After breakfast the boys had their first improv class. They have done private coaching with a wonderful acting coach via Skype prior to landing the role they filmed in New York, but they have never taken an actual acting class with other kids. The class is for five to eight year olds but the teacher said they were close enough to five. At first I agreed. The boys gave up their gymnastics class and dance class and we haven't been able to inspire them to pick up any other interest for a few months now- but they loved acting day in and day out in New York and they were starting to learn a bit about improv from Mr. Nick, so we figured it was worth a shot. This morning though, I totally panicked. I was terrified that they were too young, to inexperienced, to goofy and silly and I feared that we were setting them up for failure. I've come to understand that the toughest thing about raising a gifted child is that the gifted child is not one age. They are many ages and they are many ages all at once. At barely 3 years old, their verbal abilities tested off the charts of the IQ test- surpassing that of a 7 year old but that is as high as the test went. At 4, their speech tested at the proficiency of an 8 year old. Intellectually, the boys often feel much, much older. Like yesterday, for example, when they were so fascinated with the ruins of Pompeii. They can converse like tiny little adults and often leave a path of jaws dropped on the floor when they get going on any certain topic of interest. Emotionally, the boys can be 60 or 3. They have the empathy of an adult who has seen more than his fair share of injustices but tell a joke about farts and they'll fall out of their chairs laughing. Physically, they often seem to be twice their actual age- they started riding a two week bike the week they turned three years old and even before that they were cruising LA's skate parks amongst professional skaters whose heads turned on a swivel when the boys rode by. But maturity wise- our boys are nothing more than four year old boys. They can't sit still for more than 6.2 seconds at a time, they listen when they want to, and they have a strong-willed wild and silly side that can feel impossible to reign in and discipline at times. My point is that it is hard to know what is appropriate for them. In fact, Jon and I have no idea lately. We struggle daily with how to integrate their many ages and levels into one, with knowing how to deal with all of them at once or at least which to prioritize in different situations. Lately I've also struggled a lot with other people's perceptions of the boys. If someone sees them acting overly intellectual in one situation and then sees them act like four year old boys in another, will they come to expect to much of them? Jon and I have learned so much about giftedness yet we still struggle with understanding how and why the boys behave the way they do... I often fear that others will misunderstand them, or us as parents, when really all four of us are just trying to do the very best we can do with what we have. Anyways, with all of this swirling in my head just prior to taking the boys to class, I had to try my best to hide my fears because as Jon reminds me- the boys are only four years old. We put them in situations that we hope will help them learn and grow, and even if they fail we have to be here to help them learn from it. Luckily- I think the class was somewhat of a success. The boys both stayed for the entire hour and afterwards Matthew declared that we had to move to California so he could go to improv class every single day! We only had a quick second to check in with the teacher in hopes of getting a thumbs up or a thumbs down- I did ask if they did well enough to return next week or if they were too much of a disruption. He said they were very young but that they did fine and were welcome to come back next week. I still can't help but feel like he was just being nice- but nevertheless, we were proud of the boys for making it through.
After class we grabbed quite a delicious lunch at the California Chicken Café and then drove down to Westwood for an ice cream cookie sandwich at Diddy Riese. I told my friend Steph that I would attempt to eat an entire cookie sandwich with the second half being for her, but I seriously couldn't make it through! Of course the boys split one and each polished off their half without batting an eye! We made another trip to Holmby Park to play for a bit on the way home. The house across the street is still for sale. Sadly I still haven't thought of a way to buy it. Any suggestions, donations, or offers would be greatly appreciated!!! We came home and made dinner here in the apartment, then we spent the evening at Barnes and Noble reading and playing with the train table. It felt like a little bit of home which was really nice for all of us.
The boys' improv class was down near Hollywood and since we arrived early we had a few minutes to stop by Grauman's Chinese Theater :)
I can count the number of movies the boys have seen on one hand. Imagine their surprise when they found the handprints of their favorite actress (who starred in two of the four movies they have ever seen!)- Julie Andrews
Found Mickey's star. The boys decided their want one of their own. Matthew said "We will do one movie a year until we are grown ups and then we will have a star!"
Diddy Riese!!!!
This is Matthew's "Are you seriously going to waste time taking a picture right now?" face :)
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