Cinderella

 

Last night was Anna and Chloe’s latest production – Rogers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella.  It was their best production ever!  They’ve really gathered a lot of little local talent.  They were thrilled this time to have a real live boy, not just a bribed brother .   Chloe directed and Anna music directed.  They both did a lot and really got great performances from their cute cast.  Anna has a knack for making things fun and truly loves the kids she worked with.  It was kind of sad to have her not be in, cause she’s such a great performer, but it was getting too hard to be in it and run things behind the scenes.  She did a great job!

It was also fun because Abby landed the title role.   The step sisters were hilarious, they were played by Abby’s friend, Paige, and her little sister, Claire.  It was so smart to cast actual sisters because they didn’t hold back one little bit in being mean to each other.  They were so, so funny.  Emily, Abby’s other best friend played the step-mother and was so funny.  I got a little teary watching Abby with her best friends having so much fun and being so good at it. 

It’s hard to be captivating when you don’t have the funny lines, but Abby was absolutely captivating.  She has the cutest, sparkliest stage presence and such a great voice.   What a great night!

Anna and Chloe opening the show

 

The fairy godmother and her helpers

Paige, Emily and Abby

The official cast picture

Happy Birthday, Nate!

Our oldest son, just turned 9!  Wow, how time flies, but in a weird way I always think Nate is older than he is.  He sort of hasn’t acted like a little boy for a long time now, I can barely remember him like this:

or even this:

We had a fun day with Nate for the big day.  We got up early before Brennan had to go to work and opened presents.  He had only asked for basketball stuff, I found him some nice basketball shoes, but I had fun finding some things to remind him he’s still a boy.  He was excited with all he got, and I love that he’ll voluntarily hug and kiss his Dad and me.   He spent the early part of the day playing with Kade, his best friend. 

Then at 4 we had his party with lots of his friends.   All he wanted to do was play basketball with his friends.  That made it super easy for me, I reserved the church gym and put Brennan in charge.  They played an actual game for a little bit and then had some shooting contests and a dunking contest on a little hoop we brought.  While Brennan kept them busy I went for pizza and when they were done we went outside for pizza, cake and ice cream and presents.  It was about as painless as can be! 

I was so relieved to find a cute idea for a cake and that it turned out pretty well:

Then we topped everything off with a cousin sleepover.  Can’t beat that!  What a fun day of celebrating a fun boy. 

We’re so grateful Nate was born into our family.  He has such a great sense of humor and no one can help laugh when they hear Nate burst out laughing.  He is a great thinker, he isn’t always very talkative, but you can count on the fact that he’s always watching and thinking.  He often surprises me when he does share his thoughts at how much he’s observed and thought about things sometimes from a long time ago.  He can be a little stubborn sometimes, and is getting really hard to argue with – he has a definite eye for inconsistencies and knows how to expose them.  He’s also very persuasive.  I sometimes wonder if he’ll be a lawyer someday.   It’s funny that in one argument I can be simultaneously frustrated by and really impressed with him.  One of my favorite things ago Nate, which I’ve talked about many times, is his compassion.  He is the first to feel so sad for Josh when he’s being sent to timeout or any kind of discipline.  He often tells me about a situation when he saw someone get hurt or embarrassed and how bad he feels for them.  What a sweet boy.  We love Nate!

Boys

For some reason the word “free” and “homeowner” attached some kind of link to some lame advertising????  Any ideas how that happened?????  Psycho!

A few months ago, my Dad forwarded a newspaper article.  I just saw the first part of it, but today I found part 2.   It’s fascinating/terrifying stuff.  It also rings very true to me.   Along with this, but quite different from this, is something I’ve noticed over the last few months.  Having Nate be getting older has been a totally different experience watching the girls do so.   Nate is VERY different from Anna and Abby.  I have a sneaking suspicion that he might be a little more restless and impulsive than maybe the average boy, but all in all he’s a pretty typical boy.   He does things I remember my brothers doing and that Brennan remembers doing as well.  I’m not going to say that some of things don’t make me a little crazy.  He tends to be destructive and speaks before he thinks.   I get frustrated and baffled often.  I hope as he matures he’ll temper those impulses and learn better judgment.   He’s worth all that because he’s also so sweet and funny and thoughtful.

That first part in the series I linked to above really struck a chord with me.  But, I’m also noticing another thing.  Adults, especially male adults feel perfectly free to treat boys very differently than I assume they would girls.   I remember hearing stories from my brothers of a man in our neighborhood at church throwing a boy across the room, a man I always knew as a mild-mannered man.  Granted, sometimes boys have a particular talent of pushing a person to his limit, but still I just don’t think that man would have done that to a girl. 

Nate and a friend of his were walking up the hill near our house.  They stopped to observe a sprinkler and bent down to play with it.  They didn’t ruin or damage it, just played with it and enjoyed changing the direction of the water.  I can understand how much most people would not want two kids messing with their sprinklers.  This homeowner, (again, I’ve always known him as a sweet shy man) saw them, approached them, grabbed their shirts and knocked their heads together while yelling at them that they were ruining his sprinklers. 

Another guy got his son’s side of a tiff with Nate and came out and swore at Nate and told him to get out of his yard. 

Now all of that is not to make any of these people sound terrible.  I understand why in every case they reacted.  The last neighbor apologized and felt really bad and we don’t hold anything against any of them.  I understand that my sweet son does/says things without thinking sometimes.  My point is that in every one of these instances, I don’t think they would have reacted like that to a girl.  I’m not suggesting that we should treat boys and girls the same, I think that article I linked to shows we shouldn’t.  I am suggesting that for some reason, probably because that’s the way it’s been for a very long time, we feel free to be mean and reactive and sometimes violent with boys.  I have no problem with a neighbor telling Nate to get away from his sprinklers, but to grab his shirt, yell at him and knock his head into his friends’ is not okay with me.  

I want to raise kind, smart, sensitive young men.  I want my boys to know that they deserve to be treated with respect and kindness and fairness.  I’m not sure they’re getting that message.