Yikes – second post today!  But there is a good reason – by the skin of our teeth I am getting in my monthly family photo!!!!

This month we did the quick and dirty family photo – two kids with hair stiff from swimming in the pool, one dad with his “uniform” of t’s and mesh shorts, one Caroline in a T after a long swim in her pool and one mom.   The front porch was the easiest and fastest way to accomplish the family photo.  The above photo is my pick as the best of the bunch and the photo of the month.  Caroline is one who did it for me – I love how she is looking up a Christina wondering what in the heck she is doing.

Here are a couple “rejects”:

This was Eric’s contribution – have the two girls stand behind us and hold up their arms (??).  Although Caroline’s smile is pretty damn cute.

Yeah, that is why I am the photographer of the family.  And then Christina’s contribution – bring in the cat!!! (aka Ms. Nugget).

Anyway…..August was a crazy month.   But it is all good.

In our little corner of the world, Eric and the kids took advantage of every last second of summer this month.  They went canoeing, camping, took a trip to the fair, and, of course, spent many MANY hours in the pool.  I joined in, but not as much, since it has been busy in my photography world.   But it worked out well – Eric took the kids for a day of fun and I got some quiet work time without hearing “Mom, I am HUN-GEE!!!!”  or “Mom!!!  Christina (insert the complaint of the day)” or “Mom!!!  Kallie (insert other complaint of the day)”….every 1.4 minutes or so.

Which leads me to my next topic…SCHOOL IS BACK IN SESSION!!!  Whoo HOOOO!!!  Oh, I love being home with my kids, and yes, I love spending time with my kids…but by the end of 3 months of “vacation”, it is definitely time for some structure and routine.  Eric started last week, Christina started Monday and Caroline starts tomorrow.  My little Kallie is going to stay in preschool another year since she JUST turned 5 (and I am in no hurry to lose all my kids).  Tomorrow my Kallie and I will celebrate a bit by treating ourselves to lunch out and going on a bit of a shopping trip.  I think I may have a hard time next year when she is off to school full time.  I don’t really want to think about it.

Caroline has been doing really well.  She did amazingly well with her horseback riding and has one more day before the end of this session.  I am just amazed at how well she sits and how she really does seem like she knows what she is doing.  It will be nice to have her back in school, she really seems to like it and I think it is SOOO good for her.

Christina is so happy to be back in school.  She was up a hour before she needed to be on the first day all dressed and ready to go.  She leaves every day with a huge smile and gets off the bus with another huge smile.  I just hope her love for school and her friends continues.  She is in 3rd grade now.  She loves to read, she loves athletics and she seems to be able to shrug off “mean people”.   Today she was telling us how they started up the kickball games again during recess.  All the boys and my Christina play kickball during recess.  We asked Christina where the girls are and she just said “they watch from the swings”.  She has convinced one girl to join in, but the girl isn’t too keen on the whole thing so she probably won’t continue for long.  I think it is great.    She truly enjoys life and really doesn’t care what anyone else thinks about her.  Let’s just hope THAT continues too.  We’ll see..

Well, it is late and I am exhausted but I refused to miss a month in this project.  I also am participating in Project 365 where I take a photo every day for year.  Unfortunately, I am not doing a great job in that endeavor.

Until next time!

]]> http://irenesmithphotography.com/blog/2010/08/five-people-twelve-times-month-7/feed/ 0 http://irenesmithphotography.com/blog/2010/07/location-location-location-nw-pennsylvania-senior-photographer/ http://irenesmithphotography.com/blog/2010/07/location-location-location-nw-pennsylvania-senior-photographer/#comments Thu, 29 Jul 2010 19:53:33 +0000 irenesmi http://irenesmithphotography.com/blog/?p=298 I do all my shoots on-location.   So, when I am setting up a senior shoot, one of the first questions is, obviously – where do you want to do the shoot?  I always ask first because I think a shoot location should be personal and reflect the client’s interests and personality.   Many times, the client isn’t sure where they want to do the shoot and I am happy to brainstorm some options.  I start my “brainstorming” by asking what type of look they want – flowers and trees and a manicured-type park setting, a rustic rural setting, or maybe an urban setting?  More often than naught, the client wants greenery and a pretty scene.

Urban type shoots are rarely chosen and get a bit of a bad rap.  But I personally think they can be one of the nicest locations!  There are often very brightly colored walls which make beautiful backdrops.  There often many places to sit, lean, stand which gives so many more posing options.  The locations are interesting and unique and the possibilities are almost endless!

There is also the amazing light.  You see, the open shade of a building on a bright, sunny day is some of the most perfect light EVER.  The light is bright yet perfectly even so skin tones are just perfect.  And then there are catchlights.  Catchlights are those bright sparkles you see in the subject eyes.  I have definitely learned, over the last few years, how finding the right light is probably the most important element in a beautiful photo.  Of course,  you need to know how to properly expose the photo, pose the subjects, compose the photo, but if you don’t have good light, you pretty much have nothing.

So, this week I did a “practice” session with my beautiful niece and her two best friends.    I had been wanting to do such a shoot where I can work on posing and where I can pick exactly where and when I want to shoot and was really happy that my niece and her friends were willing models!  I scouted some locations a month of so ago, and found some great places in downtown Erie, PA!  The only one problem with my scouting trip was it was pouring rain and I really had a hard time determining where the sun would be at different times of day.  So, some of my scouted locations didn’t work exactly as I had hoped.  But we improvised and it was A-OK!

I was so excited when we finally were able to schedule the shoot.  And it was such a good time!  My models were stunning, the light was perfect and the photos?  Well, just see a sampling for yourself!!!!

We started out down by the docks along the bay.  There are some old buildings and I loved the different colors and textures.  Unfortunately, most of the area was in bright sunlight on the day of the shoot.  But we found one small corner that was in the shade.  I am sure the passing cars and people thought we were be a bit odd to pick such a old and run down spot for a photo shoot, but, as you can see, the photos turned out pretty amazing!

We then got a few photos along the water.  It was, as I said, very bright and hot in the sun, but I loved the colored posts.  So I posed my models in the sliver of shade of one of the posts and got just a few shots. I also got just a bit of one of my favorite things – sunflare!!

We then made out way up to the Erie Museum.  There are beautiful steps, sculptures and columns at the museum, but, unfortunately, at that time of day, the sun is just pounding directly on the steps.  I didn’t get the photos on the steps as I had hoped, but we were able to improvise and used the shade from the massive columns to get some pretty gorgeous shots!

Next stop? The sidewalk down State Street! We crossed from the museum to the shady side of the street. With a wide open aperture, I was able to blur out the distractions while keeping the colors and lines of the building and trees. I love these shots! We had a lot of attention during this portion of the shoot from random passerbys, but my models were like pros and didn’t let the attention bother them one bit!

I do have to add, this guy told me as we started that he can’t take a good picture.  Well, I was definitely up to the challenge.  And I think I proved him QUITE wrong!

After a quick break for a cold drink at Starbucks, we ended the shoot with some shots by the “blue wall”. I love the color!!!!

One final shot of my great models!!!

There are great little nooks and crannies like this in pretty much every town.  So, if you want to try incorporating an “urban” location in your shoot, just give me a shout.  I would love to do a bit  of scouting and find the perfect spot for your shoot!  Of course, my shoots often run from 1 – 3 hours.  So if you even want to mix it up and combine urban and rural, that would definitely be a possibility as well!

And I wanted to thank my great models!!!  I couldn’t ask for a better group!!!!  If you want to see even more photos from this shoot, please stop by Facebook business page!!!

Until next time!

Well, here we are in the month of July – the sixth month of my once-a-month family photo project!

July was a good month.  We finally have had lots of sun and warm weather so our kids have been in the pool almost every day.  Their hair is stiff and full of chlorine, but they are happy and swimming like fish!

So, what is new?  Well, I took this photo with my new D700 camera!  Yesiree!  I upgraded to a full-frame and I am absolutely thrilled.  I love it and am so excited for my upcoming weddings and many senior shoots to really see this sucker in action.  My old camera did a very good job, but this guy will ROCK in the low light!   I also love having a wider angle, I took this photo with my 50mm which is usually too long for a group shot like this.

This month we had a short trip up to my hometown to stay with my parents and enjoy the summer activities.  The kids absolutely LOVE going there and spending lots of time with their cousins.  They are truly the best of friends.  We did everything and anything on this visit – amusement park, beach, party, picnics and my husband and I even got an evening out alone!  You see, July is also the month of our wedding anniversary!  We have been married 11 years this month.  And, the interesting this is, we got married at my parents home and our wedding was on a Sunday afternoon.  This year, we were staying at my parents on our anniversary which was also on a Sunday this year!  So, the hubby and I went out to a little restaurant on the bay and enjoyed some cocktails and some alone time.

Yesterday was my 25th high school reunion – which I, sadly, did not attend.  I had thought about it, but we just didn’t have the motivation to either pack up the kids to stay again at my parents or to find a babysitter for the kiddos and make an one hour trip each way.  So we stayed put.  And now I see all the photos on Facebook and I am really bummed we didn’t go.  Oh well, I guess we have next time!

Our little Caroline is doing really well.  She is going to horseback riding every week and recently has had some remarkable improvement.  She has been going for 4 years, but in the last couple weeks, it is like it all clicked and she started holding on better and sitting on that horse like she knows exactly what she is doing.  It is so sweet!!!!

Kallie has finally ‘taken off the floaties” and is swimming all on her own.  She took swim lessons all winter, but it took some time before she felt comfortable swimming in our pool without floaties.  She is doing so well.

Christina continues with summer swim team a few days a week.  And when she gets home, she gets in the pool and continues practicing her strokes.   She is enjoying her summer, but can see there are moments when I know she would benefit from more structure in the day.  She really thrives in school.  She loves waking early and being busy all day.  So long summer days with no schedule can be tough sometimes.

Our summer has been really wonderful so far.  The kids have finally all reached the ages where they can stay up later and just sleep in longer in the morning.  When they were younger, late nights still resulted in early rising, but also meant very cranky kiddos.  This year we have had so much more freedom to go places and do things without worrying about early bedtimes.   It really has been so nice.

As we approach August, I am nervous that it is all going to go too fast.  Only a few weeks and school will start.  We have so much more we want to do yet and are not sure we will fit it all in.  August is getting busy with weddings and now senior photos and time is quickly running out!

Until next time!!!

]]> http://irenesmithphotography.com/blog/2010/07/five-people-twelve-times-month-6/feed/ 0 http://irenesmithphotography.com/blog/2010/07/we-interrupt-this-blog-to-announce-the-cat-is-back/ http://irenesmithphotography.com/blog/2010/07/we-interrupt-this-blog-to-announce-the-cat-is-back/#comments Fri, 16 Jul 2010 12:23:59 +0000 irenesmi http://irenesmithphotography.com/blog/?p=288 We had a bit of a crisis over in this part of the world yesterday. Our cat disappeared.

Our cat, Ms. Nugget, is an indoor/outdoor cat. She has been in our family since Christina was 2, Caroline was 1 and Kallie was just a thought in our heads.

In the summer she is outside 90% of the time. She sleeps in the sun, deposits dead critters at our doorstep and visits neighbors as they take their evening walks. In the winter, she plops her oversized belly in front of our woodstove and snoozes from sun up to sun down and refuses to set one paw out in that cold, snowy world. She has a very good life.

And, honestly, she is an extremely good cat. She loves kids – all kids. She loves all people actually. She stays off the furniture [usually], she only scratches on her scratching post or outdoors, and she is very quiet. For a home with 3 little kids and one husband who [proclaims] to hate cats, she is just perfect.

Nugget also has a very strict routine in the summer. She eats about 7 at night, and then goes outside. She comes back about 10 to top off for the night, and then goes outside again for the night. In the morning, when we wake, she is usually at the door. She comes in, eats her leftovers and then takes a nice long snooze until midday.

Except yesterday. She wasn’t at the door in the morning. We left in the morning for swim practice and she didn’t greet us when we got home at lunchtime. The kids swam in their pool in the afternoon and she didn’t come around. We took a walk in our woods around dinnertime, looking for signs of a cat, nothing. We left after dinner to take Caroline to horseback riding and then stopped to visit friends and got home very late. And, again, no cat.

At this point, I was pretty sure our Nugget was gone. Christina has the job of feeding her every night and it just broke my heart when she asked “should I feed her tonight?” And I had to answer “no sweetie, not tonight.”

After I tucked in the girls, I noticed my poor Christina lying there in a ball with tears in her eyes. She was absolutely heart broken that her kitty seemed to be gone. I went downstairs and just prayed that I would hear that [usually annoying] sound of her scratching on the screen door for her evening meal. And I kept thinking about how awful it is when your child’s pet dies.

I finally decided to head to bed when [I thought] I heard a scratch. I assumed it was my mind playing tricks. I started to close up the house, when – there she was. Sitting at the door, looking at me like “what’s the problem lady?”

I was never so happy to see that damn cat. I fed her and sent her downstairs for the night. And I can’t wait for the girls to wake to see who’s waiting for them!!!

Rawr.

And a question – why can’t I look this cute with 4-day-old swimmiing hair???

Hope you are having a wonderful holiday weekend!!!!!

Yikes! I am just squeaking by with my month #5 family photo!   This photo was taken yesterday, on Caroline’s 7th birthday!   I am always so excited to celebrate another of Caroline’s birthdays and prove, yet again, to all the experts that the so-called experts can be oh-so-wrong.   Caroline is seven and she is happy and healthy and still going strong! 

So, what is going on this month of June?

Well, it is the first month of summer vacation so I have EVERYONE home.  Every. Single. Day.  Usually that is OK, but some days it can get a bit much.   I definitely know why my own mom used to get so excited for the first day of school.  Summer is NOT a vacation for mom.  I have more kids, more meals, lots of snacks, more messes, more fighting, and a lot less quiet time.  Oh well, I also know these days of little ones go so fast and before I know it, I will have an empty house all the time :(.   So I am also enjoying these days as much as possible.

June has been a good month.  We had a family vacation last week to the mountains of Tennessee.  Caroline stayed home with her grandmother (Mimi) which really was so nice.  Tennesse was definitely not a vacation for Caroline.  We went boating, horseback riding, swimming and some relaxing.  She would have liked the relaxing part, but not the driving, boating, swimming etc.  We missed her so much, and it was really strange not to have to think about her schedule for feedings and meds her for 5 days,  but we know she was SO much happier at home.  And it was nice to have so much more freedom to do things with the other girls.  The vacation home was wonderful – clean and comfortable with an amazing view.  I am planning on blogging more about the vacation later. Actually, I have a LOT to blog about, and should have many new posts very soon! 

Christina is back into summer swim team.  She also spent a week taking golf lessons this month and her Dad is quite excited to get her out on a course this summer.  Hopefully she will enjoy it as much as he does.   Christina is also, as usual, living life to the fullest.   She is my party girl, she loves to have friends and family over to visit or to go visiting, she will stay up as late as absolutely possible, she will only sleep if forced to, and she is usually the first one up in the morning.  She never wants to miss a second of the day.  I wish I had just a tenth of her energy.

Kallie turned 5 this month.  She is as crazy as ever and continues to be our comedian.   She is also becoming quite the skinny minny.  She grew about 1  1/2 inches over the last 6 months…and lost a pound!  She definitely is enjoying having her sister and dad home for the summer.  She loved her birthday party this month and her favorite gift was probably a purple lizard her Mimi got her from the dollar store.  She is such a goof and has developed a love of lizards.  She carries the thing around all day.  He even sleeps next to her in bed.  Kallie also has decided to assume the role of  “Superdog” this month.  She puts on her swim goggles, and crawls around the house.  She has been playing this role for about 3 days now.   She insists that Christina must play Superdog with her, but Christina, understandably, has no idea what Superdog is and how to actually play it!  Fortunately, Kallie finally let her in as to how the game is apparently played and Christina has nicely played along with her crazy sister.

Caroline is doing so well.  She enjoyed a month off from school, but will be back in school in July.  She is also having a good time at horseback riding.  She goes to a handicapped horseback riding program once a week.   She has been going for a few years now.  It is such a wonderful program and Caroline actually seems to enjoy herself.  Caroline also has been enjoying her pool this summer.  She got a pool through Make A Wish a couple years ago.  We have a float rigged up that fits her just perfectly.   She can sit and kick and float around the pool and she absolutely LOVES it! 

Eric is enjoying his summer vacation.  He is helping at the Y with the summer swim team and is doing odd jobs around the house.   I have a few projects I hope will finally get started now that our family vacation is done. 

Well, that is it for now, this 29th day of June!  Until next month!!!

I have two little ones with birthdays only 5 days apart so we always have done their birthday celebrations together.  Kallie will be turning 5 next week and Caroline will be turning 7. 

I can’t believe my “baby” is 5.  I mean, that is school age!!!  Although we have decided to hold her back and let her enjoy another year of preschool before throwing her into the trenches of the “public school system”.  School is so different and so hard nowadays that I feel giving my kids the advantage of at least being older when they are forced to deal with some of the harder and some of the more awful aspects of the school years. 

And Caroline, she is turning 7!  For a child who was deemed most likely “not compatible with life” and given a prognosis of “less than one year” and predicted will live life as a “vegetable” – she is doing pretty damn alright.  

And next week, we are going on our first family vacation!!!!  We have been on many vacations before, but we always go with extended family members.  This year we are packing up the girls and heading to a lake house in the mountains.  We are SO excited!!!  Caroline is staying with Mimi (grandmother) so it is just the four of us.   We are planning on just relaxing by the lake, doing some boating, some hiking, and some horseback riding.  And also doing lots of nothing!  We will be [almost] completely out of touch with no cell service and no internet (yikes!).  But that is OK, a few days of being unplugged would probably be good for me.

Since Kallie’s actual birth date will be when we are gone, we celebrated Caroline and Kallie’s birthday this week with an early pool party/birthday party.  We invited the crazy cousins and everyone had a blast.

And Caroline seemed to have a good time – rocking out with her new shades!

Well, I better get back to my packing and planning and laundry and shopping and editing and…….until next time!!!

She is the [craziest] and the pickiest eater EVER.  She survives on cereal, spaghetti, peanut butter, waffles, bagels and the occasional banana or apple.  She won’t touch a vegetable to save her life.  I have tried almost every trick in the book, nothing seems to work.  I have finally decided to try not to care, make sure she gets a few healthly items in her diet, and hope that she will grow up and feel a little less adverse to trying anything new or different.

However, in the meantime, I do have a few sneaky methods up my sleeve.  Like throwing the occasional carrot into the spaghetti sauce.  Or serving her this:

Nope, that’s not your average gooey, chocolatey, frosted brownies from a box. Those, my friends, are homemade brownies filled with 2 cups of wonderful, green, shredded zucchini!!! And my little munchking is none the wiser!!

Just one of my [few] ways to win the war against veggies!!

And, damn, I was right.

I first have to say, that attending this workshop was a HUGE deal for me.  For one, it is not like we are swimming in extra cash-ola.  So the cost of the workshop, the accomodations, the car rental, my meals on the road etc, was a bit of a challenge and a little scary to be honest.

But the other issue was, as the mom of 3 little girls, leaving for a couple days can really upset the daily routine.  And if you know kids, you know they like routine and they don’t like when mom isn’t home for any length of time.  My girls have no problem leaving me for a day or so.  But they like knowing that I am home IF they need me.  My oldest, Christina, had the hardest time.  She was pretty weepy the day or two before I left.  Her statement “you can’t leave, because, um, you are always here!” pretty much summed up the kids’ opinion.  But between my husband taking a few days off and with my MIL’s help, I was able leave for the 2 day workshop knowing everything would run fairly smoothly at home.

But I dropped Christing off for the bus in the morning (with only a few tears), got my stuff together and set out for the almost 7 hour drive to Grand Rapids MI.  It was a perfect drive – perfect weather, no traffic, no problems whatsoever. 

Amy was very sweet, very organized and very willing to share absolutely everything and anything.   There were 14 attendees at this workshop, which was so nice.  I loved having a small group!  The other ladies were all sweet and I was so glad to learn, not only from Amy, but from them as well. 

Amy discussed everything that goes into preparing for a shoot and gave much more confidence in how to choose locations and find the best light.  She discussed posing and interacting with clients.  She even spent a good deal of time talking about how important wardroble selection really is.     

She also talked about developing your business.  One topic was how important finding your niche is.  If you are a photographer of everything and anything, you may be very good.  However, this approach really isn’t going to allow you to truly become a master.  As they say “jack of all trades, master of none”.   Amy only photographs children and senior girls.  And she gets many people who get a bit irked when she refuses to shoot senior boys or older children or older families.  But she knows what she loves and she knows what she truly excels at.  And, when you do what you love, you will try your hardest and do your absolute best work possible.  I know there are certain types of shoots I love to do more than others.  But I feel that this year I will continue to try many different opportunities to truly see what I love .  But I also now have the goal of defining my own niche by the end of 2010. 

In the afternoon of our first day, Amy brought in four models and we made our way to an old industrial area in town.  Amy talked us through exactly how she chose the location, looked for the light, posed the subject and set up her camera.  She even explained which angles she chose to shoot at and why.  And then we all had opportunites to try our hand shooting her gorgeous models.  They were all so professional and accomodating.  Even the adorable 4 year old who, understandably, got a bit overwhelmed with the sea of cameras, performed like a pro.  Here are just a few of the 862 photos (no exaggeration here) I took!

The second day was spent going through post-processing in great detail.  I feel that I am pretty well versed in Photoshop and Lightroom, but Amy gave me so many little tips and ideas that have improved my post processing and really helped improve my efficiency.

We ended our second day with a discussion (and pep talk) about pricing and marketing.  Pricing is definitely one of the hardest parts of a business.  But if you aren’t priced properly, there is no way you will ever have a successful business.  You will either just, obviously, run out of money and be unable to continue pretty much your current course of breaking even (or worse, losing money).  Or you will burn out and get tired of spending hours and hours in front in your computer, out on shoots, scouting locations, and having almost nothing left to show for your hard work.  This is something I knew long ago, but have been very nervous about doing.  But I have been working for a while on a new price structure and finally implemented it as of June 1.  I also added new products and purchased new samples to be able to offer more to my clients and help them make better decisions on what products would work best for them.

I have to say that attending this workshop was one of the best things I have done for my business thus far.  And I am inspired to continue to improve myself by attending more workshops and seminars in the future. 

If anyone is thinking of attending one of Amy’s future workshops, I do have to say that I would recommend it without any reservations.  I really feel it would be beneficial to almost any photographer, experienced or a novice.  And feel free to contact me if you have any questions!

One other note – I finally published my Facebook business page!  More workshop photos there!  Please stop by! 

Well, here we are!  It is May and we only have a few weeks before the kids (and hubby) are done with school for the year and ready for some summer vacation!

Things here are going pretty well.  I love this photo, down along the woods at the back of our yard.   You can see Christina and Caroline are fairly happy, but Kallie is a bit upset that she hasn’t had her turn to use the camera remote yet, and Eric refuses to sit on the table because one of the legs is broken. 

So what is new?  Well about 2 hrs after we took this photo, my dear Christina (who had not been herself most of the day) came down with stomach flu!  I felt so bad, because I didn’t really think she was that sick.  She was complaining of being tired and started crying after school for no reason, but then she started playing with her sister and seemed fine, no fever.  Until her dinner came back up right before bed.  Geez I feel like a bad mom.  I guess she had a very good reason for not wanting to eat dinner!  Now I will just hope and pray that this bug doesn’t start spreading through the family!

And why am I SOOOOOO worried?  Well I am scheduled to leave town on Monday for my first photography workshop!!  I am going to spend a couple days with the amazing Amy Wenzel!!  I am so thrilled.  I can’t wait to meet Amy, I can’t wait to meet the other photographers, and I will just cry if this stomach bug ends my plans!!!  So I will wash my hands a lot, eat well and just hope for the best.  Not much more I can do I guess!!

Christina has been doing well (before tonight!).  She and her sister Kallie spend hours just literally running around outside.  No wonder they are two skinny minnies, they just don’t stop all. day. long.  One thing thing that has helped is that I have been stricter in limiting TV hours. Christina gets only 1/2 hr a day, and it is amazing how much happier and how much more fun the kids have when they don’t rely on TV or video games to entertain them.   They create the most amazing games and play for hours.  I wish I would have done this long time ago!

Kallie is still just a happy camper.  She really is (other than in this photo) such a happy kid.  And she is so creative.  My MIL asked me what Kallie needs for her upcoming 5th birthday.  My answer?  NOTHING.  Her favorite toys consist of:  Christina’s swimming ribbons (she pretends they are mermaids), the air filled packing from the photos I get delivered (again, they are mermaids (long explanation)), Daddy’s old belt (it is a snake), Daddy’s turkey decoy (it is, well, a turkey) and a bungee cord (I am not sure what this is, but the two ends talk to each other).  Now these ”toys” are not being used because she lacks for toys.  We have billions of Barbies and Barbie homes and Barbie cars and Barbie accessories.  We have littlest pet shop, Fisher Price little people, Playmobil and more.  And she will occasionally play with her real toys.  But the belt, ribbon and turkey decoy, for some unknown reason, are just much more fun.  I do remember, when I was a little one, standing by the pantry, playing with the cans of food, having them talk to themselves.  I don’t remember exactly what I was doing or saying, but I clearly remember playing there quite often.  So maybe she takes after me a bit!

Caroline is doing well.  She has a back brace now in addition to her braces for her feet.  She doesn’t like it, and cries a bit when she sees it coming, but she tolerates it OK.  She is sitting up on her own much more now (when she doesn’t have the brace on).  She pushes up, sits at a 90 degree angle and looks around for a while until she lets herself fall back down.  That is a big deal for a little girl who was supposed to be just a “vegetable”.  Caroline hasn’t been sick, hasn’t had any seizures, has just been happy and healthy!  (KNOCK ON WOOD!)

Eric is in the midst of turkey season.  I hate turkey season.  He is up before dawn and home again soon after we all wake up.  So he isn’t gone a lot, but he often is snoozing by mid afternoon on the weekend and the evenings are a bit boring when he is ready to crash at 9 p.m.  I will be happy when he gets back to sleeping normal hours. 

Well, I think that is it, this 19th day of May 2010.  

Until next time!