Yesterday was Mazzy's first parent-free day of "insurance policy". (Alright, alright— I'll start calling it SCHOOL now.) She did great. At least I think she did great. There's no way to know for sure, of course, since I wasn't there. But when I dropped her off, the other kids were all screaming and swarming the door like angry bees and Mazzy just looked at the wall of unfamiliar toys, smiled, and gave me a kiss goodbye.
She's a tough kid, my Mazzy.
In addition to Mazzy starting school, these past two weeks have been a bit crazy. For starters, I launched MyBabyLooksLike.com and at the same time, somewhat accidentally started a full-on Evil Baby Glare-Off Tournament (the logistics of which are making my head spin).
Below is a breakdown of what's what.
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MyBabyLooksLike.com
I'm adding one or two lookalikes a day. If you'd like to submit someone, you can do so here. There's an actual online form and an upload button. Fancy, right?
Otherwise, I would love if you would check out the site and rate as many lookalikes as possible. There's a five star rating underneath each picture that looks kind of sad with only a few people (aka me) weighing in.
And tell your friends! Especially if their kid looks like Alec Baldwin. Or Jeff Bridges. Or Alice from the Brady Bunch. Or Booger from Revenge of the Nerds. Or— you get the idea.
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The Baby Glare-Off
There are over 120 submissions on the Mommy Shorts facebook fanpage. Which is kind of crazy considering I have yet to determne if there is a prize. Just so you know, the facebook "likes" underneath the pictures do not determine the winner. I'm just using them to help me decide who to include in the tournament.
I'm thinking I'll use 32 babies since a 32 bracketed tournament breaks down nicely into 5 rounds. (The pool narrows each time, just like how a tennis tournament works).
But that leaves a lot of kids out.
So now I'm trying to decide whether to do two tournaments and then have the two winners face-off in the end. Which could be cool but could also drive me crazy and make everyone super sick of the tournament by the time it's over.
Anyone want to weigh in on how I should handle the insane amount of evil babies staring me down on my fanpage? 32? 64? What do you all think?
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Two-Week Recap
What else happened in the two weeks since I came home from my child-free South American escapade?
• I got accused of being a terrible parent
• Mazzy screamed "BEAR!" in a crowded theater
• Mike faced off with Mayor Bloomberg during Hurricane Irene
• Grandma and Grandpa challenged Spongebob to a cage match
• Mazzy held a grudge
• Friend hatched a plan to throw Minnie Mouse down the elevator shaft
• Cookie Monster covered Tom Waits
• Mazzy's feet applied for their own zip code
• Landon shat on Jack Sparrow (click here for the winner of the caption contest)
• Mazzy became an Apple spokesperson
• Access Hollywood paid my blog a visit
• Dr. B helped two readers talk to their children about death
• Ryan won an iPad 2— the biggest prize in Mommy Shorts history
• Lisa 'Left Eye' Lopez and The Stay Puft Marshmallow Man each one an $100 Amazon gift card
• John Candy and Alfalfa walked away with two Colossal Cupcakes from Crumbs Bakeshop.
• And someone is about to win a delux baby shower box from Citrus Lane (winner announced next Thursday, click here to enter)
And that's it.
Except one more thing.
That's Beary the Classroom Bear. He does not belong to Mazzy but all reports say she has clung to him for dear life both days of school. It's a good thing. I was worried for that bear's safety.
Have a good weekend!
—Mommy Shorts
I have no wisdom to offer you with the glare-off competition. You’ve created a monster!! Who knew there’d be so many evil babies?
Mazzy is gonna rock school.
You are getting to be the “big” girl on the blogger-block now… you may have to tell some kids “No”. Stick with 32 so we don’t get sick of seeing angry babies (just make sure one of them is mine!! :P)
So excited Mazzy likes school! That is a very good thing (for her and you!)
I think 32 is enough… it’ll take a LONG time to even get through that.
To narrow it down, though, I’d differentiate between glares and pouts. Maybe have a pout-off?
I say go with 6 of 66. Just because that would be SUPER EVIL.
Do thirty two and do one round each day so it ends on a friday and you can post the results on monday. narrow it down to 32 through your esteemed and anonymous Council of Elders.
For what it’s worth, I wouldn’t be offended if my photo wasn’t picked. I remember at the time of the photo thinking “Wow, if looks could kill”, but she looks downright docile next to some of these! 🙂
I mean really, are you going to get mad that your child is not evil ENOUGH? I know Mommy-Wars can be intense, but really? LOL
Maybe babies vs. toddlers if you’re trying to do two? Those toddlers are some mean lookin’ MO-FO’s where as the babes do evil without even knowing it!
Good luck I’m sure whatever you decide we will all LOVE!
32 is fine. Not all babies can make it in, no biggie. You have tons of contests! And I like that “likes” are not what wins contests. Some people have a lot of friends with nothing to do, and I unfortunately am not one of them. lmao
I always try to be inclusive and respond to everyone’s comments so the more readers I get, the more challenging that becomes. Growing pains I guess, which is a good thing.
Which one is yours? (Not that it will influence my decision!)
Good to know because Rebecca is totally not making the cut. Sorry, friend! Even at her evilest, your kid looks super sweet.
I don’t even know what that means.
But I like it.
Very interesting… I like the idea of just dedicating a week to the baby glare-off so it doesn’t feel like it goes on forever. Especially since once the tournament is locked and loaded, no more kids can enter.
Hmmmm….anyone else have an opinion on this? It would mean nothing else on the site but the glare-off for one whole week.
Where’s my Anonymous Council of Elders when I need them?
Oh, you just had to go and make things difficult, didn’t you. You, ageist, you!
Well, it will still be a vote (just like I did with Lila and Annie) but the vote will be on my blog and not on Facebook. Facebook “likes” are where things get really dicey.
Facebook actually has rules about not using “likes” for contests. I didn’t know that when I did the baby celebrity lookalike contest.
Sounds perfect
Sorry I thought that might make it easier! at least dividing some of them up if you had to!
Seriously just go with the best 32, everyone had fun looking at all the photos, now lets see who’s down right evil fo’ real!
I like the whole week deal, but I have to admit I might have a small Mazzy withdrawl….
I like the “one week of evil babies” idea. Or, you could make it two: and just make it a Tues/Thurs or Mon/Fri (or other random pairing of days) thing so if we’re busy one day and forget to vote, we can have a few extra days to do it.
I kind of like two different age brackets too, of babies versus toddlers – with a final between the two. But that would be a lot of extra work unless you did half babies, half toddlers on either side of the bracket (16 babies versus 16 toddlers) and only the final is baby versus toddler.
A way to keep it small.
And how did I miss the iPad2 contest? Not that I ever win. Anything.
i’m confused about even how to decide how many baby/toddlers/kids should be in the glare-off, let alone the acutal logistics of administering it.
good luck, my friend.
also, dig the idea of age categories, could be used like weight? you could have a featherweight, lightweight, heavyweight? oh i can see the cute (but tough) icons now.
My best suggestion is to keep it fun. It’s supposed to be fun, right? Do you even have to offer a prize?
Here’s my know-it-all take on it (which will earn me some enemies, I’m sure.):
1) Winners of past contests can’t win again. (I don’t know how many contests you’ve had, so I don’t know if it would affect many kids.)
2) You could do two contests: professional photos versus amateur. I mean, some of the photos have the watermarks still on them! Or just eliminate professional photos/model photos.
3) Keep it light and fun.
4) If you must offer a prize, make it something virtual or minor. Obviously, you don’t have a problem getting entries. That’s what big prizes are really for, right?
5) Keep it light and fun!
6) Recruit someone to help you and/or run it – someone who doesn’t have a kid, preferably!
7) Most importantly, don’t rush it. You’ve got tons going on and it’s supposed to be light and fun. Right?
Meredith is mine – but now that I have read some of the other comments, I like those ideas too.
BTW – I am excited for your “growing pains”! your FB page “likes” have skyrocketed since I joined! Congrats!
About Mazzy’s apparently seamless transition to school. Just a head’s up. My toddler (at the time) did fine for about 1 week, but then we had 5 weeks of morning transition pain. She ambushed me! I’m hoping Mazzy doesn’t do that to you, but thought I should warn you you’re not out of the wood yet. And the best thing really is to drop, kiss, remind her you’ll be back and run. Staying to comfort her only escalates it.
I have no advice. But I just want to tell you how much I love both of these “contests”. SO fun to watch!