Man, I'm pretty tired this morning. Didn't sleep well last night at all. Some time late, my youngest daughter woke up crying. Laying in my bed comfortably, I had hoped she might fall back to sleep on her own. However, her weeping only became louder and I could tell by the shadows coming from her room that she was also roaming around. Crap.
I got up and entered her bedroom where I found her pacing around in circles, mumbling incoherently to herself. She whimpered about nonsensical things and kept stumbling around as if she was looking for something. My attempts to console her failed and she only cried louder and her tempo picked up speed. And as I began to wake up more, I realized the urgency to get her to the bathroom.
"Come on, Sweetie, let's go to the potty!" I urgently suggested to her. "Hurry, go to the bathroom right now."
She nodded in agreement and scampered toward the bathroom still talking to herself. I switched on the lights and began helping her remove her pajamas.
I can't exactly remember what I noticed first...the smell, the wet warmth on my feet, or the sound of a trickling waterfall gently splashing onto our bathroom floor.
"Oh come on!" I exclaimed aloud. At that point, there wasn't much I could do but to let her just stand there and finish. Once the flood gates had opened, there was no stopping it. "Wow, that's a lot of urine," I thought to myself. Watching the sea of gold spread across the floor really accentuated it's sheer volume. I soaked up the mess with a towel and cleaned her up as well. Undoubtedly, she had to feel much better as she then jetted off back to her bed.
I don't know if she ever was awake the whole time, but by the end of the saga I was wired and had difficulty falling asleep. Hence my 3 cups of coffee this morning. Admittedly, I'm having a hard time motivating myself today. Getting peed on in the middle of the night can do that to a person though.
Now, if you'll excuse me, I have a bath towel that is in need of a thorough washing.
Thursday, May 21, 2009
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
Graff kids pics
Here's a few pics from a recent shoot. These kids were great to work with as well as their parents. We couldn't have asked for a better day of weather.
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
Monday, May 18, 2009
April Fool
With this blog, I try to be as honest as possible. I think I owe it to my blog’s readers – all 3 of them. On occasion, I use poor judgment and make mistakes. No, really I do. I was thinking of one such instance and here’s my account of the situation. Maybe some of you have similar experiences yourselves - probably not though.
Last April 1st I had settled the girls in their beds for the night, and brainstormed the ingenious idea to prank them. As far as I knew, it would be their first April Fool’s joke experience.
“Well, girls, I have something to tell you,” I started out. “As you all know, Mommy hasn’t felt the greatest lately. She’s had an achy belly and has felt yucky. Well, she doesn’t have the flu.”
“What daddy? What does she have?” my oldest daughter asked.
“Well, she has something called ‘morning sickness’. Mommies get ‘morning sickness’ when they are pregnant and are going to have a baby,” I informed them. I could hardly say that with a straight face, believing this to be a grand joke on the three unsuspecting girls. I expected their reactions to be of shock, maybe perhaps of absolute terror at the thought of their mom having another baby.
Wrong.
“You mean, Mommy is going to have a baby?” my oldest daughter questioned with her big blue eyes welling up with tears of joy.
At that moment, I realized that her father was an absolute idiot. My heart sank, as I now knew that I horribly miscalculated how they’d receive that news.
“Ummm, April Fool’s!” I shouted, nervously awaiting their response. Fortunately, I think I confused the younger two with the term ‘morning sickness’, and they stopped listening to me a while ago. However, the elder sibling still sat there, confused as ever.
“You mean, Mommy isn’t going to have a baby? Why would you say that then? Who’s April Fools?” she asked, still trying to figure out what was going on.
I briefly described the principle idea behind April Fool’s Day and then started to sincerely apologize for the joke gone horribly wrong. She listened, still a little excited from the initial thought of having another baby in the family. For a moment, I actually considered how fun it would be to inform the girls if we really did have another baby. That brief moment gave way to reality, as I snapped out of that insane notion. Now that would have been the ultimate April Fool’s joke if my wife became impregnated. By “joke” I mean “nightmare”. If that were the case, I’d definitely have some strong words for my urologist.
My daughter, still slightly disappointed in the fact her daddy was a jerk, rolled over and undoubtedly continued to think about what might have been and never will be.
Hilarious.
Last April 1st I had settled the girls in their beds for the night, and brainstormed the ingenious idea to prank them. As far as I knew, it would be their first April Fool’s joke experience.
“Well, girls, I have something to tell you,” I started out. “As you all know, Mommy hasn’t felt the greatest lately. She’s had an achy belly and has felt yucky. Well, she doesn’t have the flu.”
“What daddy? What does she have?” my oldest daughter asked.
“Well, she has something called ‘morning sickness’. Mommies get ‘morning sickness’ when they are pregnant and are going to have a baby,” I informed them. I could hardly say that with a straight face, believing this to be a grand joke on the three unsuspecting girls. I expected their reactions to be of shock, maybe perhaps of absolute terror at the thought of their mom having another baby.
Wrong.
“You mean, Mommy is going to have a baby?” my oldest daughter questioned with her big blue eyes welling up with tears of joy.
At that moment, I realized that her father was an absolute idiot. My heart sank, as I now knew that I horribly miscalculated how they’d receive that news.
“Ummm, April Fool’s!” I shouted, nervously awaiting their response. Fortunately, I think I confused the younger two with the term ‘morning sickness’, and they stopped listening to me a while ago. However, the elder sibling still sat there, confused as ever.
“You mean, Mommy isn’t going to have a baby? Why would you say that then? Who’s April Fools?” she asked, still trying to figure out what was going on.
I briefly described the principle idea behind April Fool’s Day and then started to sincerely apologize for the joke gone horribly wrong. She listened, still a little excited from the initial thought of having another baby in the family. For a moment, I actually considered how fun it would be to inform the girls if we really did have another baby. That brief moment gave way to reality, as I snapped out of that insane notion. Now that would have been the ultimate April Fool’s joke if my wife became impregnated. By “joke” I mean “nightmare”. If that were the case, I’d definitely have some strong words for my urologist.
My daughter, still slightly disappointed in the fact her daddy was a jerk, rolled over and undoubtedly continued to think about what might have been and never will be.
Hilarious.
Friday, May 15, 2009
Easter remnants
It's been approximately 33 days since Easter Sunday and I'm still finding this crap in all sorts of weird places -fake grass from Easter baskets. It's like a green plastic plague that refuses to go away. It sticks to the broom, the dog, the furniture and sometimes the children.
This is one of many domestic issues that I probably wouldn't have noticed before my conversion to stay-at-home dad status. I keep fighting the good fight, throwing away these annoying strands of debris, but just when I think I'm winning another one pops up someplace. It may be breeding - can't say for certain. I've even found some in the dog's piles in our backyard. Apparently she's eaten some of it before. Maybe if I don't give her dog food for a couple days she'll eat more of it.
Have a great weekend.
Thursday, May 14, 2009
Lunch date
Being a stay-at-home dad has many advantages. One of which is that I can choose to have lunch with my kids at their school if I so desire. Yesterday, I so desired.
My usual weekday companion and I went to share lunch with my 9 year-old daughter. We signed in at the office and waited patiently for her class to come by. After several minutes of standing around, we met up with them and my 2 girls hugged as if they hadn't seen each other in days. In reality, it had only been a matter of about 3 hours. Nevertheless, it was nice to witness such affection for one another. Our 3 girls all really do care for each other, they're each others' best friend. But just like any other siblings, some days the "hugs" can be substituted with "chokes".
My 4 year-old and I had packed a lunch for ourselves, but the oldest child elected to buy hers on this day. The peculiar looking meat which I later learned was "popcorn chicken" didn't look real appetizing to me. She thought it was wonderful. And at the time of this blog being posted, she has yet to get sick. Yowza.
We sat on the small cafeteria benches and started making small talk. I readied my youngest daughter's lunch and we talked about how everybody's morning had gone. And then a small boy with messy hair sat down across from us. He was more than excited to talk about his day. For the sake of anonymity, we'll call him "Bob". Bob was a bit of a nervous high strung child who instantly started rapidly chatting about how he had forgotten many things already that morning.
"I can't believe this! I forgot barbecue sauce. Earlier I forgot my pencil. And guess what else I forgot? My napkins. What is wrong with me?" spouted off Bob.
"Easy there, Bob," I counseled. "We all have one of those days sometimes." I think Bob's parents probably keep an eye on how much sugar he ingests. I fear the poor kid's eyeballs would pop out of his head if he ate a whole bag of Skittles.
Trying to politely avoid further conversation with Bob, I looked at my 2 little girls and thought to myself how quickly time was going by. It didn't seem too long ago that my 3rd grader was in Kindergarten. I had several lunches with her at her school that year. And each time, she would start out sitting next to me. Then, little by little, she'd nestle closer to me until she finally just made her way up onto my lap. I loved the fact that she didn't care one lick about who saw her do it, because as far as she was concerned, it was the natural thing to do.
Fast forward a few years to yesterday. Feeling a bit nostalgic I asked her, "Do you remember how you used to sit on my lap when I ate lunch with you at school?"
For a moment, her eyes kind of widened and she looked at me fearfully. She replied, "No. I did that?"
"Yeah, but don't worry, I'm not going to ask you to do it now. But it was sure nice when you used to." She seemed to sigh with a little bit of relief at the news her father wasn't going to make her look like a baby in front of her friends. Although I don't know if anybody would have even said anything. They all seemed pretty occupied with their chicken popcorn. And Lord knows that Bob had his own issues going on across the table.
When the period was over, we said "good bye" and I gave her a quick kiss. There was a slight hesitation on her part but she didn't seem to mind too much. "I love you, Daddy. Have a good day," she said as she scurried off with the rest of her classmates.
"Thanks, Honey. You too." I reciprocated. "I'll see you after school."
In my mind, the song "Puff the Magic Dragon" started playing. Jackie Paper had just decided to come see Puff no more. I suppose that's a little over-indulgent on my part. But on occasion, certain little moments like this leave a significant impression on me. Maybe it's because I'm getting older or maybe it's just that little girls have that effect on their daddies. It's hard to say.
And then, instead of feeling depressed, I began feeling blessed to have three little girls who I adore. Apparently they dig me as well. Satisfied with that assessment, my 3 1/2ft. tall buddy and I exited the cafeteria. The nostalgic sadness quickly wore off and the rest of the day was great.
Hopefully Bob got his act together as well.
My usual weekday companion and I went to share lunch with my 9 year-old daughter. We signed in at the office and waited patiently for her class to come by. After several minutes of standing around, we met up with them and my 2 girls hugged as if they hadn't seen each other in days. In reality, it had only been a matter of about 3 hours. Nevertheless, it was nice to witness such affection for one another. Our 3 girls all really do care for each other, they're each others' best friend. But just like any other siblings, some days the "hugs" can be substituted with "chokes".
My 4 year-old and I had packed a lunch for ourselves, but the oldest child elected to buy hers on this day. The peculiar looking meat which I later learned was "popcorn chicken" didn't look real appetizing to me. She thought it was wonderful. And at the time of this blog being posted, she has yet to get sick. Yowza.
We sat on the small cafeteria benches and started making small talk. I readied my youngest daughter's lunch and we talked about how everybody's morning had gone. And then a small boy with messy hair sat down across from us. He was more than excited to talk about his day. For the sake of anonymity, we'll call him "Bob". Bob was a bit of a nervous high strung child who instantly started rapidly chatting about how he had forgotten many things already that morning.
"I can't believe this! I forgot barbecue sauce. Earlier I forgot my pencil. And guess what else I forgot? My napkins. What is wrong with me?" spouted off Bob.
"Easy there, Bob," I counseled. "We all have one of those days sometimes." I think Bob's parents probably keep an eye on how much sugar he ingests. I fear the poor kid's eyeballs would pop out of his head if he ate a whole bag of Skittles.
Trying to politely avoid further conversation with Bob, I looked at my 2 little girls and thought to myself how quickly time was going by. It didn't seem too long ago that my 3rd grader was in Kindergarten. I had several lunches with her at her school that year. And each time, she would start out sitting next to me. Then, little by little, she'd nestle closer to me until she finally just made her way up onto my lap. I loved the fact that she didn't care one lick about who saw her do it, because as far as she was concerned, it was the natural thing to do.
Fast forward a few years to yesterday. Feeling a bit nostalgic I asked her, "Do you remember how you used to sit on my lap when I ate lunch with you at school?"
For a moment, her eyes kind of widened and she looked at me fearfully. She replied, "No. I did that?"
"Yeah, but don't worry, I'm not going to ask you to do it now. But it was sure nice when you used to." She seemed to sigh with a little bit of relief at the news her father wasn't going to make her look like a baby in front of her friends. Although I don't know if anybody would have even said anything. They all seemed pretty occupied with their chicken popcorn. And Lord knows that Bob had his own issues going on across the table.
When the period was over, we said "good bye" and I gave her a quick kiss. There was a slight hesitation on her part but she didn't seem to mind too much. "I love you, Daddy. Have a good day," she said as she scurried off with the rest of her classmates.
"Thanks, Honey. You too." I reciprocated. "I'll see you after school."
In my mind, the song "Puff the Magic Dragon" started playing. Jackie Paper had just decided to come see Puff no more. I suppose that's a little over-indulgent on my part. But on occasion, certain little moments like this leave a significant impression on me. Maybe it's because I'm getting older or maybe it's just that little girls have that effect on their daddies. It's hard to say.
And then, instead of feeling depressed, I began feeling blessed to have three little girls who I adore. Apparently they dig me as well. Satisfied with that assessment, my 3 1/2ft. tall buddy and I exited the cafeteria. The nostalgic sadness quickly wore off and the rest of the day was great.
Hopefully Bob got his act together as well.
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
Rob & Kristy's wedding
This past Saturday I had the opportunity to photograph Rob & Kristy's wedding -what a great couple to work with. They are about as easy going people as you'll find. From a photographer's stand point, that is wonderful. It was a fun group of people to hang around with and we came away with some nice images of their wedding day.
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