7 Quick Takes Friday: vol.18

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Advent accident. We almost had a catastrophe at breakfast yesterday morning. We light our advent wreath candles for every family meal and so Eric had them lit before the kids came down for breakfast. When Gustin came downstairs he was getting settled into his seat and while wrapping a blanket around himself he leaned forward over the table and managed to catch his hair on fire! I was in the kitchen and heard him scream and turned around to see flames on the side of Gustin's head until Eric quickly patted them out. Thankfully he was standing just a few feet away from Gustin at the time. Though shaken up and with a patch of hair singed away, Gustin was fine. Somehow the skin of his scalp was not burned. I guess I should call this take an Advent miracle!

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Silhouettes. At our last Cub Scout campout I was able to capture some wonderful silhouettes of my kids by the lake. Silhouettes is one area of photography that I haven't experimented with much so I was very happy with how these turned out! I only had a few minutes of lovely sunset light to work with and, for once, my girls decided to be willing models. Serendipity! Please humor me while I share a bunch of them.

I happen to love that these are not complete silhouettes; the kids' forms are not totally black. A bit of light still falls on their round cheeks or on the folds of their clothes.

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Zoom lens. My photography output has really slowed to a trickle these days. I pretty much share all the pictures I take here, and you know how rarely I post to this poor little blog these days. Part of the problem is a bit of frustration over my lenses. I love my prime lenses for good photo quality, but I really need the flexibility of a zoom lens. But, whenever I use my cheap zoom lens I'm always disappointed with the results.

So, I'm thinking about getting a nice zoom lens, a Nikon 24-70 f/2.8. The only problem is that it is a very expensive lens. I've been saving my money that I have been earning from selling my photos through Getty Images and I now have enough saved to buy it. But, I'm scared. It somehow seems wrong to spend so much money on a hobby. On myself.

Any thoughts? Should I go for it?

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Nope, not me. The other day Gustin was taking off his socks and he noticed a long hair on his sock.

"Oh, that must be one of mine," I said.

"No, Mommy," he replied, "this can't be your hair. It's gray and you don't have gray hair. It must be a string from my sock."

Such a smart, smart boy.

(The above photo is from 2 years ago. There may be a wee bit more gray now.)

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Consumable Christmas. I'm all about consumable Christmas gifts this year. I know we have way too much stuff around our house and I don't want to be the one to make other people's homes even more cluttered. So, the kids on my Christmas list are getting lots of art supplies: coloring books, markers, crayons, playdoh, paints and notepads. The adults are getting chocolates, salsas, beer, marinades, coffee, trail mixes and pickles. Of course all of them are special brands that most people don't get to consume on a regular basis. To top it all off, these gifts were really fun to shop for!

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The Hobbit! Eric and I have plans to see The Hobbit movie this weekend. It will be one of the two times all year that we actually go to a movie. I'm expecting to be impressed. I really enjoyed rereading the book several months ago. To further feed my hobbit appetite I also really enjoyed Prof. Corey Olsen's new book Exploring J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit. It's great literary analysis for those of us who don't hold advanced degrees in literature.

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Merry Christmas from our family to yours!

For more Quick Takes, visit Conversion Diary!

7 Quick Takes Friday (vol. 9)

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Tuesday was the official first day of summer for my kids and we are definitely going through some adjustments to new schedules and routines. It's already hot!, hot!, hot! here in Texas and we have to limit outside time to first thing in the morning before it gets too sweltering. Anyone have any good indoor activity ideas?

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For the Memorial Day weekend we spent a relaxing few days at Eric's parents house. One of the highlights of the weekend was going swimming in the Cowhouse Creek. Central Texas has had some nice rain lately, so there was plenty of water for splashing in in the creek. What a great way to spend the day!

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Hallie Lord featured some headbands/coverings in one of her Fashion Friday posts several months ago that I have fallen in love with. Check out Garland's of Grace's website for beautiful, feminine head coverings. I love mine and I'm thinking about ordering a few more and just wanted to share!

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Elizabeth's 6th birthday is in less than a month and there is only one thing that I have planned for sure - she will not be having a cake. Instead I will be trying my hands at Bakerella's cake pops. You really must check them out! They are too cute for words and her step-by-step instructions make it look easy (we'll see if that's the reality, though!). Elizabeth picked out these adorable Hello Kitty cake pops. But, I might chicken out and stick with these simpler but just as cute cupcake pops.

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My current favorite Gustinism: Dat's disdusting! (That's disgusting!)

Cracks me up every time!

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I just received in the mail my new shark steam mop. I've seen it recommended in several different places in the blogosphere and I really hope it's as easy to use and effective as it seems. I also hope having it will mean that my floors actually get a proper mopping more often then once every six months or so (embarrassing but true!). I'll be sure to report back on it after I've given it a test run!

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Yesterday Elizabeth came up to me and said, "Some people think the rosary is boring, but I love it. Can we pray it right now?"

Oh! Melt my heart! I sure do love this almost 6 year old!

By the way, we did pray it right then. We did one decade and we did her favorite mystery - the Agony in the Garden. This girl never ceases to surprise me!

Be sure to check out more Quick Takes at Conversion Diary!

On diapers and duct tape

Gustin does not like to keep his diaper on. He's very adept at removing his clothes and then his diaper and running through the house naked. It's been an ongoing battle for months now.

At first I thought he might be ready to potty train. So, every time he pulled off his diaper, I'd sit him on the pot and encourage him to go. He'd happily sit there, not go and then hop off, happily flush the toilet and go streaking through the house again. We've tried this over and over again, but he could just care less about potty training. He just wants to run around all day in the buff.

But, the accidents have become a problem, especially on our brand new carpet. I've changed my methods now and instead of focusing on encouraging potty training, I'm doing my best to get his diaper back on him as quickly as possible to avoid accidents.

Gustin is a very sneaky and persistent little guy, though. He will not give up! And, he's added a new feature to his shenanigans. Every night after we put him to bed, he pulls off his pajamas and his diaper and ends up falling asleep with a bare bottom. So, when he wakes up in the morning he and his sheets are soaked. Desperate to end this cycle, Eric taped Gustin's diaper on him last night with that blue painters tape. I think he went around the entire diaper with tape at least two or three times. This morning when I went to get Gustin, there was no sign of his diaper, he was again naked and the sheets were drenched.

Tonight I think we'll pull out the big guns. We're going for the duct tape. I may have to cut his diaper off of him in the morning, but I'm determined to keep his diaper on him through the night!

Incredulous

Last night Gustin slept through the night for about the fifth time in his 18 months of life. And, he did so in his crib and not in our bed. Ahhh... what a great night.

This morning when Gustin woke up, Elizabeth followed me in to get him.

"What is Gustin doing in his crib?"

"He slept in there last night," I replied.

"Jonathan, Jonathan! Come here and look!" Elizabeth calls to her brother. "Guess where Gustin slept last night?" she asks him as she points to the crib.

"In his crib?" he responds, obviously extremely impressed.

"Without crying!?!"

Yes, it was quite a feat.

Some of my favorite out of focus pictures

It happens a lot. I download my pictures to the computer and anxiously open them up to see how those shots I just took turned out. I find the thumbnail of the shot that I'm most excited to see and click on it. It pops up full size on my monitor and . . . it's blurry.


I usually learn from these botched photos. I probably forgot to fire a test shot first and make sure all my settings were right. ISO setting, white balance, aperture, one or more of them was probably off.


But, sometimes I can't help but love the blurry photos, too. Even though imperfect, they still capture little personalities with amazing accuracy.


And memories, too. How else am I going to remember that Gustin learned to correctly identify where his mouth is when he was 17 1/2 months old? (Doesn't he look proud of himself in the picture above?)

I guess pictures are kind of like people. Imperfect as they may be, they are still precious.

Progress

Gustin is making some slow progress with his eating these days. Every meal we sit him in his high chair and offer him something to eat. Usually he just plays with it, squishing the food between his fingers and throwing it on the floor. But, he has gotten to where he often will take a little nibble. It's like he is very carefully taking a little taste. Sometimes he'll take two or three nibbles.

He definitely eats the most if Daddy is holding him and then he offers Gustin some of what he is eating. He rejects anything that I offer, but if Eric offers, he will open up his little mouth and let some small bite of food go in. That's how we found out he likes ice cream as well as barbecue flavored potato chips and spinach artichoke dip. (Can you tell that Daddy was choosing what to feed him and not Mommy?)

Last night I made a pot roast with carrots and potatoes. We put some small pieces of the carrots and potatoes on the tray of Gustin's high chair and he pretty much immediately threw it all on the floor. But, after a few minutes Eric picked him up and set him on his lap and offered him a bite from his fork. He opened his little mouth, ate it, and ... (drum roll please!) ... liked it! He ate bite after bite and then he ate some carrot, too! Yay! I think he ate a total of 2 to 3 tablespoons of food. I know that that does not sound like much, but it's the biggest meal he's ever eaten.

After a big day like yesterday, I'm not expecting much eating to happen today. But, it's progress! And, I'm thankfully accepting any small steps forward we get.