A Perfect Evening

Last night our family enjoyed what comes about as close as you can get to a perfect evening. We had a modest meal of curried chicken and potatoes, which we enjoyed while watching a couple of episodes of Season 3 of the Muppet Show. Stellan was sweet and cute for pretty much the entire evening, loving playing on the couch (meaning on top of mommy and daddy, who were on the couch) and likes the Muppets, too. He enjoys clapping with the audience, he sends out a fake laugh with the laugh track upon occasion and he definitely likes the songs. He sways back and forth and jumps in rhythm. This lasted over an hour, which was so perfect. It was one of those times when we could all just appreciate being together as a family, the kind of moment you have to capture in your memory for instant recall in times of sleepless sick nights, tantrums in the grocery store and exploding diapers.
Adding to the perfection was the Friday night vibe, the finally-clean living room (full house tour coming soon!), some Mug cream soda and microwave popcorn, which Stellan also enjoyed. Also, we saw one of my most favorite episodes of the Muppet Show ever, the one where Harry Belafonte guest stars. Classic! It has my most favorite Muppet scene of all time (embedded below), and when Kevin saw it, he said, "Now I see why you like African and South American percussion instruments so much!" And it's tough to know if I like those instruments because of seeing that sketch as a kid, or if I'm naturally drawn to those sounds and that's why I love the sketch so much.
Anyway, Stellan was tired early and went to bed without complaint, giving Kevin and I some two-of-us time that we definitely appreciated. So from dinner to family togetherness to Muppets to adult conversation, it was perfect.