Matilda Jr.

Sorry, yet again, for my radio silence. Last week was Tech Week for the district production of Matilda Jr. which Kip was a part of. It was a busy, busy week and this past weekend was packed with the show.  

Overall, Kip had a great time with his friends. This year they had the largest number of elementary students participating. Kip's class alone had 7 kids. So he had a lot of friends with him. This is just the elementary ensemble, grades 2-5!

Mandy and I help on Friday night for the opening show. I really liked being able to see how the Middle and High School students were all so sweet to the little kids. The senior who played the Trunchbull was SO nice. This was him trying to hype them up for the opening number.

When the kids weren't on stage they entertained themselves in the cafeteria. Can you tell he was thrilled I was taking photos?

While we were at the show, Dan took Ivy out on a dinner date and Walmart shopping while we were out.

On Saturday, we all watched the show from the audience for the matinee - including Ivy. Ivy is familiar with the movie and music but she was a bit bored by the play. But, she sat through it. 

The performance was great and my favorite parts, of course, were when the elementary ensemble was part of a number. They were all loud and animated. And I adored seeing Kip. We snagged a few photos during the end bows. 

Mandy and I helped again for the last show and enjoyed getting to see Kip with his friends. Kip largely ignored us but the rest of his friends seemed to like our company.  

I was really glad that Kip tried something new and stuck to a big commitment. He complained about it a lot but overall we know he had fun and enjoyed the experience. 

Purple Center and the Rise of a Prolific Artist

For Kip's entire Pre-K year, I think he brought home no more than 12 pieces of independent arts/crafts creations. At the time, he was highly adverse to free drawing. He spent most of his center time in the play kitchen or with building toys.

Ivy is 180 degrees in the other direction. She chooses nearly every day to go to "Purple Center" which is the arts and crafts table. I have no doubts that she has brought home the equivalent of an entire ream of paper in scrap masterpieces. 

At the beginning of the year she was obsessed with collecting the little sequins and hoarding some loose in her backpack to stash in her treasure jewelry box. She was also cutting up tiny scraps of paper and gluing one or two sequins. 

In the fall she got into making these signature rainbows by layering several different colors of crayon.

For every piece of paper you see in one of these photos, 10 more came home in her backpack of a similar nature. 

And of course there are the unicorns, hearts, flowers, and rainbows.

She is a cutie little creator.

 

Weekending it

Ahh, it's the return of spring and daylight lovely? So soul refreshing! We still have cold temps here but things are trending up!

This weekend did our typical chores and church but made it out to the local St. Patrick's Day parade for some Sunday afternoon entertainment. This was only our second time attending. The first time we went was the first parade post-pandemic and it was a pretty small. This time around was much more festive.

The kids got a lot of candy and swag and we ran into a couple of friends. I guess I didn't take as many photos as I thought I did but there were about two dozen firetrucks, a dozen different marching bands, and several bag pipe groups. Very solid local pride.

Mother-Son Sock Hop Dance

Hello! We're here. I'm SO behind. 

Last week was a bit nutty. Ivy was home sick a lot of the week and my work schedule got out of wack and I've had 0 time this week to catch-up. But, better late than never. Right? 

Ivy has recovered, the sun is shining, flowers are beginning to bloom and we may well just make it through winter after all! Look at that!

On Friday evening Kip and I got to attend our third Mother-Son dance together. The theme this year was sock-hop which I thought was pretty fun. 

Kip was in a bit of a mood last week, highly sensitive and while he was excited for the dance, I felt like he was starting to experience a bit of those self-conscious stirrings that are typical as a kid starts becoming more aware of peer groups and external expectations. You can't tell from the photos but it was a rocky night.

It actually broke my heart a bit to witness because I could tell he was really struggling with wanting to just go out and do his freestyle dancing but feeling unexpectedly inhibited and not knowing what to do with those feelings. I tried my best to pull him out of the funk and we went up to the DJ table to request his favorite song but he just couldn't get into the energy of the event with any kind of consistency. He would run around and have fun, dance a bit, and then something would throw him off and he'd be moody and tearful again. He kept complaining that he didn't know how to dance to the songs they were playing but the music really wasn't the problem. He just didn't know how to let himself go. Eventually they played his song Neon by One Ok Rock (I had to request the song from the DJ three times) and after that he was is typical self dancing with abandon with his friend until the lights turned on and the event ended. 

Overall, Kip and I had a good night but it was a real bittersweet milestone at the same time. Maybe it was a fleeting thing or maybe it was a little step forward in coming of age, either way, I felt a bit helpless in trying to help him cope in that moment. I was always inhibited and self-conscious and hyper aware of how I thought people were seeing me when I was a kid. I didn't feel like I could give Kip advice like "just be yourself" or "ignore them" or "who cares..." I knew I couldn't hear or accept those statements when I was a kid feeling those pangs of insecurity so I just tried to comfort him and not force it. 

I don't know if he will want to go to the dance next year. I hope he does but time will tell. For now, I'll treasure the good and uncomfortable memories we shared. 

Mother-Son Dance 2024

Mother-Son Dance 2023