Five Day Week

Whew- It's getting hard to keep this updated for everyone back at home.  So sorry!  The boys had a full five day week of filming this week, which came after their weekend of filming on Saturday so they have only had one day off in the last nine days.  Don't get me wrong- it's been wonderful!  It just makes it hard to find the time to sit down to write.

Our week began with two days of filming in the pool at a local college.  The boys have been loving "swimming" in the pool in our apartment building so they were pretty excited to get to swim on set.  On Monday Jon was still here so we had an extra set of hands.  Jon and my mom were able to take Matthew for his 6:30am call time while I stayed home to let Caleb sleep in.  Matty woke up bright eyed and bushy-tailed and by the time my mom came back to get us for Caleb's 9:15 call time, Matthew was already filming in his swim trunks!  The water was quite cold, but my sweet little Matty never complained.  He filmed for his entire 3 hour limit, popping in and out of the pool dozens of times.  The wardrobe girls were always waiting with hot towels which made the transitions much easier!  That was one of the first times he actually worked for his full three hours (at four years old the boys are allowed to be on set for 6 hours but only in front of the cameras for 3) and he definitely got a bit tired towards the end and was ready to tag his brother in.  Caleb stepped in when Matty timed out and Caleb also filmed for nearly his entire three hour allotment.  It was more of the same- in and out and in and out of the freezing pool, but he had a smile on his face the entire time!  

Tuesday was another day in the pool but since Jon had gone home my mom and I took both boys at 6:30am.  Matthew filmed his full three hours while Caleb played Legos with the girls on the college swim team and then Caleb tagged in around lunch time.  They had a scene where he had to jump in and have his "dad" catch him in the water and Caleb was much more excited about doing that than Matthew.  I was terrified neither would do it, but sure enough Caleb jumped on cue!  After they cut that take, he got out of the water and shouted, "MOMMY I DID IT!!!!!!" and the whole cast and crew clapped and cheered for him- he was so proud of himself!  It was an incredible two days of filming and I couldn't have been more proud of the boys.  We also got to meet and spend time with an incredible actress who played the swimming teacher (I'm not going to spoil it here!).  Both Jon and I were able to sit down and chat with her at different points and it was like having a quick cup of coffee with a friend- she has a two and a half year old son so we were able to share some of the joys of parenting toddlers and it was really comforting as I've been here without any friends to visit with for nearly a month :) 

Wednesday was a full day of filming at the house.  It was a truly magical day for me as a mom.  The boys have gotten 100% comfortable being here- as was evidenced by Matthew stripping all but his undies off at 3:00pm on the dot for his usual afternoon naked time.  They both filmed their full three hours again and they both did some incredible improv work with Nick.  When we first started filming three weeks ago and he would go off the script, the boys didn't know how to respond.  I don't think they understood that it was okay to say anything but what we had practiced with the script!  But they have totally gotten the hang of it and they filmed some really great stuff on Wednesday.  They have also come to really love the actors they are working with.  They run up to them with giant bear hugs the second they see them.  Everyone comes to play with the boys during their breaks and the boys have been doing everything from drawing pictures to performing Broadway plays for them!  It's really magical to see the friendships they have formed and I can't help but marvel at their innocence.  To them these people are just people.  Friends.  And to be honest, I think they've got it right.  They are just people.  Real and wonderful people.  The boys are having the time of their little lives with them- and at the end of the day on Wednesday it occurred to me that the boys are going to have a really, really hard time saying goodbye when it is time to go home.

Thursday was the day Jon and I have been waiting for- the day we expected to come much sooner though I am thankful didn't come until now.  The boys had a long scene to film and it was a night scene, though it got bumped even later because of some delays earlier in the day.  By about 6:30pm when we still hadn't started filming yet, the boys were getting tired and started trying to keep themselves away by getting pretty riled up.  It was tough to get them to calm down as the night wore on.  They did okay filming, but they needed constant reminders to sit still and they were so focused on keeping themselves awake that they weren't at all focused on their scene so they kept missing the cues for their lines.  It was a really long scene with a lot of dialogue between the other three actors and I felt terrible that they were working so hard but as a whole the scene wasn't quite right with the boys off their game.  It was a tough spot to be in as a mother.  On one hand I had to stay calm and positive and praise the boys' efforts- it was a hard scene, it was late at night, and they really were doing the best they could at the moment.  On the other hand I wanted them to know I was disappointed- not in their acting, but just in their behavior in general.  Acting is not going to change who we are or how we raise the boys.  They are still expected to be well behaved and follow directions.  It was tough to find the line between parenting a child actor and parenting a child- if that makes sense.  But we all muddled through the night and though they will have to piece together the scene from that angle, they got the footage they needed and the boys wrapped at 10:00pm with smiles on their faces.

Today is their fifth day of filming this week and luckily our call time is right after lunch!  Then tomorrow Jon flies in and all will be right in our world again :)  Grammy is coming with him this weekend and the boys are super excited to see her.  After that, we have a week and a half left of filming and I've got to start thinking of how to prepare all of us for the end of this wonderful adventure.  It sure isn't going to be easy, so I'm going to put off any thoughts of it until next week!