Trying Out

I have a pretty bad headache.  It's what tends to happen when Devin sleeps poorly and I'm up six or seven times during the night nursing him.  I'm not sure if it's because my blood sugar gets too low or because of the tension of hoping that this next time will lead to some restful sleep, but not really believing it will.

I'm not too surprised that Devin didn't sleep well last night.  He and I were gone from the house most of the day yesterday.  We went to church, Mary's bridal shower, and took Liam to audition for "The Best Christmas Pageant Ever."  Devin was very calm and cooperative with all this activity, but he doesn't really relax and nurse well in the midst of action.  I figured he would actually be hungry during the night.  And of course when the baby nurses he very shortly needs to poop.

The audition went well.  It turns out that one of the people directing it is a lady who's day job is working in the children's section of the library.  That helped put Liam at ease from the beginning.  Then he and I went up and explored the stage a little while others had a chance to look over the script.  He was trying out for a "baby angel" part.  I'm pretty sure it has no lines, but they asked the kids trying out for it to say a nursery rhyme.  I guess to get an idea of how they do on stage.  There were six of them, but only two boys. 

After the first little girl finished her song - complete with motions - everyone clapped.  So of course they clapped for every child after that.  When it was Liam's turn he was asked if he had a nursery rhyme to share.  He said "No, but I have something else."  He sang the "R-E-D Red, I Can Spell Red" song from kindergarten.  Not super loud but he was very composed and of course super cute.  He still doesn't really understand the audition process.  Afterward he said, "So they let me be in the play."  By which I think he meant that they let him audition.  I explained that they still haven't decided who will be in the actual play.

I hope that I'm not just setting him up for disappointment.  We've talked about the idea that he might not get into the play and we might just go and watch it instead.  So far he seems to be OK with this.  I'm feeling pretty keyed up today while waiting to find out, but I haven't mentioned it to Liam.  They have another round of auditions today with possible call-backs tomorrow.  I'm not sure what to expect.  On one hand, who could resist Liam?  On the other hand, it might make sense to use kids who have older siblings who are also going to be in the play - to make logistics easier.  But they might want more boys to balance things out.  But there might be more boys who audition tonight.  I could drive myself crazy like this. 

I like to think that I'm not just having him do this because I love plays and always wished I could have done more drama growing up.  When I saw that they were doing this particular play, though I was very excited because I knew it had lots of parts for kids.  I asked Liam if he knew what a play is and he explained that it's when you tell a story by acting it out - something like that.  I asked him if he would want to be in a play - with an audience with lots of people he didn't know in it.  He said yes, as long as there were some people in the audience who he did know.  After we talked for a while about the audition process he said, "I'm going to dream about this play."  So I think maybe he really does want to do it.  Anyways, whenever they acted out a story in preschool he was always in the thick of the action and he's always Mr. Melodrama around here.  And in case you're wondering why overtired me is even considering adding another activity to the schedule it's because of the conversation Liam and I have every day when I pick him up from kindergarten:

Liam:  Where are we going now?
Me:  Home.
Liam:  Home!?! Nooooo!  Why are we going home?
Me:  Because that's where we live.
Liam:  I don't want to go home.  I want to go to someone's house!

I do not feel capable of providing this child with the level of companionship he craves.  So maybe this will be a chance to make a few new friends.  We'll see.