Break a Leg

Middle Child has been working on a play all year. Every Wednesday he had "Acting" class and he loved it. This year they did "Tales of the Arabian Nights."

This week all his hard work has finally come to fruition. For the past three nights we have been dutiful parents watching his play. They did a really good job with it and it is really cute. Baby has been for three nights and is still looking forward to the last night on Monday. We even brought one of his cousins to a second night of the play because she wanted to see it again. It's been really cute to see how excited Middle Child is about his play.

One of the fun things about this play (and other amateur plays too, I'm sure) is that things change every night. Middle Child has two small parts in the play and a couple of lines in each of those parts. He is a Messenger and there is another Messenger and they speak their lines in unison. The second night when he came on the other Messenger was missing! Afterwards we asked him what happened to the other boy and Middle Child said he had to go to the bathroom.

After the play I asked Middle Child if he ever got nervous up on stage. He said "No, I know my lines, I've practiced my part, I know when I'm supposed to come on, and I know how to act." It's cute how he is so confident. I wasn't that brave when I was 11!

Middle Child - the title alone tells you all you need to know

My Middle Child is the quintessential Middle Child. He reads this blog and absolutely loves it when I blog about him. Whenever I write something witty for an 11-year-old he gets all silly and acts witty for the next two or three days, trying to get me to write about him. It really gets annoying to always have him answer the phone this way. (Yes, click those bolded words to see how he acts on a regular basis.) He is always screaming for attention, especially in the way he acts all shy when he does get noticed. He knows people will try to draw him out, therefore paying him more attention. Whenever he gets a good grade on a test he calls me to let me know so I can laud him with praises, which I do cuz he's usually missing half the assignments leading up to the test so I don't really know if he's ready or not. And this is characteristic of Middle Children, starting and not finishing things, wreaking havoc on my high expectations of his schooling.

But being the Middle Child he has learned some skills that the others haven't. He has mastered non-agressive strategies to get what he wants. At Olaf's Christmas party he and Baby won a Nintendo DS. Now Middle Child had worked hard one summer and saved enough money to buy himself a DS, about four years ago. But this was a brand-new, shiny, red DS! After the party was over and the DS prize was secured he went to work on Baby. By the time we had gotten home he had talked Baby into believing how Wonderful! and Great! the old, scratched screen, missing hinge, DS was. Baby was all set to own the old one and let Middle Child have the new one all to himself. He is the master at negotiation.

We often wonder if he will be an attorney when he grows up. When I'm not upset, I'm not an Absolute person. I don't believe in Always and Never. But whenever I make any kind of statement he always responds with "What if. . ." Augh! It drives me crazy! I'm not caring about What If's when I tell him that no Aliens have been found in our solar system or that he has Guitar class at 6pm. After so many What if's I have to tell him "I don't entertain What If's anymore!" He stops for about a half hour and then starts up again.

Another aspect of Middle Child Syndrome is creativity. Middle Child is quite artsy and creative, by our family's standards. By anyone else's standards we would fail miserably. But this child likes acting and artsy projects. The picture at the beginning is of a spaceship he made. I found out about the project the night before it was due on accident from my best friend. Every year since her son and mine started school she would call me to ask me how we were progressing on a project for school and I would be completely clueless about any project! For this particular project he had to make something that reminded him of his State that he reported on earlier that year, which happened to be Nevada. The guidelines were 1) It had to be smaller than the child, 2) Have fun, and 3) Have fun! Those are really helpful. Don't get me started on school projects, hate 'em with a passion! If any of you know he loves Aliens so we decided to make something reminding him of the famous Area 51. Middle Child and another friend had decided recently that when they grew up they wanted to work at Area 51 so they could see all the aliens we had caught. So naturally, that was what he chose. So the night before I am at the store buying glitter glue and paper plates and bowls in order to make the spaceship. He made half that night and fininshed it in the morning in the nick of time for school. It wasn't dry, so he had to be careful. But he was so proud. And once again, a spaceship is unusual so he would be drawing attention to himself!

After this post the next few days are going to be torturous when he answers the phone.

Baby's Frog Play

Baby got to be in a play this year. It was about Aesop's fables. He loved it! I showed him some pictures we took and in a few of them he asked what he was doing. I replied I had no idea. He then told me he was probably wandering around on stage. From the way he stated this I think that was a problem for his teachers! I did notice him wandering on stage and wondered if he was supposed to and now know it had been addressed but with his 7-year-old attention span (shorter than most) he would only randomly remember it and return to his position. Made for great entertainment for his parents as they tried to figure out what he was doing on stage!

Baby is the middle frog.

Baby the Frog

I've mentioned how much Baby loves his Froggy, his twin brother. When I bought him a shirt with a frog on it he exclaimed, "Everyone at school is going to be sooo jealous of my new shirt!" He assumes everyone loves frog as much as he does. This summer I signed him & Middle Child up for an acting class this summer. In two weeks this large group of kids put together a play for their parents. Middle Child loved it last year and Baby had to do it too this year. After a couple classes I asked what part he was playing. "I'm a Frog!" I couldn't have done anything cooler for him this summer!