Big Time Rush Crush!

Back when I was young if my mom would've come to me and said, "We're going to the mall so you can meet Andy Gibb," I would've freaked out. I loved Andy and his Shadow Dancing/I Just Want to be Your Everything music. But that never happened. As I got older, my crushes turned to Duran Duran, Def Leppard, and of course Bon Jovi. Unfortunately, none of these artists made it to my hometown for autographs signings.

So when I heard that the Nickelodeon band Big Time Rush (my daughters love them) was going to be at the Arundel Mills, right up the freeway, I had to take them. You had to buy their cd to get a wristband, which allowed you to go up to a table where they sat and they would sign your cd. By the time we got to the mall the line was hundreds of people long. We waited about two hours to meet them, but we had fun meeting people in line around us and discussing which member of the band was everyone's favorites. Selena likes Kendall. Sophia likes Carlos. Personally I thought James was adorable. The girls in front of us had a whole scrapbook they had made of the band. One father said his 4-year-old boy used to ask to watch SpongeBob and now asks for Big Time Rush. Standing next to people for two hours, you really get to know them.

When Selena saw them she said, "Mom, feel my heart. It's beating so fast!" She was so excited. These boys had been signing autographs for at least three hours by the time we got up to them and they were all so nice, smiling and making all the kids feel special. They made it a point to compliment each child. Sophia and Selena both were thrilled that the boys made comments about their clothes, "I love your bow." "I love your shirt." They hi-fived them and fist bumped them and signed their cd's. Chris was videotaping the whole event and Carlos was super friendly and waved at the camera while talking to Selena and Sophia. They were walking on cloud 9 after they met them. Sophia did make one observation that made me laugh. She said, "Mom, they look old. They had whiskers!" On their tv show they act so young and silly, I think she was expecting young teenage boys.

Selena had a different take on their facial hair. She said, "I wanted to ask him for a whisker tickle!"

On the way home we of course had to put their cd in and listen to the girls sing all their songs.

I assumed Chris knew who they were, but as we were in line he kept saying, "Who are these guys?" He was wondering if it was worth spending all that time waiting to meet them. So after we got home, he went to the DVR and watched a little bit of their show so he knew who his daughters were gaga about.

So even though I never was able to meet any of my childhood crushes, I'm glad I was able to make it happen for my girls. And yes, it was worth the wait in line seeing the smiles on their faces.