Rehearsals for “All Shook Up" have begun! Last Sunday Sarah and I were at her school for three hours. The first hour was a talk by the director about all of the various nuts and bolts of the show and program ads (required for participation), and rehearsals. The next two hours were a read-through of the whole thing complete with clips of the musical numbers from the broadway show. In hindsight, Sarah and I probably didn’t need to be there for the whole read-through. It did give me a sense of the show as a whole, but I’m not sure how much Sarah absorbed of that. And it was a lot of sitting still and sitting quietly. Since Sarah doesn’t have any lines aside from singing in some of the songs, there wasn’t anything for her to actually do that day. She made it through remarkably well. There were only two times of screaming prone on the floor, and Sarah waited patiently for me to be done each time. . .
Of course it was actually her on the floor, but those moments didn’t actually last long even if they felt like it to me. Within about five minutes she regrouped and was ready to go on. Luckily those moments, while possibly heard by the director and other students, weren’t seen. It was a good learning experience for me to realize that she can totally hit her limit and it doesn’t mean we have to abandon ship. It means she needs five minutes. That is what I have explained to others but can sometimes forget myself.
I had told the director ahead of time that at the beginning of rehearsals sometimes Sarah can have times of overwhelm and big feelings including screaming because everything is new, but to not make assumptions based on those first times about how the whole thing will go. Similarly, when all of the cast members went around giving introductions, I spoke for Sarah because she was feeling a bit overwhelmed. I shared that she had been in Peter Pan, Jr, and High School Musical, Jr. and to please not worry based on the first day about how the whole thing would go. The first day can feel like a lot.
Oh, and when Sarah was sitting on my lap at one point and reached to put down her binder, we both tipped over onto the floor. This was in full view of everyone. That was a stellar moment and I wanted to be swallowed up by the floor. Instead, we righted ourselves and I just closed my eyes and rested my head on Sarah’s back.
The next two rehearsals were weekday evenings so Sarah and I took naps as soon as she got home from school, had an early dinner, and went to her school. Those rehearsals went much more smoothly because they were learning the songs and some of the scene blocking. Sarah told me she didn’t want me sitting next to her on the bench so I sat to the side of the room. While we need to practice word clarity (and that may come in time anyway), I could hear her singing on pitch. For the times when she is supposed to get up or sit down, she did so. I was so impressed watching her be mostly quiet or participating and attentive for the better part of two and a half hours. There were a couple of moments the first night when she wanted to be done, but those upsets were smaller and we made it through.
Sarah had a mix of school days that were great and others that were challenging. Apparently she has a harder day when her lead teacher isn’t there, which is the same as it was at her previous school. On one of her hard days, she had to eat lunch in her resource room instead of the cafeteria because she didn’t stop putting a pencil up her nose. Oh dear. But that is also sort of hilarious. On one of her great days, she worked at the school coffee shop and made sure tumblers were full of ice for making smoothies.
While there may be times where Sarah seems on the younger side of things and sticks a pencil up her nose, she has also been seeming more grown up, which is fitting for one about to turn seventeen. She clearly, calmly, and politely told me she doesn’t like it when I tell her to get more soap for handwashing and she doesn’t like it when I nudge her (verbally) about getting ready in the morning. She also wanted to start using her alarm to get up in the morning. That is all exciting and wonderful. And it is tricky to figure out how to step back from my nudges but still have her get ready in time without getting distracted. Our first morning of trying to do things differently was a disaster and I was more tense than ever and so was she. Carl pointed out that this is a normal phase when you are trying something new. Anyway, the second day went more smoothly. I still needed to be in her room talking to her to get her to get out of bed. When her alarm went off she didn’t get out of bed to turn it off. She just called for me repeatedly to tell me that her morning sound was going off. I did set a timer on my phone during breakfast so I could just point to that instead of telling her how much time was left. That did seem to work.
Amy’s MAPS tests went well enough and she enjoyed extra playdates since we didn’t have swimming (because of Sarah’s rehearsal) and her art class hasn’t started yet. For one playdate she and her friend sat on large bouncy balls that were wrapped in blankets that then tied over their own legs and they race bounced around our downstairs on their giant bouncy butts. Amy also dressed as a Victorian vampire as a test run for a possible Halloween costume. She feels like she is late in deciding what to be for Halloween!
Carl and I had rather stressful weeks, but we made it through, and had a night out last night with his family while Sarah and Amy were at Anna’s for Sarah’s birthday bash sleepover. This morning we will go out for a breakfast date.
My week felt ridiculous in terms of car stuff. I took my car to the dealer for a two hour software update on Monday and sat there working on my laptop while it happened. Except that after three hours it wasn’t done. So they gave me a loaner car and sent me on my way. The update would apparently take six hours, but then there was a glitch and they had to contact the company. So I didn’t know when I would get my car back. For most people with a loaner car this wouldn’t be a big deal, but my car had an appointment Friday to get snow tires at a different location! Luckily I was able to get my car Thursday night on the way to rehearsal. Friday I took it in for snow tires… and it turns out we didn’t get the right size shipped from Tirerack, despite Carl talking extensively to the tire people to make sure we got the right thing. So now I need to make another tire appointment.
Yesterday Carl played guitar and sang the windshield wiper song with Sarah. It is a song they made up because of her love of windshield wipers. When we dropped the girls off for the sleepover, Anna had streamers with pictures of windshield wipers, red Xs, green arrows, stop signs, and zzz trip - all things she loves about her bus rides.
Anyway, I hope your weeks and windshield wipers are going well.
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