pictures, pancakes and potty humor

( not Paige)

Today Spring pictures arrived at school. Oh, the horror. A year or two ago, I was slightly horrified to receive my kindergarten class' picture with me looking cross eyed and quesy. I mean, come on photocompanysname, really - you can't get a shot with me looking halfway decent??? I'm standing there with my eyes open and posed smile the entire time? (Except the nanosecond the shutter snapped.) I imagined the 20 or so kids whose families were proudly brandishing their child's first class picture on the refrigerator, with their goofy, blinking teacher center stage. You know how vain I am? I jokingly asked the parent who puts together the school yearbook if she could work some magic. And she did with photoshop, making me look normal in the yearbook. (And the photo company could not do that because....?)

Fast forward to this year. I quickly glance at my darling daughter's photos. Individual portraits - fine. And there it is. Her second grade class photo. There is Miss P, in the front row, looking cross-eyed and ready to vomit. Again, really? I take group shots of my class all the time (under pressure), and I've rarely had a kid look this bad. And you regular readers know my skill level in all things photography. I kind of got worked up over it and called the photo company to complain. Actually, all I wanted was another version of the class pic, where P looked human and not like a demon trying to send a message with her zombie eyes, but they claim they only take, or save, one. What a racket!

P felt a little bummed when she saw her picture, but I know I made her feel worse when she overhead my ranting about the irresponsible photographer. I'm not ashamed to admit that I indulged her in a variation of bathroom humor to lighten the mood (think: 'At least you didn't have boogers hanging off your nose,' and the like. And, yes, I got worse.) It totally worked!

After swim team, we had pancakes for dinner to stay in our happy place. And we laughed at other classic funny school pictures online (and then funny sunburn pictures, and then funny Christmas pictures...)