The After Party

Today was Daddy's office holiday party. This is the "bring a dish and put it on the conference table" kind of thing. This is also the "bring a dish and put it on the conference table" of the command section of the General's offices. So, it's kind of a "do," if you will. The spread was HUGE and while families were welcome, you can imagine that most people in that office have "children" who are of college or high school age, as they are of distinctly higher rank than Bryon. There aren't a heck of a lot of generals out there with 20 years under their belts with brand-spanking new babies.

Alas, Collin was a bit of an anomaly. A cute one. This meant he was adored, and plied with sweets. You've seen nothing until you've seen this little cherub barreling through a command section at three thousand miles an hour with Daddy's I.D. badge on. Collin was pretty sure that this made him a big boy. He did make nice, shaking the one-star's hand and saying, "It's nice to meet you, SIR!" Oh, my boy.

Anyway, despite the copious amounts of sugar he had today, he decided that when he got home, he should take off the holiday sweater that he was sweating through (thanks CA winter) and do some quiet reading.

Then, he figured that was enough of that. Mostly, because of the copious amounts of sugar, he's been physically incapable of standing still for more than sixteen seconds.

I asked him, nicely, if he might like to pose for a few pictures with Monkey. This was, admittedly, a ploy to just get him to SIT.

Being the only one to deal with all of Collin's antics most of the time is fun, special, rewarding and makes him my best pal. It's also exhausting and trying on days when he's a crazy maniac...days like today. So, tricks like, "I think Monkey wants a photo shoot," which are lame and weird cop outs that work for a minute or two, are sanity savers for me.

And, apparently make him laugh.

Until he realizes the jig us up and this whole thing was just a ploy to make him sit relatively quietly for a second or two. Damn. Back to being jungle gym mommy for another couple of hours until Daddy decides to roll in. You know, I actually thought he broke my nose this morning? This parenting thing can be rough; and that was before the sugar kick!