Rehearsal on Tuesday was simultaneously not great and really wonderful. How can something be both? Well, at first glance, it did not go well because Sarah was wearing her new windshield wiper shirt to which I had attached letters spelling out “windshield wipers.” She was so distracted by her love of the shirt and the letters that she did not seem to be taking in any of what the director was saying. When she did sing along a tiny bit, it was when the tenors or altos were singing, though she has been cast as a soprano. She was concerned that the letters on her shirt were coming off or she wanted to take them off. I was stressed. I knew she only needed to be there for half of the rehearsal because she was only in the first song, but we didn’t even make it through that portion of things. Sarah was tired and kept coming over to me or I would go to her if she spoke. We went into the hall twice. I wanted her to recoup and finish out the last ten or twenty minutes. She was not recouping. At one point in the hall she started to go fully prone in protest. I quickly told her she didn’t need to do that and we could go. She got up. I collected our things and we left. I was not very relaxed and she could tell. She was apologizing to me. I was apologizing to her. We made it to the car and then I realized. . . she had actually handled that whole thing incredibly well. For a night when she was distracted and not on her game, she kept her requests to leave quiet, she easily went into the hall with me twice. She didn’t actually scream on the floor. She didn’t disrupt the rehearsal. So really, it all went so well for not going well. Fingers crossed that today goes more smoothly. We did learn things for future rehearsals. Sarah needs a longer nap time, meaning I can’t have other things I am trying to do because she naps best and longest if I am next to her. She needs a shirt that isn’t distracting. Hydration may help.
For her birthday Sarah received a large lollipop and Friday night she delighted in licking it while singing the lollipop song. Meanwhile, Amy is being consumed by The Hunger Games, which she has been listening to as an audio book. Both girls are slightly consumed by their new phones. We got them phones because Amy’s iPod was on its last legs and I was increasingly wishing I had a way of communicating with her outside of school hours when she might be waiting for me to pick her up or waiting for the bus in the morning. Also, a few weeks ago there was an incident in Pittsburgh where a girl with special needs was dropped off for school but the school wasn’t in session that day. The girl was missing for many hours. I realized how terrifying it would be if something similar happened with Sarah, because her school isn’t easily near places where she could go for help. I wanted to have a way to track her and to call her or for her to call me in an emergency. We have Sarah’s phone programed so it won’t work for anything except to call us during school hours. So far, as soon as she walks in the door after school she takes out her phone and starts playing on it before she removes her shoes. We do limit her daily time with it so I’m ok with the magnetic pull it has as soon as she gets off the bus.
Carl and Sarah practiced “Hush Little Baby” yesterday with Carl on the guitar and Sarah on the piano. Then Amy joined them and they played and sang songs from the musical “Six,” which is Amy’s new favorite soundtrack. Not to be outdone, our cat decided to nibble on the small puppet stage that Amy built out of a box, complete with theater curtains. Those curtains are apparently mighty tasty.
I hope all of your things go well, even if they are not going well at all. May they go really well for not going well if that is the case.
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