3 year old racist?

Life with kids is never dull, never boring. Just when you think you have everything down and life's road ahead looks straight and smooth, you fly over a speed bump.

Aislynn's two teachers and the director had to talk to us about our sweet little Aislynn. She was "reported". Yes, reported. Parents of a little girl came in to complain about my 3 year old. Now, sometimes she doesn't listen and there was ONE hiting incident that never happened again. But this was a reality check kind of report. The parents complained that Aislynn wouldn't play with their daughter because she was black.

Everyone knows that kids say what's on their mind (I have another story about that later), but I'm pretty shocked that my daughter would make such a bold statement on her own. She's 3! According to Aislynn, she did "say 'black' to (insert name here)". But what does that really mean? Do I really believe that my 3 year old daughter answered this other little girl with the statement, "I don't want to play with you because you are black!"? I'm not sure. She has another little friend that is black. She has friends that are all different races; that's what I love about it out here. The different cultures and people that make you realize and understand what a small part of the world you really are.

I had to work late, so I wasn't able to sit down and really talk to her about this. I asked her if she was friends with this little girl. She said yes. I told her how special it was that we were all made to be different: our eye colors, hair color, body shape, and skin color. She looked at me and said, "am I in trouble for saying 'black' to (insert name)?" Reality - she's 3. She wasn't calling her "black". She was stating a fact. Just like the time that Tyler referred to his best friend at school "his brown friend". Kids are honest and him and Aislynn were stating a difference. Now that I sit here and write this out, I realize that stating a difference isn't in line for a punishment. This is the time when the parents need to come out of the bat cave after the distress beacon is alarmed. A perfect situation for parenting. These are the opportunities that we as parents are going to stumble upon that will make or break how your offspring is going to live and thrive in society.

I looked at Aislynn and I didn't have any words. She's 3.

It made me think of the other parents and what they are saying to their little girl. "Run and tell us when someone says your different!"
"The world is wrong! You're not different!"
"That cracker will never hurt you again!"

Okay, I know. Overboard. I'll never know what really happened between Aislynn and this kid. I just think that if you make the choice to overreact as a parent and rush to point fingers, you'll set your child and yourself up for failure. Life is such a learning experience that I wish had Cliff Notes. Kids say what they think, and stating a fact is not crime. Not when you are 3.

2 Minute Blog

I have 2 minutes.

It's a full moon so that means one thing: all of the phone calls that I am going to receive today at work are going to be crazy.

Why does a full moon do that to people? I guess that I could blame it on the time change.

The End.

Photography and a Brat.

I'm tired.

Shot an Engagement Party yesterday and it still amazes me how tiring taking pictures can be. Don't get me wrong... I love that I am getting paid to do this, but wow! I know why photographers charge so much.

I arrived at 1 pm which it the time that the bride-to-be told me to get there. The room was empty. I called her and she told me that she forgot the cake. She had wanted to do group shots before 2, so I just guessed that this wasn't going to happen.

She arrived at about 1:45 pm, and so I started. The party was at a bowling alley in Universal City. Very cool place. They had a private room that had WII hooked up, then we hit the lanes. I walked out with about 250(?) photos and after processing I have 150. Not bad! That just means that my skills are improving! Waaaa hooooo! I also was able to have those 150 shots color balanced and cleaned up in less then 3 hours.

On another note, Tyler got into some trouble at school. His behavior at the beginning of last week was AWESOME! On Thursday it went down the toilet. Ryan was told at the after school program that he has not been listening to the coaches and he was even talking back. That didn't fly with me. He was grounded to his room for the rest of Friday night and ALL of Saturday and half of Sunday. "But he's only 5!" you might say. Well, when 5 year old child starts behaving like a 14 year old brat, a 5 minute time out sure isn't going to get the point across that his attitude needs an adjustment. Not respecting people does not fly in this house. Ryan and I raised him better then that. I never have heard of a child acting better towards their parents then their teachers. I gave my mom full attitude growing up, but I was always nicer to my teachers. She would comment on it all the time: "Missy, I just don't understand why you are such a brat at home but so good at school!".

Sorry, Mom!

New Pictures. A little of everything...

I haven't introduced any new pictures to the blog in months. So let's go digging on the external hard drive and see what I can come up with...


Just a silly picture of myself since I'm always BEHIND the camera.


Tyler and Teddy at the skate park.


Aislynn at dance class. She's a ham...


On the big ferris wheel in Santa Monica. Taken around Christmas time.


Tyler... He's so handsome.

More to come! I just uploaded some from this past weekend.