Ballerinas?

Josh says not to encourage it . . . but how can I not?

I Could See the Future (and My Past)

Last night as we were herding putting the girls to bed the phone rang - the home phone. This in itself is not an odd thing as that thing on the wall often makes noise, but this time it stopped and then started again immediately which is a pretty good sign that someone must really need to talk with us. The second round of incessant ringing usually prompts one of us to actually walk over and answer it (or at least look at caller ID more seriously). I hear Josh answer and then hand the phone to The Boy. I was a little dumbfounded as it wasn't his birthday so why would anyone call and immediately ask to speak with him? Cute and funny story so far, right? Well here is where it gets sad . . . my son has ZERO phone etiquette. Instead of simply saying "hello," he says "is this Sam*"? Josh and I stood motionless as we watched him bumble through this initial exchange and then some silly I am eight and talking on the phone nonsense." (*not his real name)

Once the laughing ended they were able to get down to business and it turns out these boys are working on a project together and needed to chat about some changes to their Dred Scott presentation. Amazingly the giggling continued and for the life of me I can't figure out what is so funny about 1) homework, 2) PowerPoint presentations, 3) Supreme Court rulings, or 4) pre-Civil War history; but then I am not in the 3rd grade. The Boy then proceeded to spend 30 minutes on the phone with his buddy while they searched for pictures and factoids to add to their project.

I snapped the picture soon after he got comfortable in front of the computer because I felt the need to capture when it all began. I wanted to be able to look back on January 16, 2013 as when talking on the telephone with friends began for him because when I look back on my childhood that is a HUGE part of what I remember. I don't think we talked about Dred Scott unless there was cute boy in one of my classes with that name and we sure didn't discuss changes to our PowerPoint presentation but times have changed as the old folks (like me) say. 

Taking the Xmas Card Picture

After Thanksgiving we took one afternoon to get serious about the Christmas card and we hustled the kids outside (after insisting The Boy put on an appealing sweater) for a photo shoot. I had been working on a more "artistic" card design that involved props but since the props were not getting made (carpenter must have taken a long Thanksgiving break) we just needed to get a picture taken and move on with it. Taking the Christmas Card picture is really not that daunting when you have a digital camera.

I really sympathize with my parents who would spend hours (or it seemed to me) posing my brother and I and working so hard to get us to smile because they only wanted to use up a few film shots and I cannot even imagine how slow their camera was in the late '70s  . . . but I digress.

In this century we just stick the kids in a few different poses and start doing silly things while we let the camera peel off 50+ shots then we load them to the computer and hope for something usable. All in? Less than 15 minutes! Of all the shots we got there really was only one where they were all looking at the camera and smiling and had their eyes open which is the one we used for the card, but the one above is my favorite. I think it most accurately captures their personalities at this point in their lives.

Dinner

"I cute."

New Kid: "What IS for dinner?"

Me: "We don't know yet."

New Kid: "Ooh, I like that."