Christmas Tree '13

I went a little camera crazy when we cut down our tree this year. I hadn't really taken pics of my kids doing anything fun for awhile so I just snapped away.  Oh how I need to do this more!!! These pictures remind me that I need to keep my old camera sitting out and bring it along when we go places....

A day in the life!

girl steals phone

girl is caught with phone

girl is sad to be in trouble for throwing said phone against the wall

girl is still sad

happy! girl is playing on the stairs

girl spends a lot of time here

girl looking out window

girl looking super effing cute looking out window

big girl eating cereal

girl trying hard not to make a mess

girl making a mess

girl winds up on mom's back from excessive clinginess

brother is home

brother is hiding

girl is dancing

 day is done.

Happy New Year!

I like blogging. I like taking pictures of my kids. I love that I have this as a crazy detailed baby book for them, so I feel bad that I've sucked so horribly at it for the past several month. Damn new career! Haha. Career. I don't know if we can call it that yet, but it feels fitting enough for now :) Anyway! I'm going to try to really change that.

The only way to do that is to remember that I. Don't. Need. To. Edit. Pictures. Of. My. Kids!!!!!! Right? Okay so I can't not edit them a tiny bit, like if they turned out too dark or something, but I'm going to try to ignore a bad crop or a booger or something. It will be great practice to get it right in the camera in the first place anyway :) 

So we need to go back to Halloween. 

I didn't really get Cecilia a costume this year. And by "didn't really" I actually just mean "didn't." You may recall that Simon went through a bit of a costume phase and we have so many leftover. I knew she wouldn't care at all so we stuck her in a burger costume and called it a day :) We did a few Halloweeny things, including going to an old park, trick or treating downtown and actual trick or treating in our neighborhood. I only have pictures of 2nd event. The first one was way too dark and the last one was rainy and we got soaked!

I was unsure about the Power Rangers thing because he punched one of my friends in the junk "to protect himself" because my friend was pretending to be a vampire, but he did his "time" and I gave him a second chance. So here are my burger and my Power Ranger....

A new language.

When I was going through all the infertility mess I realized that I learned a new language. I blogged about it here. Now I have a new language full of words that might look more recognizable than those in the infertility world, but they meant nothing to me at one time and now I could talk in depth about any of them. 

Still so much to learn, but here's a list of some of the photography words that meant next to nothing to me at this time last year...

Lightroom

Actions

Presets

Sliders

Layer Masks

Gaussian Blur

Light meter

Culling

Edit in vs edit out

35mm vs 50mm vs 85mm

1.4 vs 1.8 vs 2.0

60D vs 6D vs 5D

ISO 200 vs 1000

Fast lens

Wide open

Feathering

Catchlights

Taco

Diffusing

Softbox vs umbrella vs umbrella softbox

Lustre

Shootproof

Wix

Full frame vs crop sensor

Bokeh

Custom white balance

Sort of fun to think about! I wonder what I will all be able to add to this list at this time next year. Surely a ton of things I haven't even thought of yet. This is one reason I foresee sticking with photography for a long time to come (provided people hire me!), the fact that there is always something new to learn. How could you ever get bored? 

Anyway, I've really sucked at blogging about my kids lately and maybe all of the above sheds some light onto why! There is only so much time in the day and clearly I spend a lot of my minutes devoted to learning about and working on photography. It's safe to say it's taken over my life for now, but it's getting slow so I can spend the winter here :) 

This is Simon.

This is Simon. He does this face and nods his head vigorously all the time when he's excited about something or just trying to be funny.

This boy of ours is so many things, as I expect all kids are. He can be so sweet and thoughtful and kind and polite and easy going and affectionate. He can also be rude and belligerent and sassy and lazy and sneaky and inconsiderate.

No matter what, even if he was just being completely naughty, when he hugs me I completely melt. He gives damn good hugs. His 6th birthday is approaching and it just sounds so old. One day I'm going to wake up and he's not going to give me a legs and arms and head hug. It's going to be just his arms and his head, and maybe one day just his arms.

I'm rambling and I'm not sure where I'm going with this other than to say how much I love that little guy up there...and that picture serves as a good reminder to point my camera at him more even if he does only talk at me, make weird faces or run away from me when I bring it out....

Too Fast

Cecilia is growing up too fast. In the past month she has started sleeping in a big girl bed, sitting on a regular chair at the table, eating with bowls/plates rather than always on a tray, getting herself utensils, helping unload the dishwasher of clean utensils, drinking out of a regular cup (when she sneaks it), going down the stairs by herself, sneaking out of the house, asking questions ("where daddy?"), saying statements ("I wanna see Adia!"), understanding the concept of if/then, and the list goes on. She peed on the potty today and said so. Yesterday she hid her hand behind a corner and when I asked her what was in her hand she looked brightly up at me and opened the hand that was visible and shrugged with this shit eating grin...all the while she made sure to keep the hand with contraband hidden. So I guess she started lying?

That is TOO. MANY. NEW. THINGS. in too short a time. All of a sudden she is not just a toddler, but she is a full blown experienced toddler practically overnight. So you know what? I am going to keep giving her a bottle when she asks. Yup, we still have bottles in our house and hell if I am going to take it away anytime soon. I love her and I love that baby bottle.

Picturing her with that bottle makes me want to break down and cry right now...my little baby is just not a baby at all, but when she has that bottle she will let me hold her or at least change her diaper without a fight.

Now I am someone who loves to watch her kids grow up. I find it fun and exciting and don't typically miss the stages that are gone. And really that's true here too, but I feel like there was a stage that was skipped somehow....she's just such a big girl!!!

I would post pictures too, but it's late and my brain is tired. Maybe tomorrow I will get around to posting pictures and something about Simon too :)

Cecilia's Woes at 21 Months

I want to preface this by saying that I am not crying, complaining, desperate or overwhelmed by any of the below. Not every moment is easy and blissful of course, but I accept that this is my life right now and we're taking the good with the ugly. Because the good always outweighs the ugly.

This post just tells you how ugly it can be :)

I decided to keep a little log today to track every time Cecilia expressed her anger. Some of these "fits" as I will call them were a few seconds of disapproval, others maybe up to a minute or so, others came with a writhing body and swings at my face. I didn't keep track of the severity of the fit, only that she expressed her anger with some kind of howl or gesture. And also take note that this was a very typical day, not too out of control and not too overly easy.

So here we go...

1. Simon left a lidless water cup out and she got her hands on it....I took it away after she dumped it all over herself and the coffee table. She was displeased.
2. I put her coat on her.
3. She didn't want to go to the Y Kid Care.
4. She didn't want to leave the Y Kid Care.
5. We turned into our driveway.
6. I got her out of the car (I think she was still holding out hope that we would leave right away).
7. I pulled her off of the stairs.
8. I let Elliot clean up the food she dumped on the floor.
9. I said "Hey Cecie," when she was batting at the dog.
10. I put her down for a nap.
11. After she awoke, I suggested a diaper change (not to be confused with an actual diaper change).
12. I wasn't turning the pages fast enough in her book of choice.
13. I declined her request for candy.
14. I shut the gate going out to our back door.
15. I took a battery away from her.
16. Unknown.
17. I look lotion away.
18. Unknown.
19. Unknown.
20. I was holding her while cooking and she grabbed the pepper. I took the pepper away.
21. I wouldn't let her reach the parsley.
22. I actually changed her diaper.
23. I put her discarded, but still partially full, milk cup in the fridge.
24. Simon ate her discarded end pieces of apple pie at Grandma Ruthie's house.
25. I collected her as she tried to run in the opposite direction of the door upon leaving Grandma Ruthie's.
26. Leaving the Y again (this time she was ripped away from the jungle gym...bigger loss and bigger writhing mess).
27. Another damn diaper change.

I THINK I got them all. I'm sure there were a few missed disagreements, but it's irrelevant. You get the idea! I was sure we'd be in the triple digits by the end of the day. Ha. She exceeded all of my expectations I guess! :) She was awake for about 8 hours today, so that's less than 1 fit every 20 minutes. I don't even know if that is a good or bad statistic. All I know is that this is what's happening round these parts these days and it just is what it is.

I do hope that one day she won't hate that nasty turn into our driveway so much....lol.