march 2016

In March I teched, opened, and closed a dance thesis show at the University of Maryland. I was originally just supposed to work on one of the two projects that were performing together, but when the SM for the other piece dropped out, I took over for her. It was a crazy endeavor and one that reminded me, and my production manager, why we have 2 SMs on the thesis projects! One of the pieces used a huge bunch of red helium balloons, weighted just enough that they would float down the ground slowly. It was tricky to get it right each time (and one night we didn't have enough balloons left, which was big drama!), but the effect was beautiful. Jed and Scott came to visit me during tech that day, and Jed had lots of fun running around with the balloons on the set. He also learned how to take an entrance from a cue light, and would wait backstage with the cue light on (standby) and run onstage proudly when I flipped the light off (go). He thought this was absolutely fantastic and wanted to do it over and over and over again. He had made me a picture with a ton of Easter stickers, and I hung it in front of my station at the tech table so that everyone could enjoy it.

Jed and I spent a pretty fun day at the zoo with a couple friends who had come to live in DC for a few months. We went through the panda house and got to see Mei Xiang (mom) and Bei Bei (baby boy) playing together. Jed and I rode the carousel together and he loved it.

In mid-March, Jed's preschool had a Fun Fair - their biggest fundraising event of the year. It is open to the community and brings in a good chunk of change. There is food for sale, games, crafts, lots of silent auction items, and several raffles. Downstairs in the hallway was an area with lots of dinosaur-themed activities. The classes had worked together to build "Boxasaurus," which was proudly displayed for everyone to see. Jed's favourite part of the fair was building with toothpicks and mini marshmallows.

Also in mid-March, Scott and Jed and I went to Imagination Stage to see a new spin on Jack and the Beanstalk. Jed always loves shows at IS. We watched a video ahead of time, that showed that the giant's head was just a puppet and an actor made it move and talk. Jed was still scared during the show - he said, "Mama, that giant is really just an actor and a puppet. But he is LOUD." The other part that made him super anxious was when everyone onstage was having an argument, so they were all yelling at each other. Overall, he enjoyed the show though!

One of my favourite things about DC is the cherry blossoms in the spring. This year we went with my friend Marianne and the babies that she nannies. Jed complained the whole way there (and even more on the way back), but he thought the blossoms were beautiful while we were there and had lots of fun running around. We went around to the Jefferson Memorial, and spent some time running around in the grass behind it. Jed found a small grove of trees that he enjoyed playing in as well. The cherry blossoms don't get any less beautiful year by year!

One random day in March, Scott decided to take a bunch of cardboard boxes that had been sitting around and put them to good use. So he built ROBOX and left him in the living room for Jed to find the next morning:

The note with Robox mentioned using his boxes to build something new, so Jed took him up on the challenge. Inspired by Boxasaurus from his preschool, Jed built something reminiscent of a stegasaurus, out of Robox's boxes. The plates made out of pipe cleaners was my idea, but the rest of it was pretty much him. He was so proud of himself:

He even made sure to include a tail with spikes, and a nest of eggs for the stegasaurus to take care of.

We enjoyed the warm days by visiting some of our favourite outdoor spots, like Watkins Regional Park, which has an amazing playground and Old Maryland Farm. There is a nature center, carousel, and miniature train too, but we usually fill the time with the playground and the animals at the farm.

Adelphi Mill, where we like to gather large sticks and throw them off the bridge. This started out as Poohsticks, where you throw sticks off of the bridge upstream and then watch on the downstream side to see which one "won." It quickly turned into a game where Jed ran off to just gather as many huge branches/logs as he could get and make a big pile, which he then threw over into the river later.

Wheaton Regional Park, which has both a carousel and a miniature train. The St. Clairs had stayed with us the night before, so they came with us, and we met Amy Ferguson there. We started off with lunch at the picnic tables, and sadly Jed fell off the bench and ended up with a big purple ear:

When he first fell, he was whining a lot and I wasn't sure why. But when I saw his ear, I suddenly understood what the fuss was about. He did recover though, and we went on both the carousel and the miniature train, which all the boys loved. Jed also worked hard on going across the rope bridge, which he was very proud of himself for!

We decorated a lot of eggs this Easter season, just because we had so much fun doing it. We tried several different methods - various types of resistance dying (crayon, rubber bands, hot glue, stickers), paint, crayons on hot eggs (so the crayon wax would melt), opalescent dye (store-bought), bleeding tissue paper, and combinations of the above! Jed's favourite thing in his Easter basket was some "premium" raspberry jam, which is now his favourite kind of jam. At church the kids were supposed to sing "Beautiful Savior" in front of the whole congregation, and while Jed had practiced and knew all the words (even to the verse the choir was singing), when the time came he froze and refused to go up there. The kids sang without him, and after they finished tears began streaming down his face while he said, "But Mama, I REALLY wanted to sing! I wanted to, I just...I just...but I wish I got to sing!" It was the saddest thing. He spent the next week singing "Beautiful Savior" over and over to himself, as if he was making up for missing his chance or proving to himself that he could do it. We spent Easter afternoon with our friends the Prues, at University Duck Pond Park. Everyone had fun walking around the pond and feeding the ducks.