Overachiever

It seems we have an overachiever in our midst.
Oh, yes, The Boy is officially in Stage Two of the McGlocklin/Bright Smart Ass Training Program. While The Girl exceeded our expectations, The Boy is a student to be reckoned with.
While letting the tryptophan sink into our blood after enjoying a deliciously sublime Thanksgiving dinner (that I didn't have to cook!) at my mom's house, The Boy was comatose intently watching Star Wars: The Clone Wars on the portable DVD player in the packed living room. Here is the conversation that was heard, gasped at, then laughed about afterward:

Beast: some Smart Ass comment intended to "test" The Boy's Smart Ass Training skills, a 'pop quiz' if you will. What it was, I really can't remember. It doesn't matter.
Me (looking at the Boy): Tell Daddy to "zip it" (after all, I am one of his Instructors in the Program).
The Boy: Bip It, Daddy!!!
Beast and the rest of the room gasp and laugh in stricken horror amazement at his skill level.
The Boy: Go Away! Out of Jacob's house! Go Away!

I have to say, while I KNOW we will regret this later, that kid was hilarious. We didn't see that coming AT ALL. This single dialogue skyrocketed him out of Stage One and straight to the middle of Stage Two of the McGlocklin/Bright Smart Ass Training Program. We really couldn't be more proud!

You may wonder where The Girl was during this exchange...she is bored with his progress as she is fully aware she has set the bar very high in this particular program. She challenges him to just try to reach it.

Giving Thanks

Today, I am thankful for:

• My family and the joy they bring me
• The good health of my children and the fact that they can crack me up every single day, thus proving that everything will be alright after all.
• That I can recognize this too shall pass, and it usually does
• My regained courage to take control of my life and truly make it something I want to keep living
• My friends and the knowledge that they certainly bring understanding, love and laughter to my life on a constant basis

Thank you!
*I know, this post is totally cliche but really, I am quite thankful for all that I have been allowed to receive in this lifetime and for everything yet to come.

Love Thursday

While scrapbooking at my grandmother's house several weekends ago, The Girl got bored and ventured outside to take some photos with my camera.

Here is what I discovered once I uploaded them.

The Girl is certainly creative. She took some great photos that day which I will share another time.

Wordless Wednesday

Okay, this is my first attempt at Wordless Wednesday. I originally discovered WW on Good Mom/Bad Mom (see Blog list) and love the idea. I know this post is supposed to be "wordless" but I didn't want everyone to think I had lost my marbles (again).

So, there you have it. Feel free to leave YOUR Wordless Wednesday in the comments.

Tomorrow: Love Thursday, originally located at Shutters Sisters, now moved to Chookooloonks blog.

Sleep is Overrated

I suppose it happens to all of us at some point.

That day where you realize you've stopped getting even 4 hours of consecutive, peaceful sleep and you feel lucky if you don't lay there for 45 minutes trying to fall asleep in the first place.

For many of us it can be attributed to something tangible: a new baby, pregnancy, a noisy neighbor, you get the idea. Then there are those of us that have this problem for a different reason.

And it seems I am not alone. I was chatting with a close friend today, let's call her CD, about this very issue. She can't sleep either. It's not just getting to sleep that is the problem, but staying asleep as well. Her girl, like The Boy, doesn't like to sleep at night. She really misses the 12 hours of sleep she used to get. After CD lays awake for hours in her own bed, then finally falls asleep, her Girl wakes up several times throughout the night. In addition to that, she is a little over halfway through her second pregnancy and is very uncomfortable to begin with.

In my case, it's The Boy. He goes down okay now, after a rough time getting him convinced...it was touch and go there for a bit, but wakes up in the middle of the night too. In addition to that, I can't fall asleep to save my life. I used to be the girl that as soon as her head hit the pillow, I was OUT. It drove the Beast crazy with jealousy. Now, forget it. I have to veg in front of the tv until I wake up slouched over on the couch in the wee hours of the morning, then carry myself to bed, only to lay there listening to the bumps in the night for a good half hour before finally waking up to the Boy deciding he isn't tired any longer.

Here's the big question. Why is it that as soon as we get in a good routine and rhythm we can all handle, the toddlers go and change it up on us? Do they conspire against us at play dates? I can see it now, them in the corner munching on cheerios talking amongst themselves in that babble we like to refer to as "not English", all the while, plotting against us with a we'll show them attitude. Hmmm.

I would love to read your answer to that question, because at this point, I got nothin'!

Kindergartners are Hilarious!

Ah...family.
You can just never get enough, right?
Right??
RIGHT??
I had the cutest little conversation with my pint sized cousins today. They are two vivacious little girls in kindergarten (hence, the title of this post--work with me here, OK? it's been a long weekend!). While eating birthday cake and ice cream at an aunt's house, I made small talk with the miniature beauties (let's call them H and J shall we?). I am SO glad I did. Here is how the conversation went.

Me: So, Girls, how is kindergarten?
J: Good. I love it.
H: Fun.
Me: Do you like your teachers?
J: Yes. She's nice.
H: No. She's mean.
Me: Ohhh. H, why is she mean?
H: Well, we have PE in the same room as lunch and we were doing PE. I like doing PE. We get to play lots of sports.
Me (encouragingly): Mmm hmmm.
H: Well...Here comes the "bad teacher" part. (yes, she actually did air quotes while rolling her bright blue eyes)

The conversation went for a little longer while I tried to sympathize without sounding condescending or like I was trying not to pee myself with laughter. They spend a good five minutes trying to teach me how to pronounce J's teacher's name, and J correcting H and me whenever we got it wrong. We never did get to the bad teacher part so I asked her.
Me: Hey, H. Why is she a bad teacher?
H: She just is. She tells us no a lot.

The whole time, J is just nodding her head like she knew this all along and agrees whole-heartedly with H.

I love having conversations with kindergartners. Everything is SO serious.

Not Funny at All

Tonight was a rough night on the home front. The Girl is a tween, have I mentioned? And life with a tween is not easy going and while I am sure that most of what I experience is not mine alone, that there are others out there experiencing the same difficulties, I can't help but be afraid of how much worse it's going to get and wonder how to reign it in.*
*Boy, that got deeper and more serious than I intended, so now I'm a touch worried that this next part will come off as insensitive instead of funny as I originally intended. Well, at that risk here's how the conversation went this evening.

The Girl and I got in a pissing match for the umpteenth time and I lost my cool, sent her to her room and told her that when she stopped crying like I'd severed an arm she is more than welcome to come back down and talk to me rationally about the situation. She did.

Me: So, why do you feel the need to talk to me like that.
The Girl: I was just trying to talk to you about my feelings.
Me: that's good, but talking to me in that tone, only makes me mad.
The Girl: I wanted to get all my feelings out, Mom. I HAVE A LOT OF FEELINGS!

Yes, I stifled the laugh that almost burst from my lips, because if you could have seen the look on her face...well, anyway. Yes, for you uber-softies, we did talk it out rationally, but the pattern is frustrating. If you don't have a tween or have never had a tween or spent a lot of time with a tween, you won't fully comprehend. I assume it's a girl thing.

God help us.

A Series of Unfortunate Events

Go figure.

No sooner do we get The Boy into a proper bedtime routine where he has succumbed to our powers of nocturnal persuasion, stays in his bed and no longer enters ours at ungodly hours of the night, than he decides to throw us for a loop. Such is life with a two and a half year old.

While waiting for him to come to his senses and fall asleep, I was killing time editing and downsizing my digital photo files. I ran across these and I snickered and quickly covered my mouth with my hand so as not to disturb the little devil angel. And,the wonderful mother that I am, I am posting them here for you to see!

Aw, what a cute little bunny!

Haha! Look, we put it on his butt. He wasn't happy loved it!

What could possibly beat this priceless image?

Oh, yes, THAT! What a sweet bunny "tail"!

I no longer ask myself why he feels the need to retaliate.

Ah, but it was worth it!

Satisfaction

SIGH Picture that as a GIANT sigh of relief, breathe in, hold it and release. Ah. Feels good doesn't it?

Do you know what else feels good?
After over two weeks of relentless resume sending and job hunting with the occasional oh-god-there-is-nothing-out-there-for-me inner tantrums, I finally got a sliver of satisfaction today. I look forward to the experience on Thursday with fingers, toes and everything in between crossed that I at least interview well. That is not my forte, and it scares the hell out of me. But, my fantastic support system has my back all the way, this I know. So, onward and upward, right? Right. Heh!

In addition to the aforementioned sliver of satisfaction, I completed the editing of an important photo session tonight. I had the distinct pleasure of shooting the Saidy family a few weeks ago. This group was fantastic. Not only were they patient with me as I ran them back and forth across the crackly fall leaves of our neighborhood park, but they entertained me as well. They were a fun loving family, and you could tell by their constant banter that they are a tight knit group. There were a few family members missing, and this shoot was for one of them in particular. They all dressed up in Seahawks gear and gave me their best smiles, stories and harassment...er...laughter, I meant laughter. Here, see for yourself:

(Polaroid effect courtesy of picnik.com)

(black and white, reduced saturation & added diffuse glow)

I hope they don't get mad that you got a sneak peek! They will get all their complete session tomorrow afternoon. I look forward to hearing what they think and shooting this family again.

Ahhh. Now onto the TTD Fall shoots that have not yet been completed. I thank my lovely models for their patience...and you...I know you want to see too.

Until then...

Open Letter of Apology

Dear Sesame Street, Big Bird, et al:

We know you are missing a vital member of your morning show. Let me apologize before I explain.

We are very, very, very, sorry.

It seems that there was a minor miscommunication among our household. When we asked to 'borrow' that cute, furry, little red monster, Elmo, so that our cute, non-furry, little dude could, um, zip him on for All Hallows Eve festivities, we had every intention of returning him in the condition he was borrowed. However, thru no fault of our own, we are unable to do so.

Please see the CSI photo below.

Maybe it was the m&m's, or the pixie sticks, or well, lack of self control, but this little monster clearly had TOO MUCH SUGAR. I looked all over for a tag that would warn us, a disclaimer of sorts, that upon eating said sugar he would run in circles until he hit the wall and well, end up like this. Alas, no such tag or disclaimer was found. How could we have known that this was his first time trick-or-treating? Hmm?

Let's face it, I would call this bad parenting. Blame Big Bird, or Grover, or - dare I say it? - one of the strange humans you have running around that place. May I suggest a background check in the future? Maybe verify some sort of parenting experience when you hire on a new human or monster.

Anywho...we'll return him, just as soon as we figure out how to scrape his furry little body off the floor and shove him in a box. Any suggestions for getting his mouth to close?

Our efforts have been unsuccessful.

So, in closing, thanks for letting us 'borrow' him. And, uh, I'm sure he'll be good as new in no time.

Sincerely,

The McGlocklin Family