Behind the Curtain

The Wizard of Oz knew what was up.  He had this whole land of everything beautiful and shiny, with all of these happy little people singing-it looked like a good setup albeit there was a witch hanging around making things messy here and there.  Now it’s only at the end that we see “The Great and Powerful Oz” for what he was, this bumbling, fumbling, frazzled guy behind the curtain trying to keep up the charade that he had all of his shit under control, a.k.a. he was just the parent of Oz.  Things behind the curtain didn’t look as pretty and his tough guy act melted away pretty quickly but it was real, man.  I had nine glorious days off from work for February break full of family visits, and friends, and plenty of behind the curtain moments. 

My cousin and his family rolled into town the first weekend for their yearly visit; I think we are on year five now.  We packed in a lot of fun stuff, which was well received by all of the kids, which, trust me, is a huge deal.  There was swimming, slides, sledding, and horses and a ton of smiles.  It was easy to revel in how much fun they were having and smile along with them.  Don’t be fooled by this rosy picture I’ve painted for you, friends.  Behind the curtain there were plenty of meltdowns, bickering, empty mom-threats, tears, time-outs, and words spoken through gritted parent-teeth.  The good far outweighed the bad and it was another visit that makes you look forward to the next one.

We tried to lay low for the few days we had in between the visit and the trip we had planned to go out to Boston to see our friends.  Of course plans being what they are, I ended up cleaning the whole house, top to bottom-floor trim and all, with the exception of our bedroom, which is like a vortex of disorder in an otherwise pretty orderly place. This was all in preparation for an interview with the local newspaper about Jack’s Herd and Jack’s story.  I was equal parts nervous and excited but I felt like the house looked good and we even managed to make it outside to enjoy the gorgeous, freak weather we got in February in the northeast.  Kindergarten paperwork showed up for Kennedy and I died a little.  As I snapped a picture of it to send to Sean, when I went back to look at it and saw her playing in the background, drawing on the driveway in chalk it was clear I am the only one that isn’t ready for this- my little one is not so little anymore.  The interview went great, until the photographer that came along wanted a picture that required us to be at the computer in our room and just like that, the curtain was pulled back and the chaos was exposed.  We were able to laugh it off, but my God that was mortifying.

Friday we made our way to our favorite city to see one of our favorite families.  We’ve always loved spending time with Jen and Andrew but now their little guy Oliver is just icing on the cake.  You could just mush him for days- those cheeks were made for kisses.  Every time Kennedy would groan, “He is adawww-wable,” we would laugh but whole-heartedly agree.  We again soaked up the still amazingly warm weather going to the parks sans coats-willing Mother Nature to give us more. We went to Disney on Ice’s “Dare to Dream” with the little lady, and since we’ve seen about 5 of these shows and consider ourselves connoisseurs of character themed ice-capades, I feel confident in telling you this was a good one.  As we made our way to our seats somehow was managed to sit in the right row but the wrong end.  We didn’t realize it until 15 minutes in.  We were right at the end of the “stage” and so every time the performers came in or out we could see them behind the curtain, quite literally.  So my kid would excitedly scream the characters name before they even came out for everyone else to see.  As I looked around I realized we were the only people that were that far over that didn’t work at the arena and so we check the seats against the tickets and made our way to our much better, closer to center-stage seats.  The excitement on her face literally made my eyes fill with tears (and this made me feel like my mother-in-law) and I’m pretty sure Sean’s eyes filled with tears as he repeatedly shelled out money for a light-up wand, cotton candy and the ridiculous Dory hat that came with it and everything else Kennedy “needed”-but when she genuinely thanked him and kissed his cheek I knew she could have gotten way more out of the guy.  It was a great weekend but behind the curtain there was four-year-old sassiness that was awfully embarrassing at times, a painful moment where a well-meaning stranger inquired about my kids and how many I had, and how old they were where I had to figure out how I could avoid the awkwardness and tears and yet still do right by Jack, and running through the park as the warm sky finally gave way to rain that Kennedy yelled at and blamed Sean for.

It’s messy behind the curtain, people.  The curtain comes in all different shapes: a smile, perfect Instagram photos that leave out the tears and refused “cheeses”, the clean house but terribly messy bedroom.  It’s ok to keep the curtain pulled but just don’t forget that after the wizard was exposed for what he was: an overwhelmed, exhausted guy just trying to keep the show going- he was able to slow down and breathe and actually get the job done. 

We’ve got a lot going on behind the curtain over here these days but that’s for another time.