Verbally Challenged

I am SO in trouble.

I found the little miss looking not so happy this morning. This is the face I’ll see a lot as a teenager…perhaps? I sure hope not.

I’d much rather see this one.

Although, what you can’t see to the left of the photo is her pulling up her dress to play with her belly button. Let’s hope THAT doesn’t happen as a teenager!

The title says it all. Today we woke up and decided to take a drive up to the cottage that we bought last year. We wanted to (A) make sure that it was still standing after the crazy winter we had and (B) open it up a little so that it wouldn’t get that gross musty smell that so many cottages have. Fortunately it was still standing and it didn’t stink. Yay!

It was a bit of a risk driving there because it’s about two hours away. And todays forecast called for rain showers off and on all day. I’m not sure the kiddos would have appreciated the drive only to be stranded indoors. But we beat the rain. It was overcast with the sun peeking out occasionally and windy – but really still very pleasant. We walked down to the beach area and let the kids play – me included (with my camera). Because the sky was so mysterious and my fisheye doesn’t get much attention (I’m working on that) I chose that for my lens.

These have very little post-processing work. Basically I did a contract boost in curves. The sky is a bit blown where the sun was – I need to work on that as it’s a bit distracting.

And this one makes us look like really bad parents letting Liam play in the water. It’s almost as if he’s stirring something up and the water is going to swallow him whole.

And then this one just for fun. The sky was a *little* happier. See Liam way off in the distance wearing blue?

Tomorrow we’ll be catching up on naps (yes that includes me too).

Life got in the way. Remember that I don’t apologize for that one? It means that I was with the kids, blowing bubbles, hanging out at the sand and water table, the “inside playground,” coloring, tending to baby dolls, reading books…you get the idea. And it was wonderful. And my weekends…well..they’ve not really been my own for this whole month. With birthday parties, family functions, bridal showers, illnesses (again) and whatever else came up we’ve been busy!

One thing that happened last weekend was my little nephew turning one.

There was a big party on a beautiful day – it was so nice. I love watching kids just run around for hours outside, playing, just like I did growing up.

Even Addy loved running around or in this case, riding in the swing. This was at the end of the day and she was getting pretty tired. Don’t mind the scratch on her face…poor girl.

I have lots more photos to share from the past week but I haven’t had a chance to go through them. Surprise surprise. But stay tuned…I’ll be back.

While growing up, I quickly learned if I asked to stay home from school than I had better be pretty darn sick. Because staying home from school was not fun….at all. It meant lying on the couch, all day long. There was no playing, no interaction (except with mom for food and drink), no fun, no cartoons – just lying on the couch, sleeping and getting well. Looking back, she tried to make staying home miserable so that we’d try not to pull one over on her (which by the way I never did). Heh heh
At least that’s what I think she was trying to do.

So the sickness bug has found the big K household – again. This time starting with Addy in the beginning of the week and me thinking that it was teeth. Because honestly, isn’t everything related to teething at this age? And then Liam wakes up on Wednesday complaining of a sore throat. Great. So we decided to keep him home from school to get better but I don’t think that we (Liam and I) were on the same page. Because basically, Liam thought staying home sick was going to be fun. Boy this kid has so much to learn. So I explain to him that jumping around and acting like a maniac is not a way to recover. And he’d have to be mellow and hang out on couch (or the floor, or the chair). Well…that didn’t go over so well and suddenly he wanted to go to school. But he didn’t, because now I’M the one who knows better. I figured that early conditioning can’t hurt though right?

So this was what Wednesday looked like:

Relaxing on the floor.

And today, while his voice doesn’t sound very good, he appears to be just fine.

You think?

School may be an option tomorrow assuming he doesn’t relapse from the endless jumping.

Remember that sharing I mentioned yesterday? Well here are the layouts – both of little Adeline. I’m thinking that you’ll recognize the one photo if you’ve been following along.

One about our lovely walk outside (including the rock eating experience):

Honestly, on this layout, I was most proud about figuring out how to mix the paints that I have to create that teal color on the chipboard house. I’m such a dork.

And another about her early parenting skills:

Tomorrow starts another burst of warm weather and *I think* the rain isn’t coming until the weekend. So hopefully that means more photos outdoors! Yipeeeee!

More later!

Hopefully I’ll be back to my regularly scheduled blogging tomorrow. I had to take a few days off to catch up on some deadlines. I’ll have a couple of things to share tomorrow but if you don’t want to wait, check out It Kit Studio in the morning. All of the new stuff will be live then.

And if my site goes goofy again for a bit and I’m MIA, just know that poker players have hacked me again. Boooooooo.

From a conversation with Liam while changing a diaper for Adeline:

While opening the wipes container, I noticed colored spots on the wipes.

Me: Why are the wipes coming out with red spots?
(Silence)
Me: Liam, did you use a wipe for your hands and put it back in the box?
Liam: I have a truth to tell you.
Me: ok?
Liam: I put jellybeans in the wipe box
Me: Jellybeans? (opening the box and finding two red jellybeans) Were there just two?
Liam: Not really.
Me: (Pulling out a few more multi-colored wipes) How many?
Liam: I don’t know. Just the ones that I didn’t like.

Turns out there were about ten different jellybeans all gooey and gross. It was almost as if he put them in there and shook the box up a few thousand times. Five is a very interesting age to have around.

And because posts are naked without photos (and Liam isn’t around as often):

Make that 15 months and two weeks. I haven’t done an Addy update post in a while and need to get this stuff down.

Right now, Addy:
*is also known as Miss Mimic. Whatever we do (Liam included), she’ll try.
*Retrieves anything.
*Loves wipes, especially to clean.
*Eats whatever we eat. SHE is my eater.
*LOVES dolls. Will feed the baby (with a bottle), put a blanket on the baby, love the baby (hug and pat back) willingly. I think it’s amazing because I never taught her how to play with dolls. Liam had a doll (I bought one for him) as a toddler and promptly made it fly through the air and crash into walls. They’re just wired differently.
*Dances to music.
*Can tell you animals noises (dog, cat, snake, elephant, lion, tiger, sometimes monkey)
*Has some words (mama, dada, dolly, up, more…I’m missing some…will add later)
*LOVES water and getting a bath – I’m working on a mommy and me swim class for safety/fun
*Still loves being worn. Nate and I throw her on our back for walks…I still can’t stand strollers!
*Freely gives hugs and kisses (well to mom, dad and Liam)
*Is still a bit shy outside of the house
*Never really fusses unless she’s hungry or tired
*Laughs A LOT
*Loves bellybuttons and will lift a shirt looking for one to poke (included her own which doesn’t work so well in dresses)
*Tells US when SHE needs a diaper change by bringing up a diaper and wipes (this one is crazy…it can’t last)
*Still loves books – especially about animals

Whew…that’s enough for now. How about a photo or her loving dolly.

Yesterday the weather was beautiful – happy weather as I call it. And because I’ve been dying to get outside and take photos for most of the winter, I took Adeline out after her nap. The problem, it was 1:00 pm with clear skies and full sun – and she wanted to be in the sun. So I attempted to make the best of it and practiced using the flash for fill.

This pretty much sums up our hour in the driveway:

She listened when I asked her to not put rocks (sticks, twigs, dirt balls) in her mouth – she really isn’t a mouthy kind of baby – but had a heck of a time trying to control those natural toddler impulses. I don’t think that it looks too flashy, you think? I didn’t have to do much of anything post processing wise since I didn’t have the harsh shadows.

And then when I looked at this photo I was reminded of another taken four years ago.

Liam put EVERYTHING in his mouth until he was three and I remember the rocks being more of a battle than they were yesterday with Addy. The photo was shot on auto and is not perfect but it just goes to show that the technical aspects really don’t have to matter – just get the photo and capture that memory.

Again, I love seeing the similarities in their faces at this age. Aside from the shapes of their faces, they look very similar. I love it.

Have a great day!

I’m so there right now! Ready to purge, organize and get busy! Once the weather cooperates you can bet that I’ll be cleaning screens and throwing open the windows to get some much needed fresh air circulating the house.

Last week we got a new tv unit in our living room which basically started a whole chain reaction of spring cleaning events. Our old unit held a lot of stuff (aka junk and clutter). And because the unit swap happened so quickly we found ourselves unpacking the one unit and putting stuff anywhere that wasn’t the family room (since that’s an addy safe zone). And I refused to put it in the new unit before going through it. There were a lot of toys that belonged in the playroom but the playroom needed addressed before dumping things in there. So after a week of “trying” to get through the mess I decided to take this weekend to tackle it. I spent quite a few hours cleaning, purging and reorganizing the playroom which is beyond awesome right now because everything HAS A HOME. We can see the dining room table and floors once again and I don’t get grumpy walking into the kitchen or upstairs hallway anymore. It NEEDED to be done.

I have a list going now of what else I need to do and unfortunately, there is a lot on it. But I love getting to the point where I am right now – get rid of it mode. I’ll take some photos later and share my hard work.

Speaking of photos, I was playing around with some techniques and my camera this weekend. And because it’s hard to get a human kiddo to sit still while I think, fumble and analyze – I went with the other kind.

This is the “wanna treat” pose:

The weather this week looks amazing so hopefully we’ll get outside with the kids and get some photos. “Walk team” is back up and running.

More later.