Growing up, there was a half naked picture of me in the hallway.
To be fair, it was part of a collage of photos, and it was small. I was young, and in the bathtub. Parents everywhere, myself included, have these same pictures.
As I reached my pre-teen years, I became embarrassed of this picture. Heaven forbid my friends or, gasp, a boy see this picture. I took it out and replaced it with a fully clothed photo.
My mom noticed in about 2 seconds, and was understanding… but asked for the bathroom photo back. It was never seen in the hallway again.
The point? The point is that kids do things that parents find cute. And we take pictures. Or commit them to memory. Not always specifically for the sake of embarrassment later in life.
That, my friends, is just an added bonus.
My children do some pretty incredibly cute things. Some, I have pictures of. Others, I just want to remember forever so that I can tell first boyfriends and girlfriends all about it.
So, while I won’t be cruel enough to post pictures here, I do take them. And print them. And LOVE them. I also will share a few fun stories that come to mind. These may or may not make dinner time conversations as my children grow.
(Completely unrelated note to my children: It is very important to be nice to your mama. That is all.)
- Last week, I ended up taking the kids to my Body Pump class. I usually go when they are with their father, but the dates hadn’t worked out that way and I needed to, well, work out. They have a great playroom there, so I got them situated and got my weights ready.
Exactly 3 minutes after the workout began, who comes running out of the playroom? Zac.
Oh, and his pants and underpants? They are around his ankles.
I wrote a text that evening that read something like this: “Zac only ran out naked from the waist down once, so I guess that’s a win, right?”
(My definition of win is skewed. Clearly.)
- The other day I asked Lilly to throw a piece of trash in the trashcan, which was about 20 feet away. She said she was too busy. I asked her again, adding a consequence if she made a poor choice. She picked up the trash, STOMPED across the room and threw it away. As she stomped back, she burst into tears and shouted, “Now I’ve wasted my whole life! humph!” and ran into her room.
First of all, who says “humph”? Also, wow I am looking forward to the teenage years.
- Lilly and Zac playing “helicopter,” which includes Zac laying on the ground in one direction and Lilly laying on top at a 90 degree angle. Once they are “in position,” they move their arms and make hilarious noises. Until someone gets hurt. Oh, and someone always gets hurt.
*** Your turn! Settle a debate: A photo of a young boy wearing cowboy boots with underwear but no pants. Cute or not cute? Please leave a comment with your thoughts on how hilarious and cute this would be! ***
Disclaimer: Do I need to write this? I in no way have the true intention of embarrassing my children on purpose. Clearly, that will happen regardless, as I’m a mom and they will one day be teens. Then again, I’m really super cool, so I don’t see how they could actually ever be embarrassed… in fact, they’ll probably want to hang out with me and only me and I’ll have to encourage them to go hang out with their popular but highly achieving and community minded high school friends. But that’s another story for another time.
DUDE I totally LOLed at the “Now I’ve wasted my whole life! humph!” Quinn has recently started saying something like “You’ve ruined my WHOLE day”. Or better, “Everyone has ruined my Whole Day” How can you not giggle when they say such ridiculous thing??
Great topic!
That was a great article. Your right, the teenage years are the best, and for you, right around the corner. I remember the very first base ball game I took Kayla to. She is now 19, but 5 when this happened. I had to take her into the mens room with me to go potty. We just so happened to choose a stall neighboring a person who had a very, shall we say, musical condition. Looking down at my sweet innocent lil princess, I could see her pretty face twist into a scowl of disgust. Before I could raise my finger to my lips, she cried out, very loud, ” EEEEWWW Daddy, he did not say excuse me!” The entire rest room roared with laughter. 20 seconds later, when the laughter subsided, a frail voice from an elderly gentleman rang out, “Excuse me”.
From the mouths of babes
Or the time Rhianna 6, told Santa that his breath smelled like farts.
Just like our kids, we dont mean to embarrass one another at various stages of development, the kharma scale just ensures that balance is mainained.
such a good point you bring up. My son had an assignment to do photos from each year of his life and so many I chose he said “but mom I was in a diaper” I reminded him he was 1 that’s what you do but he wasn’t having it. So you don’t know what we think is cute and they find totally humiliating.
TOTALLY CUTE!!!!
P.S. Jack STILL gets buck naked no matter the place when he has to poop… but now he’s added a lovely twist. I plan to blog about it tonight.