Christmas Part-Something-Or-Other

There's nothing like trying to get your (squirmy/busy/active/insane) child to pose in front of the Christmas tree for a nice picture/. I could put up the thousands of failed pictures for you to illustrate just how frustrating it was. Instead, I will just put up this one that says, "I'm pooping on the tree." Silly me for thinking, "oh, you are dressed nice, let's take a picture." 

After the Collin-Alone poses, I wanted Collin and Daddy poses. Collin was done with the whole picture thing so the only way we could get him to smile was by force. In other words, tickle torture or fake-dropping him and swinging him around the room. In other words, don't be fooled, while this picture may look like a loving father and son sharing a laugh, it is all contrived and only mere seconds before he was actually screeching to be unhanded from the clutches of his mean Daddy who was keeping him from all kinds of fun. 

Of course, Mommy wanted a picture too and how did I get a smile? Good old fashioned, bribery. We were about to depart on a long road trip and I told him if he would smile nice for ONE picture, he could have some goldfish crackers in the car. Did he get them? Yes.

Man, sometimes I think he's lucky we don't leave him at rest stops. It's a good thing that he takes such cute candid shots.

Speaking of rest stops. I  have to tell this rest stop story from our road trip to Granny's in hopes to get an opinion  poll of my five readers and get some people on my side. While slightly embarrassing for me, I think it makes a stranger look crazy.

I have some tummy issues and they flared up on the freeway so I made Bryon stop at the closest bathroom he could find, which was in this case a McDonald's. I was in there for quite some time, not an hour mind you, but a few minutes. There were two stalls but there was definitely a line forming for the other stall. I felt badly, but what could I do, you can't interrupt the "process?"

Suddenly, a very angry voice says, "Hey you! While you are in there reading your phone, there are SEVEN, that's right SEVEN people waiting for your stall! You think I can't see you in there!"

I was so blown away that I didn't know what to say at first. Yes, I was reading my phone while I "went." Is that so weird? I was bored. I was in there a while but I wasn't done. Anyway, waited a second and said, "Sorry, but I'm not having a good time in here. I'm not feeling well and I'm kind of XXX'ing my brains out. And what kind of person watches a stranger through the crack of a bathroom stall?"

She said, "Well there wasn't any movement in there so I wanted to know what's going on!"

I just left it at that but I really, really wanted to say something else. I was humiliated. I had to exit the stall at some point after that when there was still some of the same people waiting in line. Ugh. I was really embarrassed that I swore when I saw that there was a kid in line. I just mumbled an apology for the wait and got the heck out of there.

So seriously, isn't it kind of crazy to peer into a stranger's bathroom stall and confront them as to their private bathroom activities? And can't you kind of tell by sight, sound and ahem, smell, what's going on in there and leave them alone?