Nesting

Last Saturday I woke up. I wake up every day, not really such a feat, but last Saturday I woke up and could not control the urge to clean the floors, on my hands and knees, until every ding dang dog hair was purged from our living space. Not an easy task, mind you, as our dog is seasonally challenged and is currently shedding like it's springtime.

The kids and I scrubbed and vacuumed and dusted like our lives depended on it. Even Mister got into the nesting game, helping with cleaning the basement and clearing any cobwebs that he could find. I had the insatiable urge to bleach the bathrooms. I have NEVER bleached the bathrooms. Until now. Since then, Mister has become even more efficient with the cleaning and is helping with dishes, blew off the deck and porch, washed the icky green stuff off of the railings, and generally vacumming every 5 minutes. When he sets his mind to something, he's really dedicated.

I have been occupied with laundry.. tons and tons of laundry. All that cleaning must have stirred something up because the kids both came down with colds which turned into bacterial conjuctivitis on Tuesday. They got the first antibiotics of their lives in the form of eyedrops this week... a monumental day for sure. I've been washing their bedding every night to prevent reinfection and it looks as though we are in the clear for now.

Thank goodness; Little Miss must be on her way soon...it's the only explanation for this cleaning compulsion.

My own belly...

Last weekend, my friend Kath helped me shoot some maternity portraits... of myself. I got the camera set up and would do a few shots to show her the framing, and then she went to town trying to get the exact shot I wanted. I think she did a swell job, don't you? I was 35 weeks 3 days...

Kath in a test shot... (yes that is a pillow in there)

The resulting shot of me...

Music to Birth By....

So each time I have a baby, I make a mix tape... well a mix CD anyway...or a playlist...whatever, you catch my drift. I love music. I associate songs with different times in my life... I have always been a huge fan of movie soundtracks, so I suppose over time I have created my own soundtrack ... the soundtrack of my life. My kids love music, too, although they hate when I sing. I THINK I have a pretty decent voice, but sometimes there's just no accounting for taste.

Anyhow, when I was pregnant with G, I was all about Allison Krauss. I learned every word to the New Favorite CD, and her rendition of Baby Mine is still is at the top of my all time best baby song chart. I was well armed with my mix CD full of almost-bluegrass, but then ended up not bringing the music along to the hospital. Instead, the hospital had this really crazy new age TV channel that played psychedelic mood music and showed images of outer space that was on the entire time. Not entirely what I was planning, but worked out just fine as I sort of had the feeling I wasn't really all there during G's birth anyway. Endorphins can do crazazy things to you, including make you feel like you are totally having an out of body experience.

With Little Guy, I was much better prepared... instead of lugging 17 bags full of all the stuff that babycenter said I "needed" to the hospital and forgetting my music, I took exactly 1 bag with 1 outfit (a Just Had a Baby Shirt warm socks and, of course, yoga pants) some toiletries and my snazzy new mp3 Player complete with wireless FM transmitter and DH's clock radio. Little Guy's playlist included... Jack Johnson. That's all... every Jack Johnson song ever released up to that day was on that playlist. And a little ditty called "Under Pressure" by Queen... very fitting.

With Little Guy there was no out of body experience... I was definitely in body.. felt every pain, the entire time. He was a big baby, and was ill positioned, but we managed to get him out eventually. Thank goodness I was laboring and delivering in the water... that aquadural is a lifesaver.

Right now, I am working on my next birthing playlist. I have a feeling I won't need as many songs this time, which is good since I am superstitious and wouldn't use one of the songs from a previous playlist anyway. I will try to find all the titles on Playlist.com and put them on the blog after I finalize the list, but sometimes my tunes are hard to find.

Here is what I have so far. I am totally looking for more suggestions, so if there is a song you think would be appropriate, please let me know.

Colbie Caillat - Capri
Jack Johnson - Angel (Sleep through Static was released after Little Guy was born)
Allison Krauss - Get me through December
Jack Johnson - While we Wait
Eric McCarley - Pitter Pat
The Be Good Tanyas - I wish My Baby Was Born
Joe Purdy - Wash Away
Adele - Make You Feel My Love
Greg Laswell - What a Day (I listened to this song on the way to baby Eli's birth)
Dave Matthews - Steady As We Go
Dave Matthews - Oh
Ingrid Michaelson - Oh What A Day
Priscilla Ahn - Dream
Michelle Featherstone - Sweet Baby
Elizabeth Mitchell - Here Comes my Baby
Elvis Costello - Ring of Fire (Johnny Cash Cover)
Amerie - I'm Coming Out (Diana Ross Cover)
Yael Naim - New Soul
Fisher - Beautiful Life

And then sometimes....

I get a family who is so photogenic and easy to photograph that I can't stop editing. Their sessions take forever to post because I want to process every single image about fifteen different ways. I promise I am almost done, guys. Here are a few starters for you...

Long time, no see.

Hey there blog. Sorry I've been so negligent. Things have been crazy around here these days. I have been editing many shoots, and still have some shooting to do before baby arrives. I've ben having these troubling contractions lately that make me feel like she's going to make her grand entrance a bit earlier that I really expected her to... and that is freaking me out. I have so much work to do before then! And all of the sudden I am exhausted again. Drop dead, eye-crossing, can't work up the energy to roll over, exhausted.

One of the sessions had some negative feedback the other day. It made me sad and frustrated all at once. I've never felt like someone was truly unsatisfied before, and it made me sad because all I want to do is make people feel good and be happy. Frustrated because it was a fairly difficult shoot in the first place, and I was pretty happy with what I was able to catch and how the final images turned out. And, this is a family I really adore, so I wanted them to be especially happy. Hopefully, I've been able to reprocess the images to their liking, but we'll see. Such a downer.

What else.... Oh, riding the school bus isn't going to work out for G, at least for now. There is a 5th grade, trouble-making bully on there who is saying exceptionally inappropriate things to her and her Kindergarten friends. Why he is sitting near the Kindergarteners when he is a known troublemaker, I don't really understand... He is fairly lucky I was able to restrain my hormonal self, and thus he remains a breathing human being... and I remain a free lady. Hopefully, he will be removed from the bus soon and we can resume our regular routine. She does love the bus.

On a happy note, my dear friend Laura threw me a lovely baby shower yesterday. :)
It was perfect. My very dear friends and family were there and we were able to just hang out and relax for a bit int he midst of all of this crazy December time. Laura provided exquisite refreshments... coffee from my favorite coffeehouse, plenty of tea, buscuits from the Flying Buscuit, pumpkin muffins, fruit salad, cookies... she really went all out. Everyone decorated these little onesies for my girl, and it was so fun to see each person's personality shine through with their designs. I got to see and hold baby Eli again, who ended up falling asleep all curled up on my chest... so sweet.

And of course I opened presents.... lots of simply ADORABLE baby girl clothes. So precious! I also got some much needed diapers (NatureBabyCare even!), some of my favorite organic wipes, a couple of nursing camis (woohoo!) and a convertible carseat for the new addition. So, I am going to have the best dressed and most well-coordingated baby in the land.

Back to editing... and then to a Christmas Pageant play where my neighbor's daughter has the lead! It's a musical, and a pretty big deal. Talk about talent!

The Hooper Street Session...

I did a shoot the other weekend on a little side road downtown called Hooper. It was a place where you could just feel the connections between the families who lived there without even having to meet the residents. It was an absolutely magical place where the entire street is the children's playground... it was simply perfect.

I made portraits of M and his little sister J that day. M is a gorgeous little fellow with curly golden locks and a cheeky little spirit just bursting to get out. J was adorable, also, a sweet baby who was way more interested in me than any other 4 week old I've ever met. She also had the cutest baby faux-hawk ever.

I found out that the family has bluegrass connections in their family tree... the first song on the playlist is for them. My favorite Alison Krauss lullaby...

A thief and a crook... the chronicles of a candy addict

So it started back in October... well really it started when she was 2 and climbed the pantry shelves to get at the jelly beans that she *thought* were there, got stuck and contemplated about what to do for half an hour before she called us to come and get her down.

Anyhow, back to October. On the 11th we went to the annual Youth Day parade here in Roswell. This year's theme was conservation and recycling... all of the floats were of the reduce, reuse, recycle genre. As the floats drove past they threw out massive amounts of candy to the children waiting on the sidelines. Save the Earth, Kill the kids. Oh yeah, and litter at the same time ;)

Well, every year we gather enough candy to fill TWO Target shopping bags. And that's without even trying. (There was one girl standing next to us with an upside down umbrella and a "Throw me somethin, Mister" sign, a-la Mardi Gras.) We sort and save this candy, and redistribute it on Halloween.... tacky, yes, but whatever, we get rid of the stuff that's cheap. And here in Roswell, they are pretty good about tossing us good candy anyway.

After being thoroughly sorted, the bags went atop the refrigerator, out of small children's reach... or so we thought. After catching G sneaking candy, oh about 10 times, we moved it to the pantry and locked the pantry doors. Well, each time the pantry was unlocked, she climbed in there and snuck more candy. And this is a girl who is ALLOWED to have candy. The only requirement to get said candy is to either a) ask or b) clean up something.

Eventually, she snuck around with the candy so many times that she lost the privilege of Trick or Treating this year. Harsh, I know. She still had the chance to go to the neighborhood Halloween party, though. After the party, G and I stayed at her friend Abby's house with Abby's mom until the dads and Abby and Little Guy came back, buckets filled to the brim with candy... of which Grace was allowed none. I did give her a bag of Cheetos. Wouldn't you know it, ten minutes later she's going upstairs with her bag of Cheetos, when Abby tells me "Um, grace put candy in her Cheetos bag and is sneaking it upstairs." DAH!

Well, it has been almost two weeks since Halloween and after we threw out all of the candy IN OUR HOUSE I thought perhaps we were starting to shake this candy monkey on G's back. That was, until Friday.

Friday we went to Michael's craft store to do some shopping. Now, Michael's has candy on display at the checkout, which generally isn't a big deal because I have never bought candy at a checkout line... ever. Gum, maybe, but not candy. After Michael's we hit the mall to exchange a few things, and then we were slated to go to Chuck E Cheese as a reward to Grace for reading 100 sight words in one day.

Well, as we meandered through the mall, Little Guy kept badgering G for her purse. He wanted to hold it. He also kept asking her for candy. Now, wanting to hold the purse is a normal thing for Little Guy...he loves lipgloss and bracelets and hair doodads...the candy thing, not so much. I kept telling him that Grace didn't have any candy. After the 3412nd time of him asking her to hold the purse, I told her to just give him the darn thing already. She said "NO!"... hmmm, unusual. So I told her to give it to me. "NO!" she says. Hmmm, very unusual. "Give. me. the. purse." I say. "I put candy in it" she sheepishly admits. But where did she get the candy? Her purse is TINY, and the stuff at Michael's would have been way too big for it.... if she didn't have such good taste.

Inside that little sparkly Mickey Mouse bag I found SIX dark chocolate Lindor Truffles. Well, really only 3 truffles and 3 wrappers. OMG! I have spawned a shoplifter! (A shoplifter with a sophisticated palate, mind you) Needless to say, there was no Chuck E Cheese that night. And then, today, as I am dong the laundry, I felt something hard in the pocket of the skirt she was wearing. No, she didn't... oh yes she did. Ghirardelli squares!!! Oh my....

sweething - wrap me up in your love

So, I wear my kids after they are born. They are generally petite children and as such are extremely portable. I find it much easier to strap them on in a sling and have them near me than to lay them down somewhere and have to go get them whenever they are fussing... all their needs are met with me, so it is easier to keep them nearby. I don't think Little Man was out of my arms until he was 12 weeks old, unless I was photographing him or changing his diaper... or of course when I was sleeping or driving in the car. Don't worry-it didn't harm his development at all... in fact the first time I put him down to "play" for "tummy time" at 12 weeks, he sat up in a tripod sit for half an hour. Funny guy.

Anyhow, I have a lovely sling that my auntie had custom made for me when Little Man was born. Lately, I have become obsessed with Moby Wraps and am itching to get my hands on one for next baby. I saw this one online today...

born free moby wrap

Husband, take note. This would be a lovely holiday present. *wink*

More tea

So here is another of my favorites from this session. Lovely Jenny has a similar image which was made when she was pregnant with Little Miss. This one strikes me because I am quite certain the first image was very beautiful, clean and crisp, everything in order and in place. Now,however, her life has changed. Still beautiful, but messier, in a happy sort of way. Life won't be this untidy forever, that is certain, but for right now, the Tiger ears and the bare toes, the toys strewn across the floor and the just-read books laying nearby.. that is the beauty of right now.

Tempest in a Teapot

So, for the past few weeks I have been struggling to get a handle on "Glucose Intolerance of Pregnancy", a diagnosis just short of gestational diabetes. I have been exceptionally stressed out, sleeping very little, keeping a very strict diet, and excercising more than I have in... well... let's not talk about that.

Unfortunately this has all coincided with a time when I am supposed to be editing up a few sessions, one of those being the gracious and eloquent Jenny, who is due with her #2 just a few days before I am due with my #3. Well, I have founf one of my favorite images of the session and wanted to post it here for her. I've never taken one quite like this before, but for some reason I really, really, love it.


There will be a few more to post, I am certain... for now I am off to another shoot.

Did you or didn't you?

Vote... I did, I always do. The wait was only 36 minutes for me... 36 minutes to cast my opinion into the wind.

I would have been happy with either candidate. I feel that both are good men who want the best for the country and its people. I was surprised, however, at the swiftness with which the results came in. A president elect before 11 o'clock? Wow.

Tuesday was a big day for our country and the world, and I am proud to be a citizen of this nation.

And I totally got my free Starbucks for voting... did you ?

Happy Haunting!!

So this weekend was productive, photographically. I finished off a session I had been working on for a few weeks and started another which I am hoping to finish today. I also designed and ordered out Halloween card (on sparkly paper this year!) and edited the photos for that project as well.

Here are the ones that didn't make it to the card. G is a monarch butterfly this year, and Little Guy is a pirate. He does like those pirates.... Aaargh! He'd prefer to be a captain, but I see him more of a scallywag.

Oy with the Pooping already!

Why do small children who should be potty trining always decide to poo multiple times in one morning when you only have 5 diapers left for the week and don't really want to go out on the coldest day so far this year to buy more? Just wondering....

I am a Pumpkin Head

This week was really, really bad. Not for me so much, but for everyone else around me. I forgot every single appointment and/or responsibility I had this week to anyone other than my immediate family. Pregnancy is sucking the smarts right out of me. My brains are oozing out of my ears, like the pumpkin guts from a Jack o Lantern. This little one had better be a genius.

It started when I broke Mister's laptop. I have a black thumb for technology. It's only a matter of time until this machine dies, too.

Then Little Guy and I started feeling feverish and everything else went to pot. Little Guy and I have been passing out napping on the couch together every afternoon... luckily I made it to the bus stop 4/5 times. I have such understanding neighbors who will bring G home when I am otherwise occupied.

This morning, I remembered I had an OB/midwife appointment 30 minutes after I was supposed to be there. Luckily, I hadn't eaten anything so I could still do the GTT and they were able to work me in. I am quite certain I am not their favorite patient. Oh well.

In other news, baby is fine and is now *supposedly* vertex. Hopefully she will stay that way and won't flip to breech like Little Guy did... Mister said I had better get to eating so baby will get so fat she won't be able to flip around. Men.

FTTD: Daisy Scouts

G had her first Daisy Scout meeting last night. I told her to go get her uniform on (which consists of a blue smock... think home depot in bright blue). She ran off to change and came back into the kitchen complaining that it was too big. I looked over and there she was, blus smock, ballet flats, panties... nothing else. Quite a uniform, there, Daisy Scouts.

Hey now Disney, the Dads are navigating!

We arrived at Disney on Labor Day morning, after driving over from Tampa in the wee hours. I had celebrated my birthday the night before with an adults only dinner at The Cheesecake Factory, and a little shopping at my new favorite store, Lush. Stef bought me some yummy body lotion bars and some really awesome creme deoderant there, and the salesgirls took pity on a preggo and threw in a bunch of samples of facial cleansers and masks, also. My favorite body lotion bar was in the shape of a heart and smelled like chocolate. Mmmm. More on that later.

Once in Orlando, we checked into our hotel to get out tickets, and since the room wasn't ready for us, drove over to the Magic Kingdom (of course!) and parked for the day. This being both G and my dear husband's first time at Disney, we decided to opt for the ferry for the trip over to the Magic Kingdom. As we were waiting for the boat to arrive, we were given some sidewalk chalk to decorate the ground with. We all wrote our names and G got a kick out of seeing "Happy Birthday, G!" on the ground for the world to make note of.

On the ferry, it was all excitement as the castle came into view. Oh how the children were positively vibrating with anticipation.

The dads, being male as they are, spent the majority of the boat trip studying the park maps and entertainment schedules deciding on the perfect plan of attack as to hit all of the attractions that the girls wanted to see. Such good papas.

Colorrrriffic!

I have always thought I was pretty good with determining different hues from memory and comparing colors, so when I came across this hue test, I couldn't resist.

Hue Test. Drag and drop the squares in each row until you've arranged them according to hue -- the two end squares are fixed on each line. When you're happy with what you've done, click the "Score Test" button to see how you measure up.

What do you think I got?


Based on your information, below is how your score compares to those of others with similar demographic information.
Your score: 0
Gender: Female
Age range: 30-39
Aaack! I'm in the thirty age bracket now!
Best score for your gender and age range: 0
Highest score for your gender and age range: 1476

0 ( Perfect )99 ( High )

Ahh, and the editing has begun

I know it has been eons since G turned 5 and we took that trip down to Florida. I am just now getting around to working on some of the photos. These were taken on my darling's actual fifth birthday. Steffy made her a vegan chocolate cake, and we had a little princess celebration that evening. There are 5 candles there, some are just hiding. Lil & Abs did a wonderful rendition of Happy Birthday to start our magical week off on the right foot.

And the little one goes MORE MORE MORE

So another milestone has been reached by my favorite Little Guy. He can now open the refrigerator all by himself.

I came to this realization the other day when I had fallen asleep on the couch while he was playing with his trains. I was so comfortable, cozy on the couch under Auntie Faye's hand knit blanket... one of those complete contentment times when you feel like your body is all warm and gooey and melting into whatever you are laying on. You don't want to move an centimeter because if you did, you would never be able to regain that perfect sense of comfort.... close your eyes... the din in the background is fading away.... r e l a x..... And then...

WHACK! An empty Brita water pitcher to the face. It really ruins the mood.

"MORE WATER! I NEED MORE WATER!" he shouts, clearly incensed that the pitcher had not been refilled. He had his sippy cup in one hand and the pitcher in the other, ready for a refill. I thought that perhaps I had left the offending container on the counter until I realized it was still cold...

Oh well. At least he can get his own ding dang cheese snacks now.

Uncontrollable

The weirdest thing about feeling the baby in utero move is the fact that I can't control it. It's not like a burp, where you can suck wind and push it back out, or flexing your bicep for someone to feel. It always surprises me when she kicks around in there, especially since there was such an utter lack of movement from the other 2. Oh, they moved alright, but I just couldn't feel them; and neither could their dad. There must be less fluid in there this time... E finally got to feel his baby kick. Third time's the charm.

Sneak Peek - A Sunday Evening in October

I met two of the sweetest kids on Sunday, along with their equally sweet mom. Miss Mom reminds me so much of my good friend Jana, who I haven't seen in aaages. They have the same spirit, and the first song on my playlist is one I think they both might get a kick out of.

Thanks for letting me capture a few memories for you :)

Viha's Birthday

So long, long ago, when G was 2 years old, she started dance classes. One little girl was in her class for two years straight... the darling Viha. Viha's birthday was at the end of August and it was a grand affair... a dress up tea party at her house. There were costumes and jewelry, cakes and muffins, an assortment of nosh, and of course MY favorite, authentic Indian tea. I've never had anything else like it, and each time I visit Viha's house I look forward to that cuppa tea. Delicious!