Saturday, October 6, 2007
Picture People
I realize by now that we are gluttons for punishment but there are certain things that just need to be done. Pictures, for example, need to be done. I want to have special memories of the kids throughout their childhood so I can look back in twenty years (once the crazy, day to day memories have long been forgotten) and remember how cute/sweet/loving they were.
I decided that it was time to get their pictures taken. I'd been wanting to do this since their 2nd and 3rd birthdays but we were going so crazy with the move that it wasn't possible then. I'm smart enough to realize that this is a task that definitely requires a minimum of two adults. (Granted, two adults per child would not be overdoing it.) We headed out to the mall today to accomplish this daunting task. Last year we had their pictures done and the boys actually did very well. The pictures, in my opinion, we absolutely adorable too! I got them dressed in their coordinating outfits. A bit of a hassle with Jameson but he eventually agreed. (OK, maybe I bribed him.) They were quite excited to go to the mall and get them done. It looked promising. Uh huh....shouldn't get my hopes up.
We went to Picture People and realized that there was a family session in there just getting started. The woman said she would be able to take us in an hour. OK, not so bad. We had a few things we could pick up at the mall in the meantime. We went strolling through the mall (literally, we actually remembered to bring the stroller. The boys actually wanted to ride in it at first since they hadn't seen it in so long.) and immediately heard, "I need to poo". Lovely. Then Stellan piped up, "I wanna see alligator (translation: elevator)". Well, we were able to kill two birds with one stone; the washroom (I refuse to call it a bathroom or a restroom just to fit in with Americans) was located on the second floor and we needed to take the elevator. Two happy kids, things were good!
We did the rest of our shopping and the boys were quite well behaved. There was one saleslady who was wonderful and entertained the boys while James and I did a bit of browsing. What a huge help!
We headed back to the picture place to wait our turn. And wait, and wait.... We let the boys get out of their stroller and play on the mall rides. I promised them each a ride if they did well during the photo shoot. They played nicely, climbing on all of the equipment. We headed back into the studio for our turn. They both gladly stood on the backdrop while the woman got her camera ready. Apparently, according to their attention challeneged minds, she was taking too long so they decided to run back and forth from the front doors of the store to the picture area. Lovely. I picked Jameson up, trying to calmly explain that we needed them on the backdrop in order to take pictures. He was screaming, crying and flailing at this point. What a lovely picture that would have made. I upped the ante (2 rides) if he agreed to get his pictures taken. She got some shots done and then Jameson lost it. He started crying and burying his head in my lap. We still don't know what caused that but we think the camera lady might have come up behind him and startled him. I eventually calmed him down, we switched the backdrop and we were good to go for a few more shots. We decided to go with a fall them and had silk leaves on the ground. The kids thought they were great and tried kicking them all over the place. Uh, not exactly what she had in mind. She asked if I minded if she got a ball to add to the photo. Uh, are you joking?!?! Jameson would be thrilled! Sure enough, the giant football was just what the doctor ordered. Jameson was quite pleased and we were able to get some solo shots of him. We called it good enough and waited for the pictures to come up on the screen. You've gotta love digital cameras! James took the kids for the promised rides while I waited for the pictures. They were quite busy in there so I had to wait for quite some time. James ran out of money for the rides so they all ended up back in the store. I let them play with the props but I was always worried they'd play with the flashes and cameras. Thankfully no major incidents and we were able to see the pictures. Lots of shots but only a few nice ones. There was a really cute one of Stellan on a white background. Then we realized there were none of Jameson with the white background (that was during the unexplained cryfest). I really wanted some of him with the white so they would coordinate when I hang them. She willingly took a few more shots (heck, what can she do, that's what she's paid for!) of just Jameson. I tried to get some of both of them on these adorable ride on toys but they were more interested in riding away.
It was too much work to sit there and try to pick out our favourite shots so we decided to pick them out at home and order them that way. Gotta love online shopping!
We made it home with our sanity in tact and some potentially nice shots to choose from. I declare this expedition a success!
I decided that it was time to get their pictures taken. I'd been wanting to do this since their 2nd and 3rd birthdays but we were going so crazy with the move that it wasn't possible then. I'm smart enough to realize that this is a task that definitely requires a minimum of two adults. (Granted, two adults per child would not be overdoing it.) We headed out to the mall today to accomplish this daunting task. Last year we had their pictures done and the boys actually did very well. The pictures, in my opinion, we absolutely adorable too! I got them dressed in their coordinating outfits. A bit of a hassle with Jameson but he eventually agreed. (OK, maybe I bribed him.) They were quite excited to go to the mall and get them done. It looked promising. Uh huh....shouldn't get my hopes up.
We went to Picture People and realized that there was a family session in there just getting started. The woman said she would be able to take us in an hour. OK, not so bad. We had a few things we could pick up at the mall in the meantime. We went strolling through the mall (literally, we actually remembered to bring the stroller. The boys actually wanted to ride in it at first since they hadn't seen it in so long.) and immediately heard, "I need to poo". Lovely. Then Stellan piped up, "I wanna see alligator (translation: elevator)". Well, we were able to kill two birds with one stone; the washroom (I refuse to call it a bathroom or a restroom just to fit in with Americans) was located on the second floor and we needed to take the elevator. Two happy kids, things were good!
We did the rest of our shopping and the boys were quite well behaved. There was one saleslady who was wonderful and entertained the boys while James and I did a bit of browsing. What a huge help!
We headed back to the picture place to wait our turn. And wait, and wait.... We let the boys get out of their stroller and play on the mall rides. I promised them each a ride if they did well during the photo shoot. They played nicely, climbing on all of the equipment. We headed back into the studio for our turn. They both gladly stood on the backdrop while the woman got her camera ready. Apparently, according to their attention challeneged minds, she was taking too long so they decided to run back and forth from the front doors of the store to the picture area. Lovely. I picked Jameson up, trying to calmly explain that we needed them on the backdrop in order to take pictures. He was screaming, crying and flailing at this point. What a lovely picture that would have made. I upped the ante (2 rides) if he agreed to get his pictures taken. She got some shots done and then Jameson lost it. He started crying and burying his head in my lap. We still don't know what caused that but we think the camera lady might have come up behind him and startled him. I eventually calmed him down, we switched the backdrop and we were good to go for a few more shots. We decided to go with a fall them and had silk leaves on the ground. The kids thought they were great and tried kicking them all over the place. Uh, not exactly what she had in mind. She asked if I minded if she got a ball to add to the photo. Uh, are you joking?!?! Jameson would be thrilled! Sure enough, the giant football was just what the doctor ordered. Jameson was quite pleased and we were able to get some solo shots of him. We called it good enough and waited for the pictures to come up on the screen. You've gotta love digital cameras! James took the kids for the promised rides while I waited for the pictures. They were quite busy in there so I had to wait for quite some time. James ran out of money for the rides so they all ended up back in the store. I let them play with the props but I was always worried they'd play with the flashes and cameras. Thankfully no major incidents and we were able to see the pictures. Lots of shots but only a few nice ones. There was a really cute one of Stellan on a white background. Then we realized there were none of Jameson with the white background (that was during the unexplained cryfest). I really wanted some of him with the white so they would coordinate when I hang them. She willingly took a few more shots (heck, what can she do, that's what she's paid for!) of just Jameson. I tried to get some of both of them on these adorable ride on toys but they were more interested in riding away.
It was too much work to sit there and try to pick out our favourite shots so we decided to pick them out at home and order them that way. Gotta love online shopping!
We made it home with our sanity in tact and some potentially nice shots to choose from. I declare this expedition a success!
Friday, October 5, 2007
Anatomy Lesson
It was quite sweet when Stellan woke up saying, "God made me". We had been practicing this Bible verse and the sign language for it at lunch time so I wasn't surprised when he said it. I was rathered surprised though when Stellan said, "There's a penis". WHAT?!?! It made me wonder what he was looking at so I went in to investigate. I picked him up and had him show me. Ah ha! He was looking at a picture on his dresser and thought he saw a penis. It was actually a black and white photo of a man's hand and grasped within it was a baby's foot. He thought the man's thumb was a penis. hehe No sweetie, that's a thumb. Secretly, I was pleased that he used the proper word even if it was for the wrong part of the anatomy.
Bless You Mommy
So cute! We put the kids to bed last night and then headed downstairs for an evening of tv. (It was Thursday, the best night on tv. Smallville and Grey's Anatomy!!!) While we were sitting and watching Smallville, I suddenly sneezed. There came a little voice from upstairs saying, "Bless you Mommy". How cute is that?! My dear Jameson had been in bed for over half an hour but still not asleep. He can be so sweet at times (case in point) but such a stinker at other times. Go figure.
Wednesday, October 3, 2007
A teenaged girl
I think Jameson has morphed into a teenaged girl right before my eyes. He used to gladly put on the clothes I chose for him and never resisted. He didn't give too much thought to what he was wearing and let me dress him in whatever I saw fit.
Well, that all changed recently. Yesterday he literally had a 15 minute tantrum because he didn't want to wear the track pants that I picked out. Granted, he wore them for a few hours the night before when we went out for icecream but they just weren't up to his standards now. He was screaming and crying that he didn't like these pants. Couldn't tell me why he didn't like them, just didn't like them. He wanted to wear shorts. But it's chilly honey. More crying, screaming, flailing. It made him even more upset when I closed the door so he didn't have an audience for his tantrum any more. More hysterics.
I finally decided that it just wasn't worth it anymore so we headed to his room to pick out a new outfit. He chose black jogging pants. (Funny how cute they are on little kids but how wretched they are on adults.) Fine. Now he needed a new shirt because the blue and yellow striped one didn't match anymore. Picked out a grey one, good.
We got downstairs, about to put his shoes on, he decided he didn't like the pants anymore. (What was that, 2 minutes?) More crying/screaming/flailing. Sheesh. I tried to distract him by telling him he could open the garage door. Fine, that worked.
We got out of the house fully dressed. Mission accomplished.
Then we got home again. We were all playing outside when Jameson announced that he had to go pee. He is fully capable of doing this on his own so he went inside, did the deed, and came back out to join me and Stellan. Problem, he was wearing different clothes. Stinker! He was now wearing a pair of light blue plaid shorts. Still wearing the grey shirt from the morning. I was fine with this since it was getting quite warm and shorts were probably more comfortable. I asked him if he would like to change into a short sleeved shirt. More crying.
"I like these shorts."
"That's fine, you can wear them. Would you like to wear a shirt with short sleeves though?"
"I WANT THESE SHORTS!!!!!" scream/cry/flail
Ah ha! He doesn't understand what I'm saying.
"Would you like to keep long sleeves on or would you like little sleeves like mommy?"
(sniff sniff) "I want little sleeves."
"OK, go and get a new shirt with little sleeves."
He came back with a shirt with long sleeves proudly proclaiming that it was the shirt he wanted to wear. I explained that he either kept the shirt he was wearing or he could wear a new one, as long as it had "little" sleeves. I redirected him upstairs with instructions to look on the right hand side of the shirt drawer, that's where the short sleeved shirts are.
Back down he came proudly carrying a cream shirt with orange raglan sleeves. Finally, a short sleeved shirt. Didn't match but I really didn't care at that point.
During nap time (after 2 bathroom trip and and hour and a half of playing in his crib) he ended up peeing in this outfit. Sheesh.
He picked out a new long sleeved shirt and said he wanted to wear shorts. I convinced him to wear ones that actually matched (important now that we were going out in public). He freaked out because he thought they had ties. I calmly explained that I cut the ties off the last time he wore them since he now has a HUGE aversion to any pants/shorts with ties. That pleased him and he proudly put on his shorts that "actually match".
For anyone counting, that would be three outfits in the laundry. I might just have to get a job to pay for laundry detergent.
Well, that all changed recently. Yesterday he literally had a 15 minute tantrum because he didn't want to wear the track pants that I picked out. Granted, he wore them for a few hours the night before when we went out for icecream but they just weren't up to his standards now. He was screaming and crying that he didn't like these pants. Couldn't tell me why he didn't like them, just didn't like them. He wanted to wear shorts. But it's chilly honey. More crying, screaming, flailing. It made him even more upset when I closed the door so he didn't have an audience for his tantrum any more. More hysterics.
I finally decided that it just wasn't worth it anymore so we headed to his room to pick out a new outfit. He chose black jogging pants. (Funny how cute they are on little kids but how wretched they are on adults.) Fine. Now he needed a new shirt because the blue and yellow striped one didn't match anymore. Picked out a grey one, good.
We got downstairs, about to put his shoes on, he decided he didn't like the pants anymore. (What was that, 2 minutes?) More crying/screaming/flailing. Sheesh. I tried to distract him by telling him he could open the garage door. Fine, that worked.
We got out of the house fully dressed. Mission accomplished.
Then we got home again. We were all playing outside when Jameson announced that he had to go pee. He is fully capable of doing this on his own so he went inside, did the deed, and came back out to join me and Stellan. Problem, he was wearing different clothes. Stinker! He was now wearing a pair of light blue plaid shorts. Still wearing the grey shirt from the morning. I was fine with this since it was getting quite warm and shorts were probably more comfortable. I asked him if he would like to change into a short sleeved shirt. More crying.
"I like these shorts."
"That's fine, you can wear them. Would you like to wear a shirt with short sleeves though?"
"I WANT THESE SHORTS!!!!!" scream/cry/flail
Ah ha! He doesn't understand what I'm saying.
"Would you like to keep long sleeves on or would you like little sleeves like mommy?"
(sniff sniff) "I want little sleeves."
"OK, go and get a new shirt with little sleeves."
He came back with a shirt with long sleeves proudly proclaiming that it was the shirt he wanted to wear. I explained that he either kept the shirt he was wearing or he could wear a new one, as long as it had "little" sleeves. I redirected him upstairs with instructions to look on the right hand side of the shirt drawer, that's where the short sleeved shirts are.
Back down he came proudly carrying a cream shirt with orange raglan sleeves. Finally, a short sleeved shirt. Didn't match but I really didn't care at that point.
During nap time (after 2 bathroom trip and and hour and a half of playing in his crib) he ended up peeing in this outfit. Sheesh.
He picked out a new long sleeved shirt and said he wanted to wear shorts. I convinced him to wear ones that actually matched (important now that we were going out in public). He freaked out because he thought they had ties. I calmly explained that I cut the ties off the last time he wore them since he now has a HUGE aversion to any pants/shorts with ties. That pleased him and he proudly put on his shorts that "actually match".
For anyone counting, that would be three outfits in the laundry. I might just have to get a job to pay for laundry detergent.
Monday, October 1, 2007
Mmm...icecream
I have to say, I think I've found a new favourite ice cream. Pumpkin! Yummy! We decided to take the kids out for a treat at a cute little ice cream place in Princeton. They have hand blended ice cream and it's positively divine. I'm always up for anything pumpkin flavoured so I figured I would try their new flavour. I fell in love. Tastes just like pumpkin pie filling with a cold and creamy twist.
James had coffee, probably my close second favourite and the boys each got vanilla. They were so cute! There were classic 80's songs playing in the shop and the kids started dancing to them. How adorable! There is also a classic trick mirror that distorts your body. (Not exactly what you want to see when you're eating ice cream!) The boys thought it was absolutely hilarious!! They wanted us to pick them up so they could see their heads stretch out. They laughed so hard. It was such a nice night out, I'm hoping there are more in our future!
James had coffee, probably my close second favourite and the boys each got vanilla. They were so cute! There were classic 80's songs playing in the shop and the kids started dancing to them. How adorable! There is also a classic trick mirror that distorts your body. (Not exactly what you want to see when you're eating ice cream!) The boys thought it was absolutely hilarious!! They wanted us to pick them up so they could see their heads stretch out. They laughed so hard. It was such a nice night out, I'm hoping there are more in our future!
Sunday, September 30, 2007
The Basement
I'm always on guard whenever I go into the basement. Afterall, it's a haven for spiders and other creepy crawly things. Even though it is a finished basement, I still expect to see spiders hanging out in a corner, near the steps or just making a new home somewhere. Call me paranoid, it's just what I'm used to.
I'm my paranoia I never expected to stumble across a lizard in the basement. Yes, you read that correctly, a LIZARD!!! I was putting something away in the furnace/storage room when I looked on the floor and saw a lizard about the length of my middle finger. Truthfully, it was kind of cute but it was a lizard! In New Jersey! Sheesh. This was new to me. I can honestly say I wasn't scared but I definitely wasn't excited either. I called James down. I figure it's his job, as the man in the house, to take care of creepy crawly things, lizards included. What to do though? Well, we grabbed the vacuum. What else? I figured the dust and stuff that was already in the bag would suffocate the little bugger. Even if it was cute I didn't want it to live. Only four of us live here, that's plenty. James, the doll that he is, sucked up the little guy. It happened so quickly (I was actually able to watch, wouldn't have if it was a spider) but I can't be sure if he sucked it up or if it moved quickly and got away. I'll hope it was the former. James let the vacuum run a bit longer, just to make sure, and then swiftly took the bag outside for garbage pick up tomorrow. Good riddance!
I'm my paranoia I never expected to stumble across a lizard in the basement. Yes, you read that correctly, a LIZARD!!! I was putting something away in the furnace/storage room when I looked on the floor and saw a lizard about the length of my middle finger. Truthfully, it was kind of cute but it was a lizard! In New Jersey! Sheesh. This was new to me. I can honestly say I wasn't scared but I definitely wasn't excited either. I called James down. I figure it's his job, as the man in the house, to take care of creepy crawly things, lizards included. What to do though? Well, we grabbed the vacuum. What else? I figured the dust and stuff that was already in the bag would suffocate the little bugger. Even if it was cute I didn't want it to live. Only four of us live here, that's plenty. James, the doll that he is, sucked up the little guy. It happened so quickly (I was actually able to watch, wouldn't have if it was a spider) but I can't be sure if he sucked it up or if it moved quickly and got away. I'll hope it was the former. James let the vacuum run a bit longer, just to make sure, and then swiftly took the bag outside for garbage pick up tomorrow. Good riddance!
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