This is why I need a drink

Remember way back in January when I had the brilliant idea to take the boys to the portrait studio to have secret Valentine's Day pictures taken for Michael.  Remember how that all played out?  No?  Need a refresher?

It was disastrous.

 

And I've been afraid to go back ever since. 

 

We have a wall in our hallway with 5 x 7 pictures of Spencer at 6 months, 1 year, 18 months, 2, 3, 4 and 5 years.  We'll keep adding pictures each year until he graduates from high school.  Obviously we have to do the same for Elliott otherwise he'll end up in counseling for deep psychological and rejection issues.  Knowing that we HAD to get an 18 month picture for the wall we went in on Memorial Day to get patriotic/summer pictures of both of the boys as sort of a training session for Elliott.  We even brought our own balloons (falsly) thinking that Elliott would have fun holding them.

 

This should tell you a bit about how it went.

Elliott flipped out as soon as we got in the studio.  Crying, running away, the whole bit.  So Spencer had his own little photo shoot.

 

And we tried again.

At this point we had used up all of our time and the people for the next session were there and waiting.  So we hung out for 20 minutes in the waiting room while an 8 month old had a photo session of my dreams.  Then it was our turn again.  Elliott was having such a good time playing with the bead table while we were waiting that we picked it up and brought it into the studio with us.

 

That's the only way we were able to get any photos of the two of them.

 

 

 

I ended up ordering two prints, but I'm still disappointed that we didn't get any great pictures.

 

So.  June rolls around and Elliott is now 18 months old.  I know we have to try again because we HAVE to have a 5 x 7 to hang on the wall next to Spencer.  I made an appointment for Saturday the 22nd.  The day before I actually drove the kids to the portrait studio and we hung out there for 15 minutes and just let Elliott do whatever he wanted.  We looked at the camera, we touched the walls, we sat on the floor.  It was ridiculous.

 

We arrived to our appointment on Saturday and I told the photographer that Elliott had flipped out the last two times and that all I needed was one vertical picture from the chest up to hang on the wall.  I actually didn't even care if Elliott was smiling, I just didn't want him sobbing.  I also told her that I was willing to do whatever it took, including laying on the floor and having him sit on my stomach to make this happen.

 

And that's how we got this.  I am actually laying flat on the floor and bouncing him up and down on my stomach.  It's really hard to do without having bent knees.  Try it. 

 

And not only did we get one great picture, we got three great pictures!

 

 

And one full of attitude.

We were considering having professional family pictures this fall.  I don't know if we can handle it yet.  I'm already worrying about his 2-year photo shoot.

Summer Schedule

Spencer's last day of school was on May 29th.  The first week of June we went on "vacation" to Flagstaff.  The second week of June we had Elliott's hepatology appointment and some other random things happening.  The third week of June was when we finally got our act together and came up with a summer schedule.

 

This is it:

 

Splash Pad Monday

Allergy Shot and Bass Pro Shop Tuesday

Something Awesome Wednesday

Dorothy Thursday

Allergy Shot, Storytime and Out To Lunch Friday

 

We've got 5 weeks to stick to the schedule before Spencer starts kindergarten.  This week Tuesday will be off because Michael is switching his day off. Next week will be interrupted (on Thursday and Friday) by the 4th of July holiday.  Three weeks from now Monday will be interrupted by kindergarten placement testing.  So we really have just two weeks to completely stick to the schedule, but whatever.

 

These are highlights from week one of the summer schedule.

 

Splash Pad Monday

(Our goal is to go to a different one each Monday.)

 

Elliott was wearing one of Spencer's old suits.  It was so stretched out and just kept getting worse as it got wetter and wetter.  I finally took a hair rubberband and tied it up in the back.

 

I put that suit in the trash when we got home.

 

Not on the schedule, but we decorated for 4th of July that afternoon.

 Bass Pro Shop Tuesday
(Bass Pro Shop is having free activities for kids every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.)

Spencer shot a bee bee gun.

 

And shot a bow and arrow

 

And did some fishing.

 Something Awesome Wednesday
(I decided what to do for day one at 11 pm on Tuesday night.  I had never even heard of this place)
 

We went to the AZ Hall of Flame Fire Museum.  It was cheap and pretty fun.

 

This bell was LOUD!

 

There was one fire engine that was OK to play on and climb all around.  We spent a lot of time there.

 

Elliott's shirt has a fire fighter monkey on it.

 

 

A white fire engine?

 

There was a pretty cool play area.  That's where we spent most of our time.

There was a play house (just a bedroom and a kitchen really) that had all sorts of fire safety information.  Elliott was unconcerned about fire safety but very concerned with opening the oven door and then slamming it shut 768,000 times.

 

It was Spencer's idea to pretend like he was climbing the ladder in the picture.

 

A fire bus?

 

Dorothy Thursday

I have no pictures from when Dorothy was at our house.  Sorry.  I can share this from when we went to Target after I got home from work.

Storytime and Out to Lunch Friday

(We've been going to story time at Barnes and Noble on Friday mornings for a looooong time, but the out to lunch part is new.)

 

Ms. Tina, who does story time every week, announced that Spot would be coming to visit about 6 weeks ago.  Spencer and I have been counting down the days ever since then. 

 

He was so excited.

We went to Chompies for lunch after story time.  Spencer wanted a bagel and cream cheese and that is an option on the kids menu, so I ordered that for both of them.  I got both of them a blueberry bagel and strawberry cream cheese.  Would you have thought to ask about allergens in that combination?  Good for you if you would, but I didn't.  And I didn't notice until after Elliott had started eating that the strawberry cream cheese was full of almonds.

 

What the hell Chompies?  Almonds in strawberry cream cheese?  Really?  Elliott didn't eat any big chunks of nuts, but I'm sure he consumed some amount of almonds.  He didn't have any sort of reaction, but according to those in the know, you typically have an allergic reaction to food during your second exposure. 

 

Maybe we'll have Elliott eat an Almond Joy in the ER for our Something Awesome Wednesday this week.  Except he hasn't had chocolate yet, so it would be hard to pinpoint the reaction.