and pieces of it. Needless to say, I was bawling, realizing that this little girl I had noticed in all the dvds and talked to before the show was her daughter, Lucy. All of these children, frozen with their disabilities as "caterpillars" were all "free" at the end of the song and flew away as beautiful butterflies.


I’m a little CATERPILLAR tiny and green
Crawlin’ around head full of dreams
Inch by inch takes all day
I’m dreamin’ of wings and flyin’ away


Just a little CATERPILLAR down on the ground
I climb a tree hang upside down
I don’t know why I build a cocoon
Not sure why I do what I do

But if I were a BUTTERFLY
I could leave the ground behind
Would things look different way up high?
I wish I were a BUTTERFLY

I’m just a little CATERPILLAR fast asleep
Eyes closed tight lost in a dream
In my dream I break free
Stretch out my legs and check out my wings

I feel just like a BUTTERFLY
Watch me leave the ground behind
Things look different way up high
I feel just like a BUTTERFLY

"Look at me I’m flying!
I’m really flying!
Somebody pinch me!"

Later, I saw Lucy rolling around in her wheelchair and stopped her and asked for a picture. What a sweet, shining girl.


After the show, they set up the red carpet again and anyone who had bought any new merchandise could have it signed by Rachel, Alex and Leah. So we waited in line and took pictures with them again.


Cam and Alex got a picture to show off their twin hair.

Cam just couldn't get enough of Hopkins, so we took multiple pictures.
Then, he kept calling to Rachel and Leah, as if they were going home with us and they were his personal friends.
We did finally go home, but only after Cam fell from running around like a madman and bonked his head. It was the transition we needed, though, cause I didn't think we'd ever get out of there.

Happy Birthday, Hopkins!

PS Later that night, we were making plans to go see some friends from Park City the next day and Cam insisted that we tell Rachel all about it, so she could meet us there and play, too.