Parents, if you want wonderful pictures of your children, never teach them to say "cheese"! Please learn from my mistake or you will have thousands of photos just like mine - squinted eyes, scrunched up noses, clenched teeth, and an image that just screams "say cheez!!!". Join me while I search for that one perfect shot that doesn't conjure up images of dairy products. Oh, and unless you like that *messy* look, you'll probably want to clean their faces before you snap away. I never seem to remember myself.

An imporant sidenote is to make sure you document your life! Recording the little details of the who, what, where, when, & why makes for wonderful stories and captures your life for years to come. Because if you are like me, you'll forget it all 5 minutes later!

Monday, June 2, 2008

POTD - Week 23: Flash

Life sure goes by in a flash! It is hard to believe that my son is going to turn 8 this month. It truly seems like just yesterday he entered our world. He has grown so much, in so many ways, and often I wish I could freeze time so that the changes would stop. Don't get me wrong - I love seeing him discover and grow and mature - but sometimes it just seems to happen too fast.

Granted he still has {many} moments when I swear he is acting like a 2 year old, but more and more often he is catching me off guard with how much he is growing up. And I'm not ready for it. Recently we were watching the movie Ice Age. One of the characters used the word "sexy". Oh boy.

Nathan asked me - "Mom, what does sexy mean?"
Me - {crap} "It when you like the way someone looks, you think they are cute."

A minute later:
Nathan - "What is sex?"
Me - {double crap} "Why?"
N - "Because I want to know."
Me - "Why?" {feeling increasingly tense - after all, he isn't even 8 years old yet!}
N - "I just want to know."
Me - "Where did you hear that word?"
N - "At school. I don't want to talk about it. Just tell me what it means!" {Now he is getting frustuated with me.}
Me - "Well it is a complicated subject. I'd like to know what you heard first."
N - "MOM! I don't want to talk about it now! Just tell me what sex means!" {Did I mention that he is incredibly stubborn? This back and forth went on for a little while.}
Me - {Very concerned at this point.} "It is something that grown ups do when they love each other. It involves kissing and sometimes results in a baby being made." {Stressed because I'm totally not ready for this conversation and have no idea how much info is too much and what does a little boy need to know anyway???}
N - "Oh. So you and dad have had sex four times."
Me - {silently groaning} "Yea, something like that."

The next day it was still bugging me. So I asked again.
Me - "What did you hear about sex at school?"
N - "Nothing. Some people were wearing necklaces with their dogs names on them and said sex - M or sex - F, so I was wondering what it means."
Me - {HELLO!!! LIGHTBULB!!!} "Sex is another word for GENDER. Boy or Girl. Male or Female."

AHHHH! If he wouldn't have been so dang stubborn and given me the context of the word first, I would have totally saved myself a TON of agony and stress!!!

Oh, I am so not looking forward to the teen years. I really hope the next 7-8 years don't go by in a flash!

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11 comments:

Margaret said...

Great journaling....and great shots, too!:)

Mom2Drew said...

Oooo I really like your BnW conversion here. Nice and contrasty.

Kristina said...

Thanks for sharing that story. Now if my girls ask, I'll give them the gender answer first :)

Becky said...

Love the b/w conversion! Both my kids were right around that age when they asked, too, but they wanted to know the real deal. :-)

pat said...

Hahahaha---love that conversation! It reminds me of ones I've had. Your son has the most beautiful eyes!! Love the conversion, but then the color shows off the incredible hue. Nice work.

Joanne Fowler said...

Poor momma! Love the conversions, these images are great!

Jess said...

Oh! WHEW! ROFL! I am SO glad he wasn't asking about the OTHER kind of sex! WOW, my boys are 10 and 12 and I am SO not ready for that conversation! (though Austin took a sex ed section in health class this year- YIKES!)

Amy said...

Loved reading your journaling! When I told my oldest dd (she's 13) about sex, she said, "Oh great, are you trying to punish me by telling me this stuff? It's sooooo gross!"

Great shots too, he has such beautiful eyes and eyelashes!

jewels said...

LOL, great conversation! :) I think that b/w is outstanding!

Cheers,
jewels

Angela2932 said...

ROTFL! This is so funny! My son, somewhere older than yours at the time, asked me, "mom, they keep telling us we have to practice safe sex, but one thing I don't get. Why do we have to practice????"

betsy (pharmgirl) said...

OMG!!!!! Lori!!!!! I've never laughed outloud at a blog post before this . . . this is so freakin' funny!