Playground

I'm back!  I know, that resolve to post regularly didn't last long.  Joe and I have both been travelling a lot (as in there has not been a single weekend day when we were both home since I last posted) and I've had a bunch of extra work-related presentations that have been sucking away any otherwise free time.  But I have been taking pictures!

I took the kids to the playground yesterday for a perfect compromise--they got to play outside and I got to play with my camera.  I know you aren't supposed to say it, but after the first 3 times I have absolutely no interest in watching Nicholas do the monkey bars or watching Lizzie climb up the slide.  But if I have my camera I have a job and a challenge and so I am happy as well.  And I love playing with the late afternoon fall light, especially when it is just random pictures rather than something important and so I can appreciate the cool pictures where the light works well without being upset about the really shadowy ones.

My favorite shots in terms of light are the ones where Lizzie was on the teeter-totter.

Climbing things also makes for fun shots, as long as I can get the kids to look up at me instead of just down at their feet.

Then there are all the great framing spots that naturally exist on a playground.  Note to self for the future: make it a game of peekaboo and you're much more likely to get a smile.

And then there is just the good old-fashioned fun of going down the slide:

Busy Saturdays

Our Saturdays have become pretty busy.  I am coaching Nicholas' soccer team so we both have to be at the games early and Lizzie-free.  Joe usually takes Lizzie to gymnastics and then they go to Wegmans. 

Clearly I need to work on my action shots.  I'm not as happy with any of these as I am with the more portrait-style pictures.  I may need a soccer game where I'm not trying to coach simultaneously and also a longer lens.  (Christmas present anyone?) 

But while these stink in terms of photographic quality, they do capture a slice of the kids' activities and the great joy they are having with their fall activities.  I love how much more Nicholas has gotten into soccer and how willing he is to listen to my coaching suggestions.  And Lizzie has been doing so well that they are promoting her out of the parent and me class to the 3-year-old class, even though she is a month shy of the birthday cutoff.  They said she is so good at following directions that there is no need for her to have a parent and she is ready for the challenges the older kids do.  We agree wholeheartedly!

Sunday Photoshoot

Last Sunday I bribed the kids with Five Guys to let me do a mini photo shoot after church.  Overall I like a bunch of these, although note to self: when you turn the camera back on after a few days go into the menus to double-check what you have the ISO set on rather than assuming it is on auto.  So these might be too grainy to print and frame as an 11x13, but they are fine on the computer screen and probably for small prints.  I also need to figure out how to reduce glare on Lizzie's glasses.

Candids at Home

Most of the time I've had to play around with my camera have been candid shots at home.  And I have quickly learned that I'm going to need to get an extra light for the living room if I want to get any good pictures at home in the evening.  With our current lighting I can either set the shutter speed so that Lizzie isn't a blur OR I can get crisp pictures, but not both.  So what I've settled for are pretty grainy, but capture what they were doing and their expressions.  Nothing frameable, but good memories.

The ones in the kitchen were less grainy (more light) but clearly I need to work on the color balance.  Here Lizzie was showing me how she counts on her fingers and she was SO proud of herself!
 

 

Parish Picnic

A few pictures from the parish picnic, including the photo I'm most proud of so far.  Can you guess which one is the one I'm most proud of?

New Camera

I'm back at long last.  The posts were already getting pretty sporadic because who has time to write blog posts and then I got a smartphone and switched to taking pictures that way and it became just so much easier to post pictures to facebook from my phone than go through the blog.  But this fall I finally bought a good camera (which I've been wanting for years) and have started learning how to use it (which I've been wanting to do even longer) and it feels gratuitous to post all the pictures to facebook and yet I feel the urge to do something with them.

So I am bringing back the blog, probably mostly as a photo repository without a lot of commentary, but we'll see.  We'll also see how long this lasts.

But for now let's try this.

Lizzie's Birthday

It is late, but I want to post briefly about Lizzie's birthday to capture a couple elements before I forget.

Lizzie has known the phrase "Happy Birthday" for a little while and knows that it means cake.  And she uses the phrase "Happy Birthday, [name]" as a description the way other people use "birthday."  So it was a "Happy Birthday Grandma cake" and the gift bag from Connor's birthday party was "Happy Birthday Connor."  And so when Nicholas started talking to her about her birthday the week before he used her speech mechanism and so telling her, "It's going to be Happy Birthday, Lizzie on Sunday."  And so we all adopted it all day yesterday (and today), saying things like, "We're going to have a happy birthday Lizzie dinner" or "It's time to open happy birthday Lizzie presents."

While Lizzie understood that birthdays are special days and mean cake, she apparently didn't understand until about 6:30 yesterday evening that they were individual holidays.  So whenever one of us said happy birthday to her, she responded by saying it back.  "Happy Birthday, Lizzie."  "Happy Birthday, Mommy."  And we just couldn't help laughing.  I took a video of her and Nicholas doing it but I haven't gotten around to cutting it and putting it in the album yet.  It was upon opening her second present that it clicked in that this was something special just for her.  And then we saw a whole new side of Lizzie.  She opened an Anna doll from Nicholas and demanded that it needed to be opened right that second.  I opened it and gave it to her and about a minute later Nicholas asked to see it.  Her response?  "No!  Lizzie Anna doll!  Mine!"  Accompanied by hugging the doll tightly to her chest.  And the rest of the presents were similarly claimed as hers and hers alone.  So much for wishing everyone else a happy birthday.

Nicholas struggled some with Lizzie getting all the presents even though he is old enough that he does rationally understand.  He did much better once he had big brother roles.  He was okay not having presents as long as he could help Lizzie get packaging open or help her figure them out.  The problems arose when he wanted to help her and she wanted to do it herself.  And that I think is the big difference from last year, when he still got to open everything for her.  He was fine with it being Lizzie's special day as long as he still had a special role as her big brother.  And he is such a good big brother to her.

Happy birthday, our little Lizzie-beth.  We are so very grateful to have you in our lives!