The Concert

"You’ve seen her on TV; you’ve listened to her CDs and now here she is live. Laurie Berkner!"   I surprise myself with my own reaction.  My heart is pumping and my adrenaline is flowing.  What is wrong with me!  This is a children’s singer!  Oh heck, I’ll take euphoria where I can get it!  We are here!  We made it!

Laurie Berkner comes out on the stage and Naomi immediately jumps up and starts to run.  We hold onto her before she gets far.  “HI LAURIE!  Hi Laurie!”  She cries out as spontaneous and appropriate as we have ever heard from her.  She is thrilled to see Laurie Berkner!  She sings along dances in the isle, follows the motions and the directions.  She is having a blast!  She is doing great!  I remain euphoric. 

This all started about a month ago.  Naomi has very pretty long curly hair, but she always insists on wearing it tied up in braids. I encourage her to wear it down, but she never heads my advice.  “You know what Naomi?”  I say one day.  “ If you wore your hair down,  and got it cut, you’d look like Laurie Berkner.” 

“Get your hair cut! “ She responds.

Okay. We can do that. 

Go get your hair cut!

Well not today.  Maybe in a couple of weeks.

Naomi recently had her hair trimmed.  So she didn’t really need a cut.  But if she wanted the “Laurie look” we would need a cut.  Did Naomi understand what she was asking for?  I wasn’t sure.  I figured if we put some time between the decision and the actual haircut, there was less chance of misunderstanding.

Okay in Three weeks – That’s 21 sleeps, we’ll get your hair cut like Laurie Berkner.

She seems satisfied with that.  It is not until the next morning at breakfast that I realize there is a huge misunderstanding

Naomi says “21 sleeps and then get your haircut and then see Laurie Berkner.”

“No Naomi.   You’ll get your haircut and you’ll look like Laurie Berkner, but you won’t see her.”

“SEE LAURIE BERKNER!!!”

Uh-oh! We have a major misunderstanding here.   “Look-like”  in Naomi’s mind does not mean “resemble” but “see and enjoy”.    So according to her thinking we have a deal.   In 3 weeks she will get her hair cut and then we will go see Laurie Berkner.   Convincing her that we never had such a deal was not working.

I hope that by blowing it off, the idea will fade.  But she continues to remind me “20 sleeps then see Laurie Berkner”  “19 sleeps….”   “18 sleeps”  “17 sleeps”.  When we get to ‘14 sleeps,’ I’m getting nervous.   How are we going to handle this when it comes down to the wire?  So I check google “Laurie Berkner concert”  Well, it appears she is touring.  It looks like in 16 days she will be in Detroit.   That’s really close to Naomi’s 14 day deadline.   Is this fate?  Should we do it?   It mention it to my husband and he agrees that it is possible.   We wait a couple of days.  The enthusiasm  for Laurie  Berkner has not waned.   So we go ahead and buy the ticket.  It’s being held at a Jewish Synagoge.  (What a cool organization, eh?)  The personnel at Congregation are wonderful.  We buy tickets to meet Laurie and when I told them about her autism they told me she could be among the first group to meet her.  While realizing this is totally crazy and going far beyond the lengths I swore I would never go to for a child novelty concert, I’m excited.  I’m praying it all goes smoothly and fearing that something will prevent it from happening.   Someone will get sick, we’ll have car trouble, the hotel will have lost our reservation or there will be a last minute need of a family member.  But we are here!  We’re healthy; everything is fine and Naomi is having a blast!

We even got to meet Laurie Berkner!  She is as talented and charming and sweet as she comes across on her DVDs.  I totally agree with the rabbi that introduced her saying “She makes it possible for parents to enjoy children’s music!”

Thanks Laurie!  This is a memorable event for years to come.