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September 23, 2009
Pearl is always excited to show me her art projects she's made. Today she had just finished her self portrait when I picked her up and with glue still dripping off the paper, handed it to me and said excitedly, "Mom, it's me!" You know what? I think Pearl is right... it does look just like her.
September 22, 2009
Ah picture day at school. Brings back memories, doesn't it? Buck teeth, bad hair, zits, and clothes that should never come back in style. I remember my sophomore year of high school my picture seriously looked like I was stoned - and NO I did NOT use drugs! Anyway... I had it all planned out for Pearl's picture day today... pick out a cute "dress" (really a skirt) and her shirt that she thinks is a dress and all would be good. She's really into wearing dresses lately and I figured both of us would be happy this way. I showed her the outfit and said how cute it was to which she agreed that it was ok to wear. We even had the same idea for shoes and tights and I was thinking this was all too easy, no battles over her outfit for once. Well, as soon as I started to pull the shirt over her head she freaked out, screaming "NO! Not this one, Mom!" Once that twirp makes up her mind about what she is or isn't going to wear there really is no point in fighting her. So, I drug her into her room to pick out an outfit. Instead of the cute pink and brown polka-dot shirt and matching brown corduroy skirt I had picked out, she opted for a more causal look with jeans and a white flower shirt with her pink crocs to round out the outfit. Oh and don't even get me started on the hair battle! I was hoping we could get away with leaving her hair down but Pearl insisted on it being "this way" (like I know what that means and yet it's what I get screamed at every morning) in a ponytail. I wouldn't care about the outfit so much if she would actually toughen up and get her picture taken. She wouldn't have anything to do with it and refused to sit down and smile. Defeated I gave up, marched her back down to class, and told her teacher if she could convince her that getting her picture was fun to go for it. Last I heard was they got one shot of her... scared looking I'm sure just like all the other school pictures we have of her... but only after the photographer told her to say "cheese" (we had been practicing all morning). I guess we'll see what it really looks like in a few weeks.
September 21, 2009
On our thrilling trip to the grocery store for FHE (we live large around here, ya know), Jeff picked up some mini pumpkins. He buys them for me every year around the fall and Halloween because he knows how much I like to decorate the tables with them. It was really sweet of him, since they weren't the cheapest items we purchased tonight. But before I could even set them out all cutesy around the house, Pearl had decided they were hers to play with. She quickly set them up on the only place she could reach... the kitchen window sill. I think she was quite proud of her interior design skills, as she begged me to take a picture of them. Three minutes later, all interest turned from decorating to using them as bowling balls and trying to hatch them like eggs. So far we haven't lost any due to dropping-on-the-floor incidents and I haven't seen any chickens that resemble pumpkins running around but we've still got a couple months to go before the fall season is over.
September 20, 2009
Shutter speed was the object of my photography skill practicing today. Unfortunately for just about every mom in the neighborhood, the city decided to put the swings back on the swing set this week. After a summer of telling Pearl the swings were broken, and saving us a good two hours of me doing "super underdogs" thanks to Jeff's teachings, I admit I was a tad upset to see them back up again. But I figured swinging would be a great action shot to try out the ole' shutter speed settings. Nothing worked like I wanted but luck of the draw would have it that I actually got the camera to focus at the very second Pearl flew past my face, happy as could be to have her swings back... but unhappy that I was fidgeting with the camera and not doing giving her another super underdog push!
September 19, 2009
We awoke to a see of red, white, and blue today. Truth be told, we saw a bunch of volunteers lining the park with flags last night but didn't know what the occasion was for. I kept trying to think of some major holiday that I'd missed but never would have guessed a Constitution Celebration. I guess it's been 222 years since the constitution was written and someone decided our city needed to celebrate. So out came, I'm guessing 222 flags at the park. Seeing it as an opportunity to practice my photography skills, plus we were all up by 7 a.m. anyway, I took Pearl across the street to try out a few things with the camera without a major crowd to get in the way. What I was really going for was a high aperture so I could capture the individual rays of the sun with the flags. It was hard deciding which picture to post today... not that they were great or anything (in fact not a single one stood out as "awesome" to me) but this was the one that I snapped right before the lady in charge of the event asked me if she could get copies of all my pictures. I was pretty surprised and tried to scare her off by telling her I was only trying to practice so I wasn't promising anything spectacular (really, I was pleading with her to not make me share my horrible understanding of composition, lighting, and camera settings). But it made me feel good and this shot does have those sun rays I wanted... too bad she'll be disappointed when she opens her email tomorrow!
September 18, 2009
Now I remember why last year when we went to the State Fair, I seriously questioned if I'd ever take Pearl again. We didn't even make it 100 feet past the ticket booth before some weird guy - I'm sure well-meaning and nice but obviously had a few problems - tried hitting on Pearl first, then me. Weird, strange, and awkward... which is where you throw out some comment about your husband being 6'5" and 250 lbs and a professional weight lifter. Not to be deterred in my effort to teach Pearl about farm animals, we headed over to the rather stinky rabbits, which Pearl said were her favorite, pigs (another stinky one), cows, goats, sheep, and ponies. I'm still amazed she wanted to go on the pony rides, considering she has been bucked off at a pony ride twice before. Pearl couldn't decide if she wanted to touch all the animals or be scared of them. We got pizza, went through the kids' mini farm booth, and avoided walking next to any of the rides because some little girl wanted me to take her on everything. I was half-tempted to pick up free Boys II Men concert tickets at the grandstand for that night but after remembering the previous two hours of heat, weird carni-folks, stinky animals, and about 500 teenagers who needed something better to do than goof off at the fair, figured Jeff and I would have better luck on our date just going to dinner (not to mention the incessant teasing that would surely come from Jeff for taking him to a boy band concert). And oh was dinner delicious!
September 23, 2009
