Repost: Smile, and scream cheese!

Today is picture day at Dylan's school, and all I can think about is the trauma of last year's picture day. So I am going to repost so that I will have time to iron some clothes for the kid. Oh Lord, wish me luck.

Today was picture day at Dylan's school. So, we made sure that he has a bath, brushed his teeth, combed his hair, all that good stuff, all before school started this morning. Dylan was a bit more tired this morning than on other days because he has not been feeling well the past few days. His sleep has been disturbed, he's not eating normal, you get the point.

Anyway, this morning he was looking forward to smiling for the camera. He looked fantastic (ahem, as usual). When we arrived at the school, I saw that all of the other kids were dressed up. Really dressed up. Dylan was the only boy there without a collared shirt. All of the girls had dresses and skirts on. Dylan didn't look frumpy, but I had only put a nice, clean red striped shirt on him from Target, along with his new jeans, which are his "faborite." Who cares, right? I mean, it's just head shots of the kids, and then a picture of the whole class together in the gym.

Nope. I forgot what kind of area we live in. The school had hired a professional photographer who brought along a white back drop, white blocks for kids to sit on, as well as (yep) white chairs, rocking horses, and all of the other ridiculous props that they use.

Dylan has never had his picture taken "professionally" before. Gasp! A four year old who has never sat on sand mound in front of a fake summer beach scene? Never once laid down next to a ginormous number signifying what age he reached? You mean, never once had his picture taken sitting on his mother's lap, holding a bunch of plastic daisies that he is pretending to give to her, while he gazes adoringly at his baby brother, who is sitting in an old fashioned wash bin? What kind of monster raised this kid?!

As of right now, I do not know how the pictures came out. Dylan told me that he sat on the block because he was afraid of the rocking horse. Beyond that, I can only speculate.

At the end of the day, I went to pick Dylan up. He was crying because he missed me, so his nose was running all over the place, and his eyes were all red. This is not like him. Obviously, he was not feeling well. He started to say goodbye to his friends and teachers, and he turned around and freaked out on some kid. He just started screaming and crying, and yelling at the kid because it was "clean-up, bye-bye time" and he wasn't helping. Holy shit. All of the other moms stared at me like I was cracked out. I had Dylan apologize to the poor kid who was now in trauma. I grabbed Dylan's hand, and we left the school.

After his nap I am sure he will be feeling better, but I think we will take it easy for the rest of the day. Posing with stupid props when I have a runny nose would make me a bit nutty. I love my crazy children.