A Day at the Ballet

In celebration of Purple Day, Bertrand, Daddy and I attended the University of Utah Tanner Dance Program Children's Dance Theatre production of "Through the Looking-Glass" at the Capitol Theater in downtown Salt Lake City. Bertrand proudly wore his Epilepsy Warrior t-shirt to the show and behaved like a seasoned theater-going veteran. It was our first time using Bertrand's wheelchair for a public outing of this nature.

From buying wheelchair accessible tickets, to finding wheelchair accessible parking, to getting the wheelchair in and out of the theater, to finding our seats... the entire process was tedious. Even though the theater was located less than 10 minutes from our house and we budgeted over 30minutes to get there, we should've budgeted over an hour. I sincerely hope we get better at working the system/timing/etc. because Bertrand deserves a chance to be out and enjoy things like other children. He shouldn't stay cloistered at home simply because the act of going outside is too big of a hassle.

Other than having to watch the first few dances from the lobby, we all enjoyed the performance. Bertrand was fascinated with the light changes on stage and throughout the theatre. He spent the first portion of the performance watching the Audio-Visual technician next to him work at the control board and he actually watched the dancers for the second half! Hopefully, this experience also helped Bertrand acclimate to a theatre setting for his dance recital in May. :)

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A day at the ballet could inspire just about anyone to take a second look at their health. While I am certainly eager to get back into shape this summer, Bertrand's well-being is my bigger concern. His weight has been holding steady for the past 2 weeks. That needs to change--for the sake of his bones, muscles and respiratory system. Bertrand's calories were set at 1076, but he has only been consuming between 800 and 900 without further weight-loss. We're changing his yogurt to a lower calorie version in an effort to enforce a new 814 cap. And, we will keep increasing his stander time along with other calorie burning activities, such as taking steps in his gait trainer and playing in prone position.