Say Cheese!

I'm sure you all remember my post a few weeks ago asking if you thought I should spend 13 bucks on school pictures or not. I knew the Kiddo wouldn't smile his real smile, not unless the photographer had some magic trick up his sleeve... then again, I kind of expect kids photographers to have a lot of practice with kids like the Kiddo so a real smile shouldn't have been that much to ask for, after all cheese-ball plastered on fake smiles are normal with little boys. I don't know where they learn it, it must be in that male chromosome.

I decided to do it, I figured all the people telling me that even a bad picture would be a funny memory were right...

Anyway, the results are in:
It's not as bad as I was afraid it would be, but really not as good as I hoped for. And for some reason I can't get it to scan without it looking dusty... maybe they do something special with their paper (is that even possible?). So to get an 8x10 for the Mans' mom we'll either have to give her a dusty looking copy or order one *sigh*. The good news is I can copy them fine in smaller sizes so I've got what I need for my side of the family (unless my mom is completely random and decides she would like a full sized copy).

I love fall...

Wow - positive reinforcement

The kiddo came out of class yesterday busting with smiles. Usually he waits until we get home before he shows me his school work, but yesterday before he even reached where I was standing he had his backpack off his shoulders. He said he HAD to show me what was in it right then, no waiting.

I figured he had gotten a treat in class, or toy or something similar (sometimes when one of the kids has a birthday their parent puts together a little treat bag for everybody).

Nope, it was this:
Not only had he come up with a word that starts with B (the day before was "a" day and he drew a dog and cat because he didn't want to draw a boring apple; 5 year old logic, what can you do)... But he also spelled the words correctly (on his own) and drew a pretty amazing dancing banana. Now if we could just get him to figure out b's and d's we'd be golden!

BTW occasionally he'll come home with a "good" written on his paper, but this is his very first wow. He is really proud of it, he says the whole class laughed at his banana and thought it was great. I told him how amazing he was for following directions and coming up with such a fun idea, writing it down, and drawing it...

C'est voila - Presto!

My dad got my Grandma a Presto printer. I have been really excited about it since he told me he was going to mid August. She now has it, and has it all set up, and I can email her letters WITH pictures in them... they print out at her end and she has an instant letter from me.

The best part is that not only can I now write her whenever I feel the urge (I plan on writing her twice a week, wednesday'ish and saturday'ish) but I also don't feel guilty for not hand writing the letters. And it emails me back a confirmation of the letter delivery, with a picture to show me how it looked printed out. Super cool.


So I suppose this is my blogosphere thanks to my dad for making it so easy to do. And my blogosphere advert to those of you who read my blog but aren't family, if you have somebody in your life who doesn't do email and you wish you wrote them more often... well this thing is super easy and super great.

Oh and those of you that ARE family... write Grandma a letter! Betcha she'd love to hear about your life/dog/cat/house/job... whatever the heck :)

Random

We went to Walmart the other day to get a slow leak in one of our tires fixed. It took a ridiculous 90 minutes for them to do, meanwhile the kiddo and I wandered around and looked at all their clearance Halloween stuff. I resisted the urge and did not buy more then two bags of candy, 80% of which is in the freezer! We also wandered around the toy section and the Kiddo pointed out all the toys he wanted. Like this one:
It was priced at $30 bucks. After we got home I looked it up on Amazon and it is $56 there. There was only one on the shelf at walmart and even though I don't have the funds I find myself wondering if it's still there...

After we got home it was time for lunch. The Kiddo said he wanted to make his sandwhich by himself, he was very adamant that I did NOT get to help (aside from removing lids of course).
Let me just say that it made for a very sticky knife, and spoon, and hands, and counter, and um peanut butter jar (oddly the jelly jar didn't get sticky).

Later in the day the kiddo did his thing and earned a treat, for it I let him pick two pieces of Halloween candy. He picked a dum dum and a pixie stick. He knows "how" to eat pixie sticks but he has trouble (he always ends up getting the end wet, which gets the sugar wet, which clogs it up). This time he asked for a bowl... next thing I know this is what I was seeing:
Needless to say I was so proud I almost burst... and after my first thought (which was "holy cow he really IS my kid!!) I thought "his grannie would be so proud". I wonder if she is :D

Dr. Suess on the election

I do not like this Uncle Sam,

I do not like his health care scam.

I do not like these dirty crooks,

or how they lie and cook the books.

I do not like when Congress steals,

I do not like their secret deals.

I do not like this speaker Nan ,

I do not like this ‘YES, WE CAN’.

I do not like this spending spree—

I’m smart, I know that nothing’s free.

I do not like your smug replies,

when I complain about your lies.

I do not like this kind of hope.

I do not like it. nope, nope, nope!

Go green – recycle Congress in 2010!

*unabashidly stolen from *lookingforlisa

A Fall Medley...

btw - I want

passing through - one holiday down

Well Halloween is finished. It's one of my favorites but not at the top of the list... it would be but society has ruined it quite a bit. This year it was "mandated" that kids do trick-or-treating on Saturday instead of the actual day of Halloween. Let me just say, in the largest understatement of the year, that made me a tad unhappy. Not only did the stupid day switching cause us to not be able to do our usual walk through the mall (where the Kiddo could show off his costume and look at all the other kids showing off theirs) but it also caused this:









That's a lot of rain poring down on our heads. And what is the kiddo saying in that second picture? I asked him if he was having any fun at all and he said no. I asked him if he was a tiny bit happy and he said no. I said not even a little happy? And he said NO, the weather is miserable and I'm not happy. The good news is he wasn't sulking, he was just letting me know that he didn't like the way things were going.

So we gave up on Jordan Commons and headed to grandma's house.
Fortunately the rain had already finished there so the Kiddo was able to hit the neighborhood. He started enjoying himself after house number four, and by house number 8 he was really excited. Everybody thought he was so cute (plus they weren't seeing many younger kids) so they kept giving him extra candy...
When we finished up he had a full bag and a happy face. Grandma fed him a corn dog and rolls and I think he had a good day.