OK, so there were only 11 days officially but that’s just a technicality. I think if you do two Blocking rehearsals for two separate casts on the same night it ought to count as two days. And so….

Days 1&2

The first night was, as mentioned, two B&T. We were given the basement dressing room which at first made me think we might have ticked someone off. You see, there is a, well, um, it’s hard to explain, at least without laughing. Basically, it seems that it was once actually a bathroom. There are a shower, a sink, &, drumroll please, a urinal in the room. There is even a hookup where a toilet must have once been. Yep, but now it’s carpeted so it’s not a bathroom. Unless you are under the age of nine…

Anyway…The other drawback is that you can’t hear the calls downstairs. That turned out to be a benefit the first night. After DB3 was done with his only rehearsal I took him home and E’s mom stayed. From the sound of it, they got to eat because no one upstairs realized they couldn’t hear the call so they didn’t come to get them until later.

Day 3

Ah, the whole thing about came apart. Well, for DB3 at any rate. All was well and good at dress rehearsal until the new props came out. They were large wooden cock horses, too big for him, thus, there was none for him. That went over like a brick. I finally convinced him to go back on stage just as they were finishing the scene. (My ankle is fine now, btw, my knees however…)

One of the other moms said they’d talk to the ballet mistress about it and see if they couldn’t find him another horse. Remind me, next time, to make sure I follow through on what someone else tells me they are going to do. (See Day 5)

Day 4

Not a whole lot for me to do. It was Cast B so I dropped DB1 off. I don’t remember much after that.

Day 5

Girl Scout show and Opening Night.

Fortunately, DB3 was in Cast A which meant he only did the GS show. For some reason this was a huge relief to me. I had visions of him doing a face plant during the cross over at the opening show. Weird, but you know…

So, as alluded to on Day 3, there was no horse at this show either and we essentially ended up having a near repeat of dress rehearsal. I was able to get him back on stage sooner than the last second but it was still an issue. The ballet mistress said she’d see if she could find one between shows, which I thought was pretty nice considering there really isn’t a lot of time between shows. I couldn’t go because…

That night was DB2’s recital and I had to start getting him ready to be on time for his call as soon as I got home from the GS show. After I dropped him off I drove DB1 over to his friend’s apt so they could take him to his show. We got ridiculously lost ‘cuz I’d never gone to their place from that direction. After a pleasant and informational drive through half of Pomona, I dropped DB1 off and then drove to the church where DB2’s recital was. I got to watch him and then I left. I, yet again, got my times all mixed up. See, the day show is at 2 and the night show is at 7:30. Every year I get it messed up. I find myself thinking I have more time in the afternoon (2:30) and less time in the evening (7). Some day I’ll have it click in my head.

I took DB3 along with me ‘cuz he didn’t want to sit at the recital any longer (when I post the video you’ll hear him in the background through most of DB2’s dance saying, “When are we leaving?”). Fortunately by the time we got there (45 min early) he was asleep so I sat in the car and waited. It started raining, which was pleasant (we don’t get much weather in SoCal so any change is pleasant).

When DB1 was done, we drove out to Toys R Us ourselves just in case no horse had been found. They had a ton of cock horses, though none at the$1.99 the clerk had quoted over the phone. I told her that sounded way too cheap. I think she thought I meant that as a compliment to their pricing. I bought two, then, since DB1 had some money burning a hole in his pocket, he bought a toy. This meant that I had to buy DB3 a toy. He picked out a toy trash truck. It is pretty cool. We went over to In N Out for a late supper for DB1 and we wadded up little bits of paper to dump into the trash truck from the can that came with it.

Day 6

Yes, it’s only Day 6 now.

DB3’s first performance with his horse (which, btw, they did find one so we just played with ours…of course, DB3 still thinks that we left the horse in the dressing room and the stage hands came and took it up to the stage each show…whatever keeps a 3yo happy, that’s my motto). Unfortunately, there was still one little glitch…he couldn’t chase all over the stage like the big boys. He was supposed to stay with his “dad.” It worked only slightly better.

Week between

Between trying to save my old blog entries and trying to finish our Christmas letter and trying to keep the house clean and trying to educate everyone…yeah, I stupidly decided we’d do some school this month…I didn’t get much done. I ended up mailing only half of our letters. The other half are still sitting on my desk. I have no idea when I’ll mail them ‘cuz I still have to wrap presents, celebrate DB3’s birthday tomorrow, and “do” the Christmas thing on Tuesday. Next year we are going to wait until Orthodox Christmas to celebrate.

Day 7

Nutty night. I dropped DB1 off for dress rehearsal, came home, got the kids ready to go to our friends’ house, drove back, picked up DB1 for dinner, went to dinner, took DB1 back & touched up his make-up while DBD went and bought our tickets for Nutty. Left, took the little kids to our friends’ house to get baby sat…DB4 just loved that (not)…came back, watched the show. Hilarious. Nothing funnier than watching my son try to “hip-hop” except watching ballerina’s play ice hockey…hey, you had to be there.

Days 8&9

DB3 was only in the night show. DB1 went with his friend up to see the meteor shower from the high desert. Which led to our very scary situation the following morning. DB1 was to be home by 10am. 10 came and went, as did 10:30. We started calling his phone, no answer. 11, 11:30. I was already sick (before this with a cold or flu or something, can’t remember) and I was trying to remain calm. I called the school to see if maybe they had called there to say they were going to be late for the show but they hadn’t. Called DB1’s phone again. Finally, at 12, he called. At that point I decided I had too much information about my kids floating around on this blog & decided to definitely keep the password for archives and to password all future posts with pics. I also removed all my links because a lot of them were to places we go regularly.

But, we got to the show on time, barely, and he’s fine now. Although he was a little upset about how much I cried over him later. Upset, good, not bad, “Aw, mom you’re embarrassing me.”

Week between

About the middle of this week I started to realize that ballet is just like church in that 90% of the people do 10% of the work, etc. Or, in the case of boys, the percentage is higher. Two parents who won’t chaperon at all, one that will only do it one night, one that will do it when asked, one that kind of has to be there each time her kid is there ‘cuz he’s only three so at least that cast is covered. That leaves an entire cast, namely five shows, without a chaperon. Yeah, I get how they become bitter. Of course, in hindsight it’s kind of funny. I only put my name down for four times chaperoning. I knew I’d actually be there more than twice as many times, but I didn’t want to take up all the spots ‘cuz I, well, I, apparently stupidly, thought other people would like to help with their kids. Hey, you gotta find your humor where you can.

Day 10

Second Nutty. Gosh I wish I could have gone to this one. I was signed up to chaperon but I wasn’t feeling too great and chaperoning Nutty is several hours so I sent DBD. I wish I could have seen DB1 in his lederhosen. He said that it was kind of tight so they won’t be having him wear it next year I suppose. I know the photographer was taking pics but I’m not sure if they are to sell to us or just for promo purposes.

Day 11

Almost Fritz. That’s what DB1 was at the 2pm show. One boy had called in sick and the main boy who plays Fritz hadn’t shown up. They came and got DB1 (I didn’t know what was going on at that point) to show him what to do. He was a bit nervous but he didn’t melt down or anything (he has trouble adjusting to sudden changes in plans sometimes). I think he might have been almost looking forward to it. At the last minute they came back stage and told us the boy had arrived. Still, I told DB1 that it meant a lot just to be asked. That meant that they had the confidence that he could do it. I don’t know if that means much to him but it does to me. I was also proud at how he handled the situation. No talking back to his teachers, no whining, no arguing about it. And, overall, through the whole three weeks, I really feel that he has matured a bit. By the end of the three weeks (not counting all the previous two months of rehearsals) he was doing better everywhere, even at home.

So, we had two shows. DB1 & 3 in am. By now DB3 was really starting to relax. He was having fun while he was waiting to go on stage, dancing with me. He loves to dance with me. He tries to pretend he is the Nutcracker & I am Clara when we are at home and he tries to pick me up just like in the ballet. It’s too sweet.

DB1 and his friend, E, are no longer trying to kill each other every second. They are on pretty good terms again. Of course, I’ve been trying to keep DB1 fed well and rested too, so he won’t have as many meltdowns.

After the evening show DB1 & I decided to join all the other nutcases at the mall. Amazingly, we got a space right next to our intended store, B&N (of course). We shopped for a bit and it wasn’t too bad. I don’t know what the rest of the mall was like ‘cuz I didn’t really need anything. We thought we’d stop by the Starbucks they have in the store to see if they had any gift cards for someone who did a lot of work for us this month. We don’t drink Starbucks any more, we got on to Coffee Bean, etc., and can’t go back to that bitter stuff at SB. But, they do have waaaaaaay better food at Starbucks. DB1 picked out a cinnamon roll. I got a double chocolate fudge cupcake for DBD & a Godiva Chocolate Cheesecake for me. I can’t resist any chocolate with the name “Godiva” on it.

Day 12

Last day. Forgot our bag of little gifts we had for the other boys. Oh, well, next year. No, I’ll eat the candy before next year, but next year I’ll remember to take the bags we make.

Things went well. DBD’s parents came to see the show & DBD was going too, so I didn’t really have anyone to watch DB4. We had one of the other moms chaperon so I could watch the first act. I have actually NEVER watched DB3 on stage in a performance. I was back stage for all of Sleeping Beauty and had been back stage for all of Nutcracker except Nutty which he wasn’t in. It was nice to be able to see him. He did really well. I was worried at the beginning ‘cuz I thought he might convince someone he didn’t want to go on stage. He always does that. He screams, “NO, I DON’T WANT TO GO!!!!” Then, when we get there and he gets on stage, he loves it and does great. Oy, kids! But he came out for the cross over and did great the rest of the time. When I came to get him during intermission he reprimanded me. “Mommy, you were supposed to be with me.” But he lived. It’s good we did it this way, now I can see him in Cinderella in the spring. They are going to have two shows this year. This way I can see him in one of the shows if he is in both casts (which is always my assumption with the boys).

All in all we loved it (again) and are sorry that it’s over. DB1 would live on stage and DB3 really did enjoy it.

I think for me it was, as it would be for any mother, an honor that DB3 was asked to be in the show in the first place. Then, that DB1 was asked to fill in for “Fritz.” It’s always good to have other people’s input on your kids. As mom’s we tend to get focused on trying to make sure our kids turn out ok. It’s easy to get caught up in everything they are doing wrong and all their faults and foibles. Having a teacher or other adult come along and tell you that they think your kids are doing great is really a great encouragement. I know that with DB1 & 3 a lot of people think they are too wild (ie, they don’t know the meaning of “seen and not heard”). I wish those people could see my boys on stage. How many 3yo, hyper-active kids could stand completely still for nearly a minute and follow the directions he had to in order to not get hurt or hurt anyone else (there are a lot of people on stage during the party scene)? They may both be a bit wild and cantankerous, but I think they will be just fine. The world would be a boring place if everyone was like DB2 who just wants to sit around and play video games all day.

Well, have a Merry Christmas all and a Happy DB3 Birthday tomorrow.

I just read the sweetest Nutcracker story here.  I will debate with myself whether to share this with DB1 now or after he is done with his final show on Sunday.  If I share it with him now will he think, “Oh, gosh, what pressure there is on me to perform and make people’s experience all it should be,” or will he be like a normal boy and just look at me like, “What the heck are you crying about woman?”

I have finally finished “rescuing” from my old blog the entries I deemed worth saving. I dumped almost all of the memes and a lot of the political stuff. I also dumped pretty much all the entries that only had links to other sites since I really don’t have time to go through them all to see what’s still “live.”

As for this blog, I am going to make the archives permanently password protected. All future posts with pictures will also require a password to view. I will send out the password to folks who’ve commented here and the few I know who read but do not comment. If you are not one of those and would like the password, please leave me a message and I will send you the password…if I deem you worthy.