Yo Gabba Gabba Live!

Yes, it's true. We've been indoctrinated into the world of live children's stage shows. Several months ago, Norm surprised Lauren (and me too) by purchasing tickets to Yo Gabba Gabba Live that went forward this past weekend in Los Angeles. If you haven't heard of Yo Gabba Gabba, then you clearly don't have a toddler (at least in the U.S.). Lauren is absolutely enchanted by the characters, who sing, dance and do wacky (but harmless) things.

Held at the Shrine Auditorium, we figured a hundred or so parents and kids would show up for the Saturday matinee show. Wrong. Try hundreds of screaming kids (from infants to age 10 or so), and even louder parents, many of whom were dressed in full costume as their favorite character from the show. I must be kidding, right? Decide for yourself:


We felt seriously incompetent as the only parents who didn't get into the act and dress like lunatics. At least there were paper eyeglasses on the chairs so we could try to gain some street cred amongst all the young'uns:



For the entire show, Lauren was happier than a pig in you-know-what. This is how she pretty much looked for 90 minutes straight:



She could have cared less that we were there, pushing her way into the aisle to dance to her heart's content and sing at the top of her little lungs:

Go ahead, take a closer look at the above pic. Who looks like they're having a better time, Lauren or her daddy? Dorky as it sounds, the extreme excitement emanated by the toddler crowd was contagious.

So what do these characters look like and what is all the fuss about? Here's a sampling of the stage show extravaganza that enchanted our little one:





Of course as the show proceeded, Lauren became more and more brave, inching her way even closer to the front of the stage (that's her back in the green shirt). It was all we could do to keep up with her.



I have to admit, the experience was pretty cool. Plus we escaped to the parking structure 2 minutes before the end of the show, so beat all of the traffic out. Score!!!