School pictures....OH NO!

It's school picture time!  School pictures make this mama very nervous for many reasons--to name a few:

1. My kid hates pictures.  Seriously, she won't even look at a camera 99% of the time.
2. The 1% of the time when she does look at a camera, she can't smile naturally to save her life.  I quit telling her to "say cheese" because what I get ends up looking like a rabid dog showing teeth right before biting you.
3. She has crazy hair.  Her hair, with crazy curls--which I have never cut--just gets bigger, not longer.  She won't wear bows, headbands or hair ties (I tried bribery that morning to no avail), and recombing it is risky due to frizz. 
4. I lost the damn order form!  I had it for approximately forty-three seconds when I picked her up from school.  I'm fairly certain the evil gremlins in my car stole it.
5. They want an arm and a leg for only one shot (compounded by stressor #2 above).  There were about five-thousand combinations in the package, including the backdrop color, orientation, name or no name, and how close of a crop you want.  Just kill me now.  I'm sitting at a table and chair sized for three-year olds with my knees to my chin trying to fill out the form.  I'm already going to be late for work as it is.  At least I remembered my checkbook.

So after all that, and all the waiting for pictures to be delivered, here's my baby girl's first official school pictures.....

{cheeeeeeeese}


Old videos and cat torture...

I was looking through old videos after I started my YouTube page, and I ran across this one.  Jocelyn was sitting with me when I played it, and she made me play it over and over and over again approximately 73 times while laughing maniacally through it each time.  Sometimes I worry about that girl...

She knows this is her when she was "baby Jocey", and she still treats the poor Harley-cat very similarly.  I feel bad for the cat (especially when you see the look on her face at the end of the video), but Harley doesn't really run away from the attention either--the cat is partially to blame for this situation.

Elf on the Shelf "George" is here!

Ever heard of "Elf on the Shelf"?  The concept is that Santa sends little elves out all over the world to keep an eye on little girls and boys.  He reports back to Santa nightly if they've been good or bad.  The little elf doll comes with a book, and this would be really sweet, if he didn't creep me out so damn much!

Even after several mommy friends of mine got the elf for their two year olds last year, I resisted.  First of all, Jocelyn was still fairly unaware of Santa Claus and a lot of the excitement of Christmas because frankly, we are never that "excited" for Christmas.  Don't get me wrong, we love Christmas time, but we hate the commercialism of it.  We understand how fun it can be for little kids, but she was still a little young last year.  So, until she started understanding the concept a little more, we kept our Santa stories small.

This year is different.  This year, we have a three year old with more awareness and understanding of the concept of Santa bringing presents on Christmas morning.  I'm finally ready to start building on the "magic" of Christmas that I experienced as a kid.  Time to rev up that holiday magic!  {If you know me you know that I'm not a terribly animated or outgoing personality, so the "revving up" is probably everyone else's subtle Christmas cheer.}

In comes George.  George is our Elf on the Shelf.  So many other mommies have been talking about their own elf and what good responses and fun they were having, I decided to put aside my phobia of creepy little dolls and spring for one.  Finding it half off and Barnes & Noble helped the decision tremendously.

So, he's here.  Today, sitting up on our fireplace mantle.  George is still creeping me out.  Not only does he watch Jocelyn, he's watching me.  If he ends up under my bed like the creepy little bastard clown on Poltergeist, he is TOTALLY being fed to the dogs!   Did you hear that George?! 

You've been disconnected!

I just got hung up on by a three year old who was refusing to nap. And I mean intentionally hung up on because she TOLD me she was going to do it, then she proceeded to hand the phone to my mom. I heard her say, "Hang it up, Ba Ngoai [grandma]", then *click*. 

Oooooh, if I could crawl through that phone and beat a three year old booty......!

Something is fishy around here....

While getting ready for lunch the other day, Jocelyn says:

"We can have fish for lunch.  Not the wet, swimming kind, but the food kind."

I wonder if she is going to be traumatized when she finds out that, in fact, they are one and the same.

Our *twinkling* little star! {singing with daddy}

Here's our little rising star and her favorite song--for the moment--it changes hourly.  The video speaks for itself.  No need for too much commentary.

Happy Halloween!

Just a quick Halloween note from Batgirl!  She learned a new saying this year:

     Trick or Treat!
     Smell my feet!
     Give me something good to eat!

She heard this phrase one time.  Just once.  That's all it took. She didn't learn it from us, so imagine our surprise when she whipped it out Halloween night at my mom's neighbor's front door. 

I've been telling her to say "please" and "thank you" several times a day for over three years, and she can't remember that. But apparently "smell my feet"....only takes hearing it one time.

Happy Halloween, everyone!