Poignant Performance

Well, (sniff) it was joyously sad watching Joby perform in his last school holiday concert in late December. We've been watching him perform every Christmas season for the past 7 years. This year he sings baritone with the a capella group, the Ipso Factos. Although primarily a capella, they enjoy rousing piano-accompanied Christmas and Hanukkah carols from time to time as well.

I am proud that he has managed to hang in there and stay with the choir even as life pulls him in so many different directions; many seniors who'd been in choir with him for years dropped out this year. There are so many enriching benefits to singing in a choir and I think he finds it a peaceful oasis in an often hectic schedule.

His school advisor for the past two years is also the high school music teacher and choir director (not to mention also the coordinator of a merit summer enrichment scholarship initiative Job's earned a spot in), and the layering of roles has been a wonderful blessing in Job's life. Mrs. Harcum truly loves music education and she loves each of her students just as they are. Needless to say, we love Mrs. Harcum.

We must have worn poor Johngideon out traipsing from one sibling performance to another that day, so this is how he spent most of Job's performance...

Josiah and Grandma Tee, however, had a different appreciation for the music.

Sing on, Joby!

Much Love. Take Care.

So Neighborly...

We are blessed to have an awesome neighbor on our block who generously makes our family the beneficiary of her culinary talents on any number of special occasions...and sometimes just because! You would declare her confectionery treats are directly from a gourmet bakery, and they don't last very long in our home! One day in December we came home to find a lovely double-stacked package at our doorstep, filled to the brim with so many different varieties of cookies (don't think chocolate chip, oatmeal raisin etc...too ordinary for this culinary artist!), I'll just let the pictures do the talking. I took a photo of the delightful packaging, but we were so busy admiring and demolishing after that, I didn't remember to capture a photo until we'd done some major damage. Yummm!!!! Wish everyone could be so blessed...

Yummmmmmm!!!!!

Here's the bag of goodies we pulled aside for Johngideon to keep him away from all the delectable nut-garnished treats...needless to say he ate the whole bag himself in no time!

This is also the same neighbor who gave Josiah his first (and rather well-paying for an 11-year-old) job this past summer, taking care of her plants while she journeyed to a far off land. And then she brought back the most adorable individual souvenirs for each of the Bedfordlets and graced us with her presence one evening for dinner and shared tale after tale while we peppered her with question after question about her travels.

Thanks Kimberly! You make our block an even more welcoming place to live...we truly appreciate your thinking of our family in so many thoughtful (and edible) ways!

Take care. Much love.

Funny Glasses & a Funny Prank!

 

Gommy came home from school one day in December with the funniest glasses from the awesome and wonderful Miss Sophie, Pre-Kindergarten teacher extraordinaire! Miss Sophie has the soul of a true old-school teacher in a 30-something body...she believes in strict discipline and lots of learning routine, but is full of joyful energy for Pre-K dance time and crafts, and doles out daily treats. Most of them are sugary sweets for the little sweeties, but many of them are very creative, like these glasses. Gommy thought they were so much fun, and so did everyone else when they all got home for the day. No one could resist taking a turn, while the rest of us laughed uproariously. (Mind you, this was very much a standing still party, because the lenses on these glasses are opaque, rendering the wearer sightless...but giddy with delight at the spectacle (pun intended :o)  he or she becomes.

Gommy loves her Miss Sophie something wonderful, and so do we all. So even when she and the Mommy have our conversations about the value -- or lack thereof -- of homework for the pre-K child (I'm of the possibly misguided but very heartfelt opinion that there is plenty of time for homework during her next 13 years of schooling), I always walk away with a smile on my face knowing that Gommy is in great hands for this very special and wonder-filled year of her educational life.

Thanks Miss Sophie!

On another day in late December, I wandered to the front of the house and found Gommy keeping watch by the downstairs bathroom door, looking a bit uncharacteristically guilty. It wasn't too long before I saw the door knob wiggling and then Craig pulling the curtain aside from the inside of the bathroom, trying to figure out why he couldn't get out!

The back story here is that Craig installed this very nice french door for us just before we moved into our house. However, the door remained unpainted for another year or so, and finally sometime early this past fall, Craig took the door off the hinges, painted it (yeah!!) and put it back up. Satisfied that he had checked another item off his "honey-do" list, he went on with his day. A few hours later we realized he had put the doorknob back on the door in reverse, so instead of the locking mechanism being inside the bathroom, its on the outside of the door instead...not much fun for a Mommy trying to escape a four-year-old for a little piece of quiet sometimes! Craig has been fixing it "soon" for a good three months now.

Back to the day in late December when Gommy must have really been feeling her silly Wheaties, and decided to lock the bathroom door while Craig was inside...and then she waited outside the door to really experience the full effect of her prank! I think she must have lost part of her nerve while waiting, because there was no delighted anticipatory bouncing going on while she waited, but it sure was delightfully funny to me! And to Craig too! It took him a minute to figure out what had happened, and somehow I think his "fixing it soon" might really now be sooner rather than later.

Thanks Gommy!

Can't tell...is this a look of triumph on her face?  

By the way, gotta love the "yellow sparkly princess dress" she had to have for Christmas...and the pink Princess Tiana socks I had to have for her!

Much Love. Take Care.

MLK Day...and Maia's Misfortune (maybe?)

Despite my intentions the day after MLK Day every year to plan wonderful activities for the next year to make sure the kids appreciate the legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr and how his life's passion has affected theirs, I have yet to make really good on the action. Today, Josiah and I watched a documentary on his life (from the 1970's!) that impressed Josiah on how much Dr. King was a regular man (yes, with family and fun times and flaws and all)...I think knowing he is more man than legend has blessed Josiah. I talked a bit about what Dr. King stood for with Montgomery, but she was a little confused with the idea -- or maybe it was the way I presented it -- and she wondered aloud "I thought Jesus and God were the best?" I tried to clarify. Hopefully I got the general idea across.

Job and Maia were both out for the day with various necessary activities (more on that below). Johngideon watched bits of the movie with Josiah and I, but it was a little intense (and boringly age-inappropriate) and so, unable to find anything better to show him from home, I made do with Mommy commentary too. Once again, hopefully I got the general point across. Next year, we do better!

What impresses me most about the life of Dr. King is that he got up every morning in the midst of such turmoil and concentrated negativity (dare I say evil?) and pressed on. Its that daily pressing on that resulted in a legacy of such intentional purpose and progress. Our generation has quite the luxury comparatively speaking. Surely we can get up every morning and press on.

One thing I've learned on my journey is that a misfortune is often a prelude to an opportunity.

Over the holiday season, Maia is truly performance central. For the first time, however, due to school performance conflicts, she had to miss her tradition of performing in The City Nutcracker...this would have been her first year with Montgomery  :-( ...which was rather disappointing to us all. She was scheduled though to perform in something like 17 or so shows of The Nutcracker with the Baltimore School for the Arts, but landed funny on pointe in a rehearsal the day before the first show, and ended up nursing a hurt foot for the entire Nutcracker season. This is what that first weekend looked like for her...a couch instead of a stage.

Assuming it was simply a pulled tendon, she avoided the point performances, but still had a great time doing many flat-footed Baltimore Symphony Orchestra (BSO) Holiday Spectacular performances over the next two weeks. She was great! From our nose-bleed seating, I couldn't get photos of her in the aisles in the outrageously awesome Vegas showgirl costume, but I delighted in my photos (flashless, of course!) of her as a tap-dancing Santa one Sunday afternoon...

She also played the "big-headed" Santa in that show as well (yes, that's actually what the cast affectionately calls that role!)...

 ...she is such a wonderful performer and entertainer!

 So gifted...

...and such a joy to watch!

Craig, Johngideon and I darted out of that show early to make it to Job's school for his holiday a capella group concert (photos coming soon) and then I made a mad dash back to a different theatre to catch the tail end of Gommy's last City Nutcracker peppermint performance! Whew!! And that was just ONE day of the logistical whirl...what a ride...but what wonderful experiences for all our performers. We are blessed. On the way out of the BSO, I snagged a photo of the lobby screen showing Maia's final role of the day, a toy soldier...

...and Johngideon hopped in the Santa chair for a super quick holiday photo...I think he was starting to drag a bit by then.

Craig decided to join him for a shot.

And then, today, after a few weeks of a foot that just wouldn't bounce back to normal, and after an orthopedic visit and MRI appointment last week, Maia came home this evening after an orthopedic follow-up, looking like this...

Turns out she's got a broken bone in her foot, one that apparently only dancers on pointe manage to break. The call from the orthopedist last Friday said it was a fracture, but a good look at the MRI films today showed the bone was actually broken, and he's put Maia in crutches and an immobilizing boot for two weeks, to be followed by six weeks of just the boot after that! Poor Maia. So much for the dance performance in Los Angeles at the end of this month! She'll still go (the tickets are paid for after all!) but it'll be for the experience of being surrounded by that wonderful IABD dance community, not to take any classes or perform. She'd hoped to just make it through the main performance, but the doctor says this bone is a tough one to heal, and if it doesn't heal on its own she'll require surgery. I think she'll have to be good and wear that boot!



Waiting and watching for the opportunity just around the corner from this apparent misfortune...will testify on the praise report as soon as we know it!

Take care. Much love.

Gommy's Tutu Debut

 

Montgomery was in The City Nutcracker for the first time this year.

She was a "little peppermint candy" in the Land of the Sweets,

and boy was she excited.

I have so many wonderful behind the scenes photos,

but this will have to do for now...nite nite.

Much Love. Take Care.

2011!!

Happy New Year! So grateful and blessed to see 2011 roll in! 2010 was an interesting year, fraught with challenges yet rich with blessings. I imagine that is the whole of life, joyfully experiencing the wonder and delight of the journey while participating in the learning and growth that comes from navigating the potholes and rough places along the road.

I was determined that no matter how busy our lives became, I would not let a month pass between updates...so, I'm skating in just under that wire, but with a hearty new self-challenge: daily blogging! Think I can pull it off? Not so sure myself, but want to give it the old college try. Life seems so fast-paced these days, I want to be sure to take a daily pause to marinate in the wonder of it.

So, that's my 2011 fun challenge for myself...lets cyber-toast to new beginnings!

Mid- to late-December for our family was saturated with holiday performances. But, while logistically challenging, they were delightfully heart-warming, poignant, entertaining, sweet, and rather soul-feeding. All of the Bedford children did their things and I did the Mommy thing and captured it all on film (well, on nano-technology :-)

Moskie performed with his trusty trombone in several holiday concerts. From my "arriving-not-so-early" vantage point at his school's auditorium, it was hard to get a performance photo I could really see him well in,

 ...so I settled for some behind-the-scenes shots to capture the moments...

...until his band went to perform at our city's school headquarters -- a smaller setting that provided a great opportunity to capture him and the brass in action!

Wow, a bit of a solo too!

You did great, Moskie!

And here's Josiah with the best band teacher ever! We feel so fortunate to have Mrs. Schmitt at OUR neighborhood school. She goes the extra mile and then a few more for these musically interested kids. We think she's awesome!

And of course, after performances, there must be grub! This sweets reception might just be Josiah's favorite part of the whole performance idea...so many sweets, so little time....

...better take up residency at the sweets snack table with a best bud, Emmett...

...but gotta take a grub break to horse around...

...then back to the snack table!

 (The subject in the mural behind Josiah is rather interesting;

 they must have the same barber!)

;-)

I think Johngideon was in sweets satisfaction too!

More on performance central tomorrow...so many starlets to choose from...wonder who'll show up next?

Take care. Much Love.