Friday, February 17, 2012

Wannabe Photographer

It's true. I am a wannabe photographer. I have the passion, the ideas....but not so much the skill or equipment. I did just recently get a flash in the mail I have been waiting for. Yeah! I haven't used it yet so don't be judging me on these few pictures I'm posting...pre-flash. Maybe someday I will have the skill (experience) and the expensive equipment to match my passion and ideas. But for now, my family and blogs get the blunt of it.

I've always passed by the Glenn Jackson bridge and thought that the pillars make a great canvas. I finally went on a little outing with just Baelor since he was napping and it wasn't raining on this particular winter day.


The picture of Mount Hood was rather tricky. I didn't want to take Baelor all the way onto the bridge as the cars were on either side of us going 60mph. It feels a lot faster when you bring a baby up there than when you used to ride your bike to Portland and back pre-kids. So I kept him safely below on the ramp while I ran up and clicked towards Mount Hood. What made it so tricky was the fact that I was clicking pictures between the passing cars. Many of my shots have bits of car parts in them, but I did manage to get Mount Hood with my telephoto lens and no clouds covering her beauty.


 Sweet baby Baelor contrasted with the hard and dirty world


The rarety of the sun peaking through the moss and ivy trees



Thursday, February 16, 2012

Who Rules?

Some days I find myself basking in the humor of my daughter, other days...not so much. Since turning 3 years old, Reina has learned that she can come out of her bedroom in the morning when she wakes up. In the past, she has always called for me or daddy and waited in bed until we arrive to give her the OK to get up. We have been really lucky that she has been very obedient with staying in bed til morning and when going down at night. Since Baelor has joined our family, I've told her that if she calls for me and I don't come, then to just go ahead and get up because I am nursing. She is always welcome to get up if she needs to go potty as well.We have really been trying to figure out why she is still waking up in the morning 4 out of 5 times wet. We have tried bribing her with 5 chocolate chips if she wakes up with a dry pull-up, but candy doesn't work on our kid....ideas? She has been potty-trained for a year, but still has to wear a pull-up at night. We've decreased her fluids at night, but I just can't NOT give a kid water when they ask for it. I would hate someone to limit MY water if I'm thirsty. I have a water by my bed AT ALL TIMES. So this is probably my fault since I allow her to have an inch of water in her sippy-cup by her bed.

The last couple of weeks we have noticed her bending the rules even more. She will wake up (now often before 7am), when it used to be between 7:30-8am. Reina will come into our room and say, "Mommy, it's time to wake up. I'm hungry." Wait a minute, before Baelor was born she would wait in bed until I gave the OK, then I could crawl back in bed until 8am while she was watching "Cat in the Hat" or whatever show was on PBS. Then at 8am when the show ended was my cue to get up and make her breakfast. I know things change when you bring in a new babe to the family, but I don't want confusion as to who rules the household....(we all know it's the mom, right?) :) So anyhow, I don't think myself, Paul, or even Reina realized this shift of "ruling" until this week! We have to nip this thing quickly because just this morning Reina woke up before 7am (probably due to a wet-through her jammies pull-up) and comes in our room. Paul gets up and changes her into new jammies and tells her it's not time to get up. (Thanks babe, I had fever and a headache all night.) About 40 minutes later she is back in our bedroom, this time completely naked telling us she wants to get up and get dressed. Ugh. I've already been up every 2-3 hours to nurse.

Okay, so the funny things she's said recently:
-"Do you like my bangs? They're so pretty."
-Instead of saying John the Baptist she calls him John the Breakfast.
-Reina also cracks us up with her dancing. She'll create a little routine complete with facial expressions, to any song or commercial...and do quite a decent job.
-She'll delay going to bed by making up excuses; "I want to give Baelor a hug goodnight." "I need to get lotion on my hands (for the 2nd time)."
-Just recently we were chatting in her bed (which I often lay next to her and do before bed), and I was teaching her how to say the letter "L" since she says "Y" sound like most toddlers do. It's not something I am working with her on as I do like the cuteness of saying things wrong like a toddler does. But just to be sure that she can say "L" I asked her to say "lake". Of course she said "yake". So I teach her how to thrust her tongue to make an "Llll" sound. She says, "lake". Okay, so now I have her say, "I put my leg in the lake." She says, "I put my yeg in the lake." We both start cracking up! SHE even realized how silly that sounded. I haven't had the "L" lesson again as I kind of smile every time I hear her say that she hurt her "yeg." It reminds me that she is still just my little baby.

As for Baelor, we had a BREAKTHROUGH today! He smiled at me on/off for 7 minutes! This was not a random 2-week old "tooting" smile, but rather an "I love you mommy and you take care of me and I know you" smile. Totally made the fussy times worth it. In between the smiles he was expelling breaths and really moving his arms and legs like he wanted to talk. I'll take it as us having a 7-minute conversation. He's 6 weeks old and has gained 3 pounds since he was born. I'd say he's packing it on pretty quick for a breastfed baby. I have been pumping once a day so that Baelor gets used to a bottle. He takes the bottle great, so we're set for when I go back to work part-time. Now if he could just sleep through the night I'd have quite the perfect baby!

Sunday, February 12, 2012

The First Cut

We did it! We gave our girl BANGS! This is a big deal to me because I always envisioned my daughter having long, flowing hair that descended to her mid-back so I could create many "do's" and learn how to french braid. We gave our daughter bangs for one reason...NECESSITY. I don't think I have ever met another 3-year old with such thin, uneven, unmanageable hair. Really there are just a few scraps to call it hair...a bit like Homer Simpson's few strands that you can count on one hand. Hopefully by the time she reads this post her hair will have filled in nicely. As any good mom I remind myself that she is healthy, happy and smart.
Before
After

Multi-tasking

You know you're a busy mom when you have one child yelling, "mommy!" outside the bathroom door while you're "occupied", while holding your 6-week old who's crying, while hearing your tea kettle whistling...

Friday, February 3, 2012

1 month

Our bundle of boy is 1 month old!
To celebrate I took a few pictures in the gorgeous weather and gave him a nice bath. He has not liked baths, but today he did not cry once! He loved the warm water and was just eating me up (actually, I think I was eating him up because he was looking at me finally). It's taken some time for him to adjust to sight. He has had some major "goo eyes". He still gets the crusties daily, but they are getting better. I think it's the jaundice finally coming out of his system through his eyes. That sounds ridiculous but the white parts aren't so yellow anymore, nor is the goo. I tried to capture him rolling over on video but it was a no go. He has rolled from his stomach to his back at least 5 times! This is quite the feat for only a month old if I do say so myself. Here are a few stats:
-Weight: 9.4 lbs.
-Can roll from stomach to back
-Enjoys nursing, often
-Does not take the bottle of pumped milk (tried for the first time today). Will keep trying.
-Likes a binki
-Has started enjoying just "being" (looking around and not needing to eat or sleep)
-Spits up A LOT
-Likes to sleep up against mama
-Is getting flaky skin and some baby acne

wrinkly forehead
Neighbor cat decided to join in the fun!
We still aren't sure who he looks like. He seems to take a little from a lot of different family members. He seems to be a true mix, at least for now. One things for sure, he looks all boy.