Amelia thinks Jill is funny...

...and she's not the only one! Jill IS funny. She is the one person who can make me laugh so hard I can't breathe. When I'm with her, it's like a hardcore abdominal workout. And forget my eye make-up. I don't even know why I put make-up on when I know we're gonna hang out. It's like Tammy Faye Baker after a real good prayer.

Moving on.....Jason started this nasty little rumor that Amelia full on laughed last weekend when I was at the studio. (grrrrrrrrrr...) See, I don't miss anything because I'm a stay-at-home-mom and that is one of my God given rights. I get to see all her firsts.

So to rid myself of this cognitive dissonance, I have convinced myself that my baby's firsts don't actually occur until I've seen it with my own eyes. I will do my best to recreate the so-called "first whatever" and then and only then, do I admit that the particular "first" has occurred.

So, I've been trying very hard to get her to laugh. All day. Every day. All week. And the most I've gotten out of her? A courtesy giggle or grunt. And then a strange look that clearly says: "Stop it, Mama. You're disturbing. And it's not funny."

But then Jill comes over, makes a couple of fart noises and it's all sorts of funny. Enjoy!

Reason #947 Why I Love My Son...

I was so tired last night. It was one of those nights where it was all I could do to make it up the stairs just to get into bed. Just as it was one of those nights, it had been one of those days with the kids. In fact, I sent both Andrew and Alivia to bed at 8pm with no story because - again - they were squabbling. Needless to say, they were not very happy with me. So, at 9pm, I decide to make the climb up the stairs to crawl into bed. I walked in my room, turned on my lamp and this is what I found, from my dear sweet wonderful son who I had just sent to bed with no story.

Page 1:
(In Andrew's phonetically correct spelling, which I love. It cracks me up!)

Mama

I hope you are haveen fun. You and me can go on a date. You are the best mom in the whole wide world! Let's play the wii or make book's or have fun. You have fun. I have fun. Let's do it eney day you want. So... Um... Have fun.

PS. For mama

Page 2:

PSS. From Andrew
PSSS. When we go have fun bring me.
PSSSS. We will have fun dooin fun things.
PSSSSS. Let's make a scrap book and take pickshers.
PSSSSSS. We will have so much fun.
PSSSSSSS. Let's go to the moive theder's and eat popcorn and jreck.(I'm not sure, but I think he's trying to spell drink? And he better be talkin' about soda!)
PSSSSSSSS. We will have so much fun.
PSSSSSSSSS. I love you so much.

Are you kidding me? Could this kid be any sweeter? He really knows how to tug at his mama's heartstrings. I put the letter down and went into his room and gave my big boy a big hug and kiss while he slept. Man, just when I think I couldn't love him anymore, he goes and does something like this.

"My cup runneth over...."

Birdie Pruitt and Romana Calvert. Hope Floats. 1998.

Spotlight Interview

I was recently contacted by another photographer, Tommy Peterson, who requested an interview from me for his blog. I feel completely honored that he would ask me....little 'ol me! We did the interview a few weeks back, and now it's up for the world to see. Go check it out!

Click Here

BeeMan

Andrew has created this super hero persona named BeeMan. He has written three books (40 pages, front and back) about BeeMan and all of his adventures. Andrew will bring these books to me, and ask me to staple them so that he can bring them to school the next day to show his friends. Mostly, BeeMan does a lot of the things that Andrew does during his day, but it's way cooler because it's BeeMan doing it. And BeeMan is awesome! He's always trying to avoid that darned giant spatula! (I think he means fly swatter, but he calls it a spatula.)

Last night was Andrew's parent/teacher conference. I was really excited to hear how he's adjusting to the first grade. I talk to him about it and he's having a great time, but I really curious about his teacher's perspective. I say this because Andrew is........um, chatty? He. Loves. To. Talk. In kindergarten, his teacher said she had to remind Andrew quite often to be quiet. He just has a lot to say. All the time. Even in his sleep. But I digress...

The first thing his teacher said to me is:

"So, I'm sure you're familiar with BeeMan."

I instantly smiled.

Me: "Oh, yes, I'm quite familiar with BeeMan."

I was a bit surprised that she knew about BeeMan.

Teacher: "Did you also know that he's got the entire class writing books about BeeMan?"

Me: "Uhhhhh, no?"

Teacher: "He's been bringing his BeeMan books to school and reading them in front of the class. And now all the other children have been writing their own books about BeeMan. BeeMan has sort of taken our class by storm. I keep telling them that they can write books about things other than BeeMan, but all they want to write about is him."

At this point, I was just laughing. I had no idea that he had started this little trend in his classroom.

Teacher: "I typically don't introduce story writing until later in the year, but all the kids have started doing it early because of Andrew."

Then she went on to say how she taught both second and third grade prior to teaching first grade, and Andrew's books aren't something she'd expect out of the average child in the second or even third grade. She also said that in her 20+ years of teaching, she's never met a child like Andrew.

I told her that I've always felt like he was unique. She agreed, and added:

"Unique, in a good way. I wish I had more time just to sit and talk with him. He's definitely one student I'll be thinking about in 20 years wondering what happened to him. Who knows? Maybe his BeeMan books will be his retirement!"

I walked out of there feeling so incredibly proud of my son. I'm always proud of him, but it really made me feel so good to hear his teacher say such wonderful things about him and confirm that my little guy is frickin' rad!

The Portrait Place Blog

I did it. I went and got myself a blog for my business.....What's that you say???......Oh, my goodness gracious, NO! Not my lady business! Get your mind out of the gutter. Sheesh! It's for The Portrait Place.

Any and all comments, questions, suggestions, concerns, considerations, and or requests are welcomed and much appreciated. Unless they're mean. Then I don't want to hear 'em. And if you can't think of anything to say, well, you can always tell me I'm pretty.

THE PORTRAIT PLACE BLOG (click me)

Don'tcha wish sometimes...

...you could turn them off for just a minute or two? Or maybe three or four?

When I was a teenager, my mom told me about how she used to feel like her head was going to explode due to my older brother's incessant question asking. She said from the minute he got up, until the minute he went to sleep, he was talking. Asking why this, or how does that, or what is this, or who smells like what? She said his talking literally made her brain hurt.

Me: "MOTHER! That is so mean! He was just a little boy. How on earth could you think something like that about a sweet curious little fella like that? What kind of mom feels that way?"

Mom (smiles knowingly): "A mom with kids, that's what kind of mom."

I walked away completely appalled. I thought to myself, boy, if I ever had children, I would treasure their every word. I would use every question as an opportunity to shape their sweet innocent little minds into the perfect little beings I just knew I could and would produce.

(sigh)

Cut to me having three kids.

And then, cut to me totally eating my words.

Yes, mother. You were right. Again.

Chubba Chunka

Holy moly, Amelia is 3 months old! I hate to sound redundant in these posts, but time is going by way too fast. My little newborn is not really a newborn anymore. But I prefer living in denial, so I will continue calling her my newborn until the day she leaves for college. To become a neuro surgeon. After that, she will be Dr. Newborn.

Again, with the redundancy, but she really is such a good baby. She smiles all the time, and is talking up a storm. She's always telling me how pretty I am. And how funny she thinks my jokes are. And how much she loves me. And how she's pretty sure I'm a genius.

Huh?

You think I'm making that up?

Whatever. You're just jealous.

For those of you who are wondering, yes, she is in leg warmers. Clearly she's been sitting on her tush for way too long because look at those rolls! We had just finished doing baby yoga before I took these pictures. In my very honest and extremely valid opinion, there is nothing more adorable than baby chub. I love it. And I get the pleasure of being able to see and photograph a lot of it. I don't tend to produce very chubby babies. But since she hates nursing, she is primarily drinking formula now. And although I'm pissed that she doesn't want to nurse anymore, I definitely love her chunky thighs. I wanna bite 'em, they're so cute! But I won't. Cause that would be child abuse.

She's so sick.

This morning Alivia was walking around the house coughing. Fake coughing. Over and over and over and over and over and over and over.....so finally, I asked her:

"Why are you coughing so much? Are you okay?"

Alivia: "No..(cough, cough)....I'm sick."

Me (in my over the top sing-song mother voice): "You are??? Oh, noooooo!"

Alivia: (cough, cough)...."Yeah, I am. I'm sick. I need ty-wah-nol. I'm really, really homesick. "

Bags, Bags, Bags

Do you like bags? Not the ones under your eyes, but the fancy ones that make you look like a rockstar whilst walking down the boulevard? Me too. This website is having a contest giving 24 bags away in 24 hours. Go enter. You may just win. That would be great!.....Or I could win. That would be even better, don'tcha think?