Checking in

A child growing up with this will never have groupies - I promise. Get him a saxophone and give the kid a chance.





The year is 2009 - Kids today have no freaking idea who this group is. Plus buying this for your child is only going to set them up for a lifetime of fear. I know (Thank you very much Dee Dee, I still can't walk into a dark room without fear of that damn Charlie McCarthy doll being there when the light comes on. )

About a month ago when we took Nate for his 9 month portraits I told the new photographer “Nate definitely is first, he needs to have a nice 9 month portrait. If it is going well I want to try to get one of both kids together. If all the stars & moons line up and we can do a clothes change and you can snap one of them together in their Halloween costumes then you will be donned The Queen of all that is Perfect” She laughed and said “I’ll get em all”. I felt a mental eye roll, yeah right.

Well she did & I did give her that must deserved title. Then a few days later while I was talking to Aunt Charlotte on the phone the photographer called the house and said the store was running a Photo Contest for Halloween and could she enter the picture of Little Bo Peep and her sheep? I agreed and then didn’t really think about it again.

Last week talking to Aunt Charlotte again she asked me if I had heard anything about the contest. I said I hadn’t but wasn’t surprised. I saw some of the other contestants when I had gone to pick up our prints. There was a Land Shark that was hilarious, a Dracula that looked like he was done up by a movie studio plus other random very cute costumes.

The part that I didn’t admit to Charlotte was yes, my feelings were hurt. I put a lot of effort into getting those outfits and getting just the right look. I thought they were completely adorable and even if Land Shark was super funny my kids should have at least been in the top 5. That really was a great photo.

I spent the week since compartmentalizing those feelings. Realizing I don’t have the fortitude to be a pageant Mom. Accepting that not everyone is going to find my children as perfect as I do. Humbly admitting there was someone else who deserved it more. I got it – Lessoned learned.

As we are sitting down to dinner tonight the phone rings – They wanted to inform us Little Bo Peep & her sheep were selected for the Grand Prize. Free portraits for Christmas! Lesson still learned – but so very happy.

For someone just now celebrating his 1st double digit birthday, this dude has put up some big numbers in the past month.

8 = Consecutive steps taken on his own. Although his preferred method from point A to B is still speed crawling.

3 = Total teeth with the addition of a new one on top.

104.9 = High temperature when he had H1N1 last week.

1,759,328 = How many Cheerios he would eat if given the opportunity.

21.5 = pounds

18 = fake sneezes every 5 minutes. Followed by 18 crack up laughing when Annabelle fake sneezes back.

Infinity = How happy this little boy makes me

Last night Tom & Annabelle picked me up from work – the following conversation took place in the van on the way home.

Annabelle – Hi Mum Mum
Me – Hi Pinkle – how was your day?
A – Good
M – What did you do today?
A – Mostly got into stuff.
M – Like what?
A – When Nana was feeding Nate I took the opportunity to open 4 lollipops.
M – Why did you open 4 lollipops?
A – To see which one was my favorite.
M – And which one was your favorite?
A – The orange one.
M – What are you going to do with the other 3 now that you have opened them?
A – Daddy can have them.
M – I don’t think Daddy wants open, licked lollipops.
A – Nate-T can have them
M – Nate is just a baby, he can’t eat a lollipop.
A – He is a goat that eats carpet and leaves – he could manage a lollipop.

At this point I’m done – how do you argue with that kind of logic? How do you debate with a 3 foot tall person that uses the words opportunity and manage correctly yet cries at getting her hair combed?