Photo Gate 2010: My Diaper Is Better Than Your Diaper

The incredible exceptional wonderful funny MRS. D did a post yesterday about school dances becoming too competitive in terms of dress and how that might effect the kids who can’t afford $800 gowns. It’s a great post.

So serendipity steps in when I get an e-mail from my DIL with Hope’s school pictures in it.

I wish I could show you the class photo but obviously I can’t post other folk’s children. There are 8 adorable infants and toddlers in a pretty blue and white room. They are Infant Class B. The head teacher and her two assistants are each holding two children and then Hope and one other child are in high chairs up front. Hope is looking toward her teacher and has her “ugh, this is not where I want to be” pained expression on.

My DIL is really upset about this. It’s clear that Hope wanted to be held and my DIL feels they shouldn’t have taken the photo until she smiled or someone should have held Hope and put one of the others in the chair. Hope is clearly one of the oldest of the eight and one of the largest and I’m certain that’s what determined who sat on their own.

Plus can you imagine getting eight infants to all look forward and smile at the same time!

These are the two solo portraits. Perhaps not Hope at her finest but it is her serious look, a look I adore since it’s a hint into her thoughtful nature.




The school did NOT tell the parents that photos were being taken. My DIL (and I bet all the other moms) is upset about that as well. With notice Hope would have been “dressed to the nines”.

Something tells me that’s why the school didn’t tell anyone. I can just see it – bows and fussy dresses and patent leather shoes.

And I wonder how many Moms would have just happened to stop by to direct the photo session.

So this Nana says kudos to the school. I’ll never forget when my baby brother came home from first grade with his class picture. He had tears in his eyes and was both angry and heartbroken because he had overheard one of the moms saying that he looked like a “refugee”. We were the neighborhood poor kids.

They don’t need to learn status at infancy.

I truly do get that Moms want their children to always be presented in the best light but who they are and what they're doing at any given candid moment IS their best light.

Hump Day With Hope

I opened the side door into the kitchen last night and ...



Look who was there. She was rolling around waiting for her dinner after her second day at day care.

She was very hungry and a bit tired. The pout was there because Daddy usually comes through that door at that time and it works on him ...



Nana is more of the get over yourself type.

So she settled in and told me about her day. On Monday she was shocked when Sophie went into her diaper bag and took her giraffe. Just crawled right away with it.

Giraffe was returned. No harm done.

She cried when Mom left. And later in the day on Monday she looked around while on her play mat and cried again. In between she played and ate her lunch and made new friends.

On the second - just the second - day her teachers say she did not cry at all and is very good with her caremates and excellent at play mat time and nap time.



I wonder what she was planning for today.

Mia is the same. We'll see what the vet says on Friday.