We survived Day 1 of a film crew taking over our home and our lives.  It was exactly as exhausting as I expected it to be, only more so.  I tried not to let myself get overly anxious about the whole thing, but the stress of this December filled with finals-then-scholarship-deadlines-then-Christmas-then-filming finally erupted in the form on a cold sore smack dab on my lip yesterday morning.  The universe really hates me, I swear.  I haven’t had one of those in years but that little dormant Herpes virus decided to pop up on my face just hours before the cameras started rolling.  “Hello Gina?  Yes, it’s Universe calling – just wanted to say good luck with your national television appearance and fuckyouverymuch.”

I sit here nearly seeing double vision after having been awake since 5:45 am, on my feet the entire day, and feeling watched every moment for 11 straight hours.  However, my brilliant readers left me a slew of thoughtful, intelligent comments on this post today, and because I will not have the mental capacity to respond to them all in the next few days, I wanted to issue a blanket Thank You.

And because I know everyone is curious, here is how Day 1 of filming went…

5:45 Wake up

6:45 crew starts arriving

7:30 I’m filmed getting kids out of bed

8:00 John is filmed making breakfast

8:45 I’m filmed getting kids dressed

9:30 Crew films boys playing with their new castle/dollhouse thing

(here’s where time starts to bleed together)

10:15 Boys are filmed playing in my room with my shoes

11:00 Crew films boys playing with kitchen and tool bench

12:00 Lunch

1:00 John is filmed washing the cloth diapers

1:30 I’m filmed blogging/talking about my blog with John

2:00 I put Julesy down for a nap

2:15 John, Jonas and I start making cupcakes

4:00 John is filmed starting dinner

4:30 I’m filmed getting Julesy up from his nap

4:45 The whole family is filmed eating dinner

5:45-ish The crew leaves

And all the while there are pickup shots and retakes and sound bites and dead batteries and loose cables and tired babies, and a whole host of other exhausting little details.  I have to say though, my children did a really incredible, absolutely unbelievable job at handling all this.  Actually the crew simply could not believe their eyes, and kept making comments about how the boys (Jonas, especially) were born stars – a real natural on the camera.  Jonas has always been unusually comfortable with adults that come into the house. He sees them all as his very best friends and playmates.  When the crew needed to retake an entrance into a room, or shoot from another angle, they would direct him like a little actor, and you really just would not believe how good he was at it.  They said they’ve never filmed a child for one of these shows who was so comfortable working with the camera.  I’ve never had the acting bug and never dreamed my children would either, but after today I can foresee at least some school plays in Jonas’s future.  It was quite adorable, and it made me proud how confident he was.  That must mean I’m doing something right with him.

Here are some pictures from throughout the day, in chronological order.

The Crew Filming Outside the Boys’ Room

The Producer Playing Catch with the Boys

Crew Filming Daddy Playing with Boys and Their Kitchen

The Sound Guy Reading to Jonas During a Break

Tune in tomorrow night for the update on Day 2 of filming (providing that I do not lapse into a fatigue-induced coma before I have a chance to write down all the highlights.)