Daily Picture Grade 4 - Day 112

Since we are never going to see the sun again Shanghai, it was nice to have a warm child this morning. We were talking about the tv shows she used to watch when she was little. Nothing like a little nostalgia to make a 9 year-old smile! 

"Remember the Wiggles?"

Daily Picture Grade 4 - Day 111

I have her smile back today. Thought I would showcase that. She came home after play practice and when straight to her room. Tom asked her why and she said she assumed that we weren't going to feed her dinner as we were mad at her. Turns out her anger lats night stemmed from the messages she and I were sending each other on the ipads. I told her that dinner was in the kitchen and to come down. She said she wanted us to bring upstairs and leave on the steps. I told her we don't "feed children who are disrespectful and unappreciative". She stopped speaking. Anyway, missile crisis avoided. She ate a ton of spaghetti and seemed to have recovered. Good lesson to parents though: you need to always give your a child a way of getting out of an emotional maze they seem to create when frustrated. We used Tom's bare feet as a lifeline. I don't want to explain that as I found it disturbing when happening. However, it made her laugh and broke the anger wall.


Love being a parent. Every day brings yet another opportunity to make you feel either like a mean troll under a bridge asking for tolls your child cannot pay or a court jester who can diffuse a kingdoms threat of class warfare by telling a good "pull my finger" joke. Do we ever get to be the white knight? I hope so. I have the BEST place to get a dress for that.

"Glad my parents are feeding me again!"

Daily Picture Grade 4 - Day 110

Natalie is not speaking to me today (long story that I am not sure I can explain as it seems to be related to me not feeding her enough but I am not sure.) so no theme yet this week. I guess we could go with "I am not even a pre-teen yet my attitude can fill a room" theme. Or "100 ways to NOT be respectful". Or my personal favorite, "Faces I make when I am trying be aloof but all I really want is a hug from my mom, however I am too stubborn to say it!". I could probably go on, but shouldn't... I will use her real quote, or an approximation as I was not awake when she tossed it out!


[Side note: I just had major panic attack as I thought I had lost 95% of the content in my Adobe Elements Organizer (that's 30,630 items spanning from 1998-Feb 2012). My last back up was before Christmas! Turns out I had filtered OUT photos and was only looking at videos. Whew! That will get you energized on a Monday!!!!]
[[2nd Side note: uncovering this mistake also let me to the discovery that I did not publish Day 108! The downside of a daily picture project is the panic induced by 'missing' a day or getting things out of order. Rest easy, I have got things back on track!]]

"I guess your point is to starve me?"

Daily Picture Grade 4 - Day 108

Oops, I forgot Day 108? That is weird! I am wondering if I just missed Thursday all together?

"Chopin!"

Daily Picture Grade 4 - Day 109

Last day of feet! 

"Oh, the places we will go!"

Daily Picture Grade 4 - Day 107

Very hard to take these kinds of shots with the on-board flash! Not quick enough. Need to buy a small spotlight I guess. Or I guess I could have hung from the ceiling light. Perhaps not...

"Hangin' With Mao"

Daily Picture Grade 4 - Day 106

A bean bag, one shoe, one lonely sock on the side (which you may recognize as the dirty sock from yesterday's picture). This girl is a mess!

"This is actually kind of peaceful."

Daily Picture Grade 4 - Day 105

Anyone who knows me might not believe that this week's theme was my idea! Not a feet person. Oh, and Natalie never wears matching socks by choice. Also glad we could advertise Justice!

"Casual Chick"

Daily Picture Grade 4 - Day 104

Couldn't do this without using the pencil! So, took a picture of the pencil! LOL

"I'm a cross-eyed cuckoo!"

Daily Picture Grade 4 - Day 103

"I'm gonna pop!"

Daily Picture Grade 4 - Day 102

Natalie does not make a good ghoul or other scary creature...

"Scary face... Gaaaa!!!!!"

Daily Picture Grade 4 - Day 101

That's a whole lotta face!

"Happy Valentine's Day!"

Daily Picture Grade 4 - Day 100

100 Days of School! Time goes fast. But not really. It takes about 10 minutes to take and process a daily picture (average as some are quick and some are not). That's 1000 minutes. That's 16 2/3 hours. A whole day. I could look at it two ways. I could say "wow, I could have done so much with that day". But I prefer "Look at what I have for that 100 days.". I was running back through the pictures this morning and I love seeing the good and the bad that comes with that. Her grumpy mornings. Her sad mornings. Her laughing mornings. And we get a whole lot more laughing than crying. Of course there are no boys involved with our mornings yet! Sigh...

"Let's do faces this week!"

Daily Picture Grade 4 - Day 99

Last night we attended the opening night of the CISS Middle School Play, "Geek or Greek?". Congratulations to all of the kids because it was hilarious! Unfortunately, it meant we got home after 9pm AND since it was bath night, Natalie was up this morning early to take a shower before school. As usual, showering in the morning causes many grumbles. To keep her from grumbling when we had to blow dry her hair, I let her play with the camera. Realized that we give our children distractions like that at every age. A rattle when they are little so we can change their diaper, a Nikon Dx40 when they are 9 to get through a morning bath! Whatever, it worked!

"The Subject becomes the Creator"

Daily Picture Grade 4 - Day 98

Not as funny on picture as it was in producing! The thing in front is one of those slimy toy things you throw on a wall or floor that is meant to capture every germ within 15 feet of it. Her eyes are closed because she didn't trust her dad not to hit her with it. Well, we all got a good laugh anyway...

"Don't hit me with the slimy alien!"

Daily Picture Grade 4 - Day 97

Natalie is finishing up her 100th Anniversary Challenge for Girl Scouts so it seems that every spare moment is spent working on it! Wish she had not waited until the last week. Today she is finishing up a collage of 25 friends. It was fun to look at some old pictures!

"Wow, I have a lot of friends!"

Daily Picture Grade 4 - Day 96

Natalie wanted to include her pet hamster Cinnamon today! Too bad Natalie is afraid of bites. Poor hamster doesn't make it out of the cage unless Tom handles it. But Natalie carries around the cage and talks to her. That counts for something, right?

"Good morning Cinnamon!"

Daily Picture Grade 4 - Day 95

Super Bowl Monday! (congrats to NY Giants!) She wanted me to be in the picture with her but couldn't figure out how to get my timer to work! Anyway, she made a nice sign for me. Oh, and yes, her hair did look that when she went to school. Seems to look worse in the picture? Maybe I was rushing her to school so I could get to the party? Hmmm...

"I love my Mom. Really."

Daily Picture Grade 4 - Day 94

2nd day of APAC. CISS Girls won both their games yesterday. Boys lost. Natalie was showing me the cheer they do for CISS (Concordia International School Shanghai). This is an "S". I chose the "S" rather than the "I" where you could see her face as she had orange pulp all over it. Hope that got wiped off before she went to school!

"Give me an S!"

Daily Picture Grade 4 - Day 93

Today starts the Asia Pacific Activities Conference (APAC) Basketball tournament at Concordia. That is one cool thing of attending an international school, your sports leagues are not from the next county or state! They are thousands of miles away! Hence the tournament is a big deal. Here are the teams that will be participating:

• American International School of Guangzhou [AISG]
• Brent International School Manila [BISM]
• Canadian Academy [CA]
• Concordia International School Shanghai [CISS]
• Hong Kong International School [HKIS]
• International School of Beijing [ISB]
• Seoul Foreign School [SFS]
• Shanghai American School, Pudong [SASPD]
• Shanghai American School, Puxi [SASPX]
• Taejon Christian International School [TCIS]
• United Nations International School of Hanoi [UNIS]
• Western Academy of Beijing [WAB]

The students all were allowed to wear APAC shirts to school today. They get to go cheer Concordia on during their games this afternoon! You can check out the live status here. Go Phoenix!

(A side note on the picture. We took 6 because she kept making funny faces. This is not the one she picked, but this one made me laugh because she was trying to be a Phoenix!)

"Go Phoenix!"

Daily Picture Grade 4 - Day 92

Today saw us all hit the 5:00 a.m. mark! Yeah. At least jet lag is predictable! I woke up at 3:00, but was able to go back to sleep. Let me explain today's picture. Natalie had a math problem that she couldn't understand. I tried to explain it. But she just couldn't process it! Hence, the back. They grow up too fast...

"I still can't figure it out mom..."