Sunday, October 2, 2011

School Pictures

When I was a girl, nothing was funnier in Sunday morning cartoons than Calvin subverting the will of his parents and teachers, especially on school picture day.  He put Crisco in his hair to make it shiny (and pliable).  He made faces like these:


And this:

In fact, the second picture was my facebook profile picture a few months back, because I still found it so funny. 

And, then came this fall's school pictures for my girls.  Sarah announced she wanted to dress like a mime this year, with black beret and turtleneck, and black and white makeup.  I was a little taken aback.  In my experience, most thwarting by kids of school picture day was done in the early years.  My baby brother Loren once cut his own hair the night before school picture and looked the next morning like a scalped former prisoner of war, albeit one in kindergarten.  Cathy tattooed a penguin onto the center of her forehead the night before her first grade photos, which were coincidentally on September 11th, 2001. 


Most of the penguin came off with a warm washcloth.  But, not all.  Cathy was five and loved penguins.

Sarah, on the other hand, was thirteen this fall.  She should have known better.  I perhaps also should have known better after she told me about her mime idea.  So, when her school pictures arrived, and she burst out laughing, I did, too.  After a moment of silence.


Yes, that's my girl.  My cross eyed girl with borrowed horn-rimmed glasses.  In a way, it's true what our moms used to tell us.  If you cross your eyes, they will get stuck that way.  This moment of time will be frozen forever, with my baby girl making a face at the camera.  And, if she gets irritated at my blogging about her moment of subversive triumph, well, isn't that what school pictures are for but for parents to show off? 

Momma gets the last laugh, honey badger. 

2 comments:

  1. Even cross-eyed, Sarah still looks beautiful! As a kid I took everything so seriously and worried too much. It would NEVER have occurred to me to subvert school pictures. I wanted so much to please--even with my school pictures. I don't know if Loren was trying to subvert school pictures or just cut his hair. Some of the haircuts Dad gave Mark and me were rather bowl-like. In the photos Father Zee took of Mom, Dad, Mark, Karl, and me, I must have been about 5 or 6. I had the world's shortest bangs ever found on a girl! :-) Dad tried. And I try, too. Sarah's horn-rim glasses look like MINE. EEK! Now I know the next time I need glasses I need to get new frames. Maybe I'll even ask Sarah to go with me to pick out frames--without her eyes crossed!

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  2. Ha! I love it. She's got spunk! One year Aaron (who has red hair) got a Mohawk. Another year Adam dyed his hair bright blue...tho the novelty wore off before picture day and it was a wash out color. :)

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