fail video: how little buckeyes avoid naptime

this is benjamin.

at naptime.

note: he is not napping.

not even close.

he is, however, attempting to sing I Wanna Go Back, an Ohio State Marching Band classic.

(note: you really have to turn the volume up on this one to catch the beginning.)

i kind of love that ben already knows that, if you get stuck on the exact lyrics, shouting "O-H!" is a good bet.  

in this case, the O-Hs became increasingly louder.

and, because all good buckeyes are programmed to respond with a requisite "I-O!," i did eventually go into his room.

to lovingly tell him I-O and to go to sleep.

it's official. i'm decrepit.

that's right friends. 
today it became fact. 
i'm old. 
or at least i'm "old" compared to the people i work with most. 
how did i finally accept this reality? 
thanks for asking . . . 

this is the first week of Resident Advisor training at OSU. 
today, the morning topics centered on mental health and front line response. 
but the morning began with a festive little spirit contest in which each hall was asked to have a mascot. 
(my personal winner was the Secret Service Agent from BP. he stayed in character in an impressive way.)
the morning also began with a rather stellar maneuver on my part. 
this was the one where i try to kneel on one of those fold-down chairs in a lecture hall and talk to the person behind me, and i put my knees too far back, causing the chair to fold back up, and i fall forward and practically land in the lap of the person i'm talking to.
you know, that one. 
it's a classic, really. 
the person i almost fell on was Beth Peters. 
one of the full-time staff members i supervise as of this summer.
i felt it was a good maneuver  to help boost her level of confidence in my leadership, and overall, abilities.
so i made sure to do it in front of her entire RA staff.
FYI- this scenario is not at all relevant to today's post. 
it's just that, sometimes, i feel like a good portion of my life has been an audition for America's Funniest Home Videos that someone forgot to record. 
so i share it now with you.

anyway. 
i went and found something solid to sit on and we listened to the staff from the campus counseling center.
at the end, we broke out into small group sessions.
on her way by, Beth stopped to tell me that she liked my scarf that i was wearing.
that it was, "mommy chic."
my instant reaction?
a pouty lip.
you see, beth meant this as a compliment.
(thanks, beth)
but what two immediate thoughts went through my mind?

1. the only fashion image that corresponds to a maternal role is MOM JEANS.
this is never a good thing.
2. oh my gosh. i have become so "old" that when i wear something cute, it is an accomplishment. 

so clearly, there was only one way to deal with the situation.
approach Beth during lunch at the commons and take the following picture. 

super-classy residential dining establishment reenactment.
the soft serve is behind us.
photo credit: Tyler Palsgrove. on my phone. under duress.

i am going to choose to believe that most mom's aren't hanging out in an Atlas Shrugged shirt, and give myself two points for not acting too much like i've given up quite yet.

also, i felt much better when i went back and noted her behavior in her performance review.

disclaimers:

i heart beth.

no, beth did not actually give me a complex.

(i work with enough young people to feel youthful via osmosis.)

no, i did not note this "incident" in her evaluation.

yes, i do always know where the soft serve is. 

almost like an analogy

scene: dinner
cast: anth

"this dinner is hot like the sun is gross."

um.
so close, honey.
so close.

filling out the form

benny officially transitioned to the toddler room at daycare today. 
he is pretty darn excited about this. 
especially because his teacher's name is ben. 
this makes his teacher, "Big Ben."
this does not, however, make benny "Little Ben."
do not make this mistake. 
trust me. 


along with benny's transition, the daycare center asks the parents to fill out a form about their child for the new teacher. 
this makes perfect sense. 
i asked benny to help me fill out the form. 
here were his two cents...


Favorite Food: gum!!! 
(i believe this is somewhere on the new food pyramid. no? oops.)
Least Favorite Food: (makes face) pickles 
(i have photographic evidence of his feelings on this.)
What Makes Your Child Feel Better When They Are Upset: pat my back.
What Frightens Your Child: ghosts! 
(clearly, ben has had a lot of encounters with ghosts in his three years.)


the form went on to include other things like allergies and discipline methods at home. 
but i came to one line that stopped me in my tracks. 
Please Describe Your Child's Disposition. 


though it is clearly not what i wrote down, "i apologize in advance" may have briefly crossed my mind. 


Happy Day 1 of Pre-School for my sweet boy and Happy Day one of RA Training to our staff!

life's a beach

slowly, but surely, i will actually post the pictures from our trip to California. 

more slowly than surely, perhaps. 

little man has been working on writing his name. 

N's are tough, so we are still helping him master those. 

also tough?

properly applying sunscreen. 

so when i say i managed to get a pretty bad sunburn while at the beach, i am talking about aesthetics more than the degree of the burn. 

:)

:(

what i didn't share in the last post about San Clemente was that, on our first night, just as we were ready to leave, we were paying a last visit to the water line. 

where anth lost his balance. 

and became temporarily confused as to which way the tide was going. 

this resulted in him regaining his balance and then proceeding to fall face first into an inch of water. 

let's just say he was less than interested in the water for the rest of the trip. 

which was all of it. 

ben loved the water and sand equally. 

not only did anth "eat it" at the shoreline. 

he apparently, thanks to my brilliant photographic timing, ate this frisbee. 

benny & grandma.

grandma, defiantly not looking at whatever grandpa is pointing out to them. 

ok, so being completely honest here, i clearly clicked on the wrong photo to load to this post. 

but this was from back in the timeshare. 

aren't anth's and bern's hands freakishly similar?

furthermore, aren't they freakishly patient with me for posing for this shot?

fail photo 36: let's hope ben isn't an engineer

when she was little, my sister katie had a wooden train set.
actually, that's not a fair qualifier.
technically, she is 4' 10" or 4' 11", depending on who you ask.
hmm.
when she was younger, my sister katie had a wooden train set.

my mom was smart and saved this for future use.
it is now one of ben's favorite things to play with when we visit Grandma and Grandpa Welch.
we brought it down to the beach with us . . .

apparently, even ben could see the flaw in his design.

tech savvy

partway through our time at the beach, my sister and her boyfriend, Jeff, flew in from Hawaii to join the fun. 

my parents had us all over to their place for dinner so that we could all fit in the same place. 

at one point after dinner, the adults were chatting around the kitchen table, and the boys were hanging out watching Rio in the family room. 

it was a nice, calm, conversation. 

until bern turned his head to check on ben. 

and suddenly, bern was mid-air running toward ben, and all i heard was, "OhMyGoodnessBen, AreYouSendingEmailsFromMyPhone?!?!"

haha. 

oops. 

if you received a strange email from my husband in early august. 

and were wondering, but didn't want to bring it up. 

that's why.