93 - Dog Tired

70 - Their First Set Of Wheels

It was a birthday party weekend. First we went to a friend's birthday party at the skating rink. I had forgotten how hard it is to learn to skate! I figured the boys would take right to it but it took awhile. As I was helping them and watching them struggle, I remembered: When you first get on skates you try to walk. And because you're on wheels, walking is incredibly precarious. So you try to walk carefully which makes things worse. It's not until you decide, "Screw it, I don't care if I fall" that you really make progress. Then you start letting yourself roll more freely instead of trying to control it so much. That's the way it worked for me anyway. The boys were really struggling with it until we rented some "walkers" for them. We didn't have those when I was a kid but it's a pretty brilliant idea. It's a walker on wheels. It keeps them from falling over but at the same time it gets them used to the feeling of being on wheels. By the end, my youngest one was letting go of the walker and letting himself roll. I think one more session (if I don't wait too long for it) and they'll have it down.

68 - Under The Weather

The school called today.  My older boy threw up and was in the nurse's office.  Par for the kiddie course.  But unfortunately his school is having a celebration of some kind tomorrow that he won't be going to.  And worse, his birthday party is this weekend and he may not be ready for that either.  We promised him that we would make sure he had a proper birthday celebration next weekend if necessary.

65 - Goodnight, My Angel

Lullabye (Goodnight, My Angel)

Goodnight, my angel
Time to close your eyes
And save these questions for another day
I think I know what you've been asking me
I think you know what I've been trying to say
I promised I would never leave you
And you should always know
Wherever you may go
No matter where you are
I never will be far away

Goodnight, my angel
Now it's time to sleep
And still so many things I want to say
Remember all the songs you sang for me
When we went sailing on an emerald bay
And like a boat out on the ocean
I'm rocking you to sleep
The water's dark
And deep inside this ancient heart
You'll always be a part of me

Goodnight, my angel
Now it's time to dream
And dream how wonderful your life will be
Someday your child may cry
And if you sing this lullabye
Then in your heart
There will always be a part of me

Someday we'll all be gone
But lullabyes go on and on...
They never die
That's how you
And I will be 

- Billy Joel

Photogeek Talk: I really like the lighting on this one - the way it makes C's face glow from the bottom. This is hillbilly lighting at it's finest - no expensive strobes, just an LED flashlight that I held in one hand while taking the picture with the other. The trick was not to shine the light directly on the subject. I did that at first and it was very harsh and gave the whole thing a creepy voyeuristic vibe. So I shined the light on the bed sheets just out of the picture frame on the bottom. So C is getting the light bounced off the sheets, which makes lovely soft shadows and a pretty gradient on his face. A flashlight, especially bounced, means I was working with very low light levels so the photo is kind of noisy. But in black and white the noise adds character in my opinion.

64 - Rocketeers

I had picked out an interesting activity from The Dangerous Book for Boys to do with my kids this weekend - making marbled paper (the swirly printed paper they use to line hardcover books). Unfortunately Hobby Lobby didn't carry marbling ink, so I had to figure out a Plan B. Browsing around the store, I found a kit for a water bottle rocket.  I've seen instructions for making your own but this kit had all the parts and it looked easy, so I picked it up for $20. Too often, cheap toys that sound really cool on paper end up being a disappointment. But this rocket greatly exceeded expectations. It worked exactly as advertised, soaring up to around 90 feet. The boys loved it and so did I. We mixed in a short lecture on air pressure and the physics of action and reaction. But mostly, we just loved launching the thing.

58 - Story Time

51 - Assessing the Damage

My younger one knocked out two of his (baby) teeth this weekend roughhousing with his brother.  I don't think I could pull off the missing teeth look, but he manages it just fine.

49 - Master Builder

We love Legos.  The kids have a seemingly endless interest in them and the wife and I appreciate the creative, visualization, and problem solving aspects to them.  We have a couple rules though:  1)  Lego pieces must be regularly gathered up and put back into the Bag of Lego Purgatory (lest our house be overrun with them) and 2), new Lego sets must be fully built at least once before going into the Bag of Lego Purgatory.

42 - A Hard Day's Night

My older kid was a real stinker today. Loud, hyper, uncooperative, attention span of a knat. So I put it to use getting some goofy shots of him. He loved doing them and I loved how the photos came out.

I am slowly, but surely learning. To harness The Force, you must let go.

So what does this have to do with A Hard Day's Night? Not much. I was reviewing the images and the matrix of tight head shots with goofy faces reminded me of the album cover. That's all.

40 - Hot Chocolate

It's 33 degrees outside.  I've lived in the Arctic; I know that's not all that cold.  But when you live in a place where it gets 105 degrees and 99% humidity in the summer, you expect to get temperate winters in return.  Fair's fair.

21 - I Believe I Can Fly

I'm a little late posting this, but I did take my photo yesterday.  I was fairly busy with my younger child's 7th birthday.  This isn't a particularly amazing picture, but I like it.  I shot it while all the kids were playing on the playscape at his birthday party.  I tried to emphasize the sense of motion by playing with zooming blur.

8 - Let Them Eat Cake!

That poor cake never really had a chance.

I swear, not more than 20 minutes afterwards, my younger one asked, "Can I have a snack?"