Things

-- It felt odd letting my kid wander around in a sleeveless dress on Thanksgiving. It was like I was being a bad parent or something because, you know, LATE NOVEMBER. SLEEVELESS. Except, during the four minutes I managed to force her to wear a coat? She whined her little head off. Also, we found that dress at a Target in Ohio for $7. Do you not like Mossimo, Ohio? No? You're weird.

-- There are a ton of giveaways going on over on the Review page. You should go enter them all.

• $100 Spafinder Gift Card from BlogHer and Dove
• A Little Monster Fun and Learn Book from me
• A free photography session and prints from Nerd Behind the Lens
• Curious Critters from me

I have a ton more that will be going up in the next few weeks, most from local businesses because I like to feature Pittsburgh awesomeness. If you have a piece of Pittsburgh awesomeness and you'd like to give something away to my readers, shoot me an email using the contact form up in the bar way at the top of the screen (if you have already contacted me, hang tight, I'm working through the emails and will be in touch soon).

-- There are a bunch of new posts up on the Photography Blog, including some gift guides. You can check out some fun stuff to buy photography lovers.

• Gifts for Photography Lovers: The Under $10 Edition
• Gifts for Photography Lovers: The Under $30 Edition
• Gifts for Photography Lovers: The First Lens Edition

More soon!

-- I finally added tags to recipe and chalk portrait posts, so now you can see all of them with one click. The tags are listed near the little comments link at the end of the appropriate posts, or you can cheat and click these links:

• Recipes!
• Chalk Portraits!

-- Christmas Crazy is still going, so if you've got a buck or ten that you'd like to have go towards helping Womansplace make Christmas better for kids, hop to it!

Changes

If you follow me on twitter, then you already know that I'm sitting at home on my couch and that it's not for any of the right reasons.

Today the company where I have worked for the past four years informed me that my position had been eliminated.

I sort of expected the conversation, but I thought (hoped?) that it wasn't coming for a few more weeks. I worked there as the Training Manager, coordinating the professional development of our staff. I launched an online corporate university, successfully initiated a management training program, and managed a number of other really important and complex projects, but when a company is bleeding money as badly as that company is, training is often the first thing to be cut. It doesn't matter how valuable (and in some instances federally mandated) that training is, when something has to go, it will be on the list.

So I was on the list. Laid off. A few weeks before Christmas. Without any sort of severance. (But, hey! I'm looking like a genius for hoarding vacation days now! At least there's that.)

Mr. Husband and I are still sort of reeling from the news. Like I said, I was relatively certain it was coming, but certainly didn't expect it today. And, I'll be honest, I had no clue that a company which I thought cared about its people would lay them off without some sort of severance.  That bit blind-sided me.

But, we'll figure it out. It's what we do, after all.

In the meantime, I'll just be sitting here wrapping Alexis' Christmas gifts and being incredibly grateful that I finished shopping for her a long time ago. We are committed to making sure she is not negatively impacted during this bumpy ride, and knowing that she will have the sort of Christmas we want to give her is a huge relief.

Oh, and a huge thanks to everyone who has left encouraging words on twitter. I am incredibly grateful to have so many amazing and fantastic and kind people in my life. And, yes, I am talking about you. So, thank you.

This Apple Is Going To Beat The Crap Out Of Me As It Falls

For the record, I told the principal it would happen. If you ask her now, she'll admit as much.

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I don't talk about it much here for a lot of reasons, not the least of which being that everyone's baby is the smartest baby on the planet, but, yeah, Alexis is a bit advanced for her age. She started talking early, she started working her way through the alphabet early, and she started reading early. It's not bragging, it's just a fact. The kid is destined to be a bit of a nerd.

Apple. Trees. You know the saying.

The difference between us, however, is that I have always been OK with being slightly less than perfect. An A- is still an A, after all. For Alexis, an A- is going to be a problem. The kid positively flips out if she doesn't do something exactly perfect. Yeah, yeah, I know a lot of kids are like that. You'll just have to trust me that she takes it to incredible extremes.

Exhibit A: She was reading for a full year before she would admit that she was reading. She would sneak up to her bedroom, pull out a book, and read. REALLY READ. It wasn't memorization because she could do it with brand new books that I hadn't cracked open. But, if she sensed that there was anybody within earshot of her, she would instantly stop reading and start making up a story instead.

All. The. Time.

It used to make me positively crazy. Eventually we managed to work through her insistence that she be a perfect reader before she let anyone hear her, but it took a lot of time.

And I knew for a fact that she would pull the same sort of stunt in kindergarten.

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When I went to Alexis' parent teacher conference a while back, there was exactly one moment that stood out. When Alexis' teacher casually said, "I'm going to test her for the early reader program in January," I swear DJ Jazzy Jeff dropped from the ceiling, whipped out his gear, and made the loudest record scratch in the history of history.

My eyes bugged out.

I made a "Time Out" sign with my hands.

And then I laughed.

"You are getting played by a 5-year old," I told the teacher.

She was taken aback. I can't say that I blamed her.

"Test her Monday," I said. "And talk to the principal about it."

(I bet that teacher positively loves me. WHOOPS.)

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When I registered Alexis for kindergarten, I told the principal that the biggest challenge they would face with her is that she refuses to admit competency with skills until she knows she has them mastered. I specifically noted the reading example. I was promised that she would immediately be tested for the early reader program. Apparently, the principal actually heard something like, "My kid is the smartest ever! Just like every other kid you have! Because all parents think their kid is a genius!" By "immediately tested" she meant "will be tested if her teacher thinks it's necessary."

Alexis completely fooled the teacher. She straight-up played dumb, which, really? I didn't figure out to do that until 4th grade or so. OVERACHIEVER.

For nine weeks the kid managed to act the part of a more typical 5-year old. For nine weeks the teacher fell for it hook, line, and sinker.

The whole situation has since been fixed. Alexis is now reading with the first graders. She's getting specialized homework that is less of a chore and more of a fun challenge. Apologies have been thrown around, including one from Alexis to her teacher for intentionally deceiving her. Which she admits that she did. THE HELL?

Nerds aren't supposed to be good actresses. This whole thing has me very scared for the future. And for my sanity.