Charlotte freezing her tush off

Charlotte stayed home with me on Friday since she had a doctor's checkup appointment right in the middle of the day. We had that pretty 4" spring snow fall the night before, so i convinced her to put on her white dress and go out for some pictures. She was a trooper about the cold. In my defense it was above freezing (just barely).

Web size really doesn't do these justice. If you click on them they load a little bigger. Ignore the watermarks. I posted these up on another forum.

Some stuff I shot in Vegas

I spent 3.5 days of our Vegas vacation at an awesome workshop with the Coopers and the Boutwells. These four are amazing wedding photographers and brilliant artists in general and just damn cool people to hang out with. Without gushing and rambling and boring you all, it was really great. I loved it.

Check out their sites if you have some time:

I almost wish we could get married again just so that Chenin could photograph it - the Boutwells

One of John's signature images is the bride in the desert with her dress engulfed in flames (his Joan of Arc). He pioneered the trash the dress sessions that are now a big trend - altf - the Coopers

On the second day we shot in small groups with models around downtown Las Vegas. Here are a couple of my shots. Not my usual stuff and not all technically perfect, but really fun to play.





My shooting partner Jeff enrolled the LVPD cop in this setup.






The pool at the Golden Nugget. She did actually go in a little after this was shot. Bonus, we did NOT get kicked out!

The girls playing

I found these almost 2 year old pictures of Grace and Charlotte playing together at the old house. I think this was one of the very first times that I caught them actually playing with the same thing at the same time. At the time it gave me hope that they would someday actually be friends. Even with all the fighting they sometimes do these days, they really, truly are friends. When I pick them up at pre-school and Charlotte and I go into Grace's room Grace always runs over and they hug each other first thing.

Grace

We put up the crib for the new baby in his room. It is Charlotte's crib, painted white. Gracie hopped right in to try it out. She likes it. She actually wanted to sleep in it the first night. Derek and I debated it and decided to let her go ahead and sleep there. As we thought she might, she decided after about 45 minutes to move back into her bed.

It is hard to tell what Grace thinks about the new baby. I think she understands things in general much better than we often guess. At the same time, the idea of a new family member 4 months away is awfully abstract for a 2.5 year old. If anything, she seems a little resistant to the idea. I told her the other day that she was going to be a big sister. She told me very emphatically, "No. I the baby." Hmmm.

A nice shot of Charlotte

I asked her to give me 2 clicks. She agreed and then I ticked her off because I actually grabbed 4. This was the 3rd.

The girls both got long overdue haircuts today. They did great.

In the background here you can see all of the Disney Princess pictures that Charlotte has hung on the wall in my office. I look at them all the time and they remind me of her.

Charlotte's two most used expressions right now are "What the ___?" (thankfully she doesn't fill in the blank at the end of that one) and "Oh my God" (probably more appropriately spelled "Oh my Gaaawd"). I don't know where she picked up either. Not really expressions that Derek and I use. She just spent a week with Grandma, but somehow I don't picture my mom so much with the valley girl talk. Day care is our suspected source. Either that or she has been IM-ing her little friends without our knowledge and picked up the lingo. I highly doubt it, but it wouldn't be the biggest surprise so far in my parenting career.

She uses OMG frequently and with the appropriate gasp of exasperation in there. I actually have heard her use it two or three times in one sentence. So far, we have opted to ignore it and wait till it passes. Knowing Charlotte, if we took a stand and spoke to her about it and explained why we would rather she express herself differently, she would totally take it to heart and desist. My big fear is that whatever comes next will be worse. I figure we should conserve whatever influence we have until we really need it.

Some I really love

These are real keepers of Grace from tonight. I love them. They look just like her to me. Still with the grungy T-shirt and cluttered bedroom in the background, but at least without her being mesmerized by the television or making goofy faces or with that distracting piece of plastic in her mouth.

Let's face it. The kid's damn cute.






I'll need to work on Charlotte next. She hasn't been in the mood for pictures lately.

A Cozy Little Scene

More flashy snapshots.

I found them like this this evening. Grace went and got her pillow and blanket all by herself and settled right in. I asked her where Mommy was going to sleep. She looked up at me and then pointed at my pillow, which you can just see in the corner of this picture. There. On the floor



Directing my attention to a crucial scene in Snow White. Derek seems pretty entraced which is impressive considering he's seen the movie about 15 times. This week.



I took this one because it reminded me of another shot from 2.5 years ago.

Pop

I told Grace I was going to go to the kitchen to get some pop. She jumped up and said "I have pop, toooo!" She always says the "too" part with a big long emphasis on the oo. Usually it is Charlotte that she is imitating. She is definitely the me too little sister, through and through. Charlotte once said to me "I'm a big girl" about something, I don't remember waht. Without missing a beat, from the other side of the room I hear "I big girl, tooooo!" Of course you are.

I gave her a little pop in a glass (diet cherry 7-up, if you were wondering). She was so pleased with herself. I didn't see the first sip she took, I just heard the classic Grace declaration "I yike it!!!" When I tuurned around she had this huge smile on her face.

She let me take some pictures with her and the pop. She even ran upstairs to get her Fisher Price camera so she could take a picture of me and my pop. She says "I right back!" It's very cute.

Here she is, very proud of herself.

The series

Here is a quick series of Grace taking another little drink of her beloved pop. This was the first time I saw her actually consume any.

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"Ooooh, I YIKE it!"

Grace

I took a few pictures of Grace on our bed last night. She was in a decent picture taking mood. All taken with my flash, but I think they look pretty good considering.



This is more typical Grace. Watching Aladdin.


A little blurry from her jumping, but too cute to toss.





Grace loves to brush her teeth, wash her hands, fill her cup with water, whatever. Anything that involves the sink.