Next in Line

Ron and Laura found this little slide at a garage sale when Charlotte was a toddler. All the kids have loved it. It is the perfect size for a 1-2 year old to climb on. So I guess this summer is Eli's turn.





This last one is one of my all time favorites. Wasn't she a doll? It reminds me, too, how beautiful the light was in the backyard of the city house.

Edited to add: I went way back and dug out this one from the slide's first summer at our house. Oh my, what a baby she was. Charlotte is 1.5 in the image below. 2.5 in the one above. Grace is just 1 in hers. Eli is 9.5 months.



A couple more of Eli inside.


I liked his reflection in the fridge. By the time I shifted a little to get a better angle he had moved on. He now uses his crawling skills to the fullest and he travels to every corner of the house. Thankfully, he still doesn't open my cupboards. Yet.


I wanted him to crawl so I asked Derek to set him down and let him go. He is very quick. I joked with Derek that I always get his ears in focus, because he moves forward in between the camera focusing and the shutter clicking. This is a perfect example of that.

A long post

I have rediscovered the love of snapshots since getting the iPhone. The pictures are so technically crappy it is that much easier not to care. I just downloaded all of them I have ever taken and I am posting a bunch of them here for fun. I occasionally post them on Facebook direct from the phone so some of these you may have already seen.

I usually take pictures when I am bored, so you get alot of pictures at bathtime when I am held hostage sitting there in the bathroom watching Eli splash around. Plus, he's so cute. He loves the bath. These all look very similar, but they were actually taken on 6 seperate days.

The pre-bath anticipation.

I've made this comment on FB before I know. He likes to stick his face right under the running water. He comes up sputtering but grinning.







His pruny little feet, post-bath.



I also get some cute pictures of the girls, mostly Grace who never lets me photograph her with the big camera.

Falling asleep in the car, but she is still trying to lick the ice cream cone. She's a tenacious one.

At Sesame Street Live at Sheas.





I try goofy stuff like this. What I see when I look in the rear view mirror. They have these little external speakers for the DVD player but the volume doesn't go up that high. So they hold them up to their ears when they want to listen. I don't know why, but it always tickles me.



Sometimes I kind of like the motion blur. They're quick, what can I say.



Say cheeeese!



The cool thing is that I always have it with me. The sea lions at the zoo.



Out for a walk

McDonalds

The backyard.



We snap fun things at home without worrying about whether everybody's nose is wiped or the house looks presentable.

Eli watching Daddy on the computer.

Eli finally gets his hand on the prized possession.


When Grace was potty training wearing matching underwear with Charlotte was one of the things she got a kick out of, so we encouraged it. They call themselves the underwear sisters.

The kids playing school with Daddy as teacher. I like how the girls are looking at Derek and Eli is looking at Charlotte. He thinks Charlotte hung the moon.

Charlotte came and asked me to take a picture of Eli with the giraffe. She said, "he looks sooooo cute when he holds the giraffe, Mom." Charlotte is pretty enraptured with her baby brother, too.

I always try to get this shot while he sleeps on my lap. It never quite comes out the way I want.



The best thing is that I have snaps now of things that I probably will never get a real picture of, for one reason or another. Whatever a real picture is, I guess.

His first night all night in the crib. Our guilty confession, we let him sleep on his tummy.

Eli using his nebulizer.

This one I actually went to get the big camera and they had woken up by the time I got back.

My nana. She protests loudly if I suggest pictures. I really like the light from her lamp here. And I think it is so cool that she has gone back to her needlework. I didn't exactly hide the fact that I was taking this, but I really don't think she knew that me holding my phone up could possibly mean I was photographing her. It'll be our little secret, OK? Lousy quality, that stupid stuff in the foreground that I was too chicken to move for fear of drawing her attention away from her sewing and all, I am thrilled to have this one.

Happy Birthday

Liza's 33rd Birthday

And now for an interlude to celebrate our hostess's 33rd birthday. Liza did an amazing job of making me look like a wonderful person a few weeks ago, so I thought I should attempt to do the same for her. I don't have her skill with language (see point 10 below) or her lighthearted touch with humor (see no. 15), but I will nonetheless try to express 33 reasons why I love Liza:

1. Liza enjoys life. She looks forward to good things to come and pursues things that interest her. This makes her someone people want to hang around with and talk to.

2. She is an artist at heart. This was one of the first things I noticed about her and, when I told her my observation years before her photography business, she seemed surprised. But the way she works so hard to express herself, phrasing things so carefully, there is no doubt she has an artist's soul. Now that she fusses over her amazing pictures as well, her artistry is even more clear.

3. While she says she does not like her "brow and sunken eyes" as she calls them, they are what first caught my attention. I think they give her a mysterious look that is sexy.

4. Liza genuinely cares about others. She is kind to strangers and works hard to give others the benefit of the doubt.

5. Liza is a phenomenal photographer. She has a natural eye for capturing emotion and movement in a still image.

6. Liza is one of the boldest people I have ever met. We make major decisions like career changes, buying a different house, quitting our jobs and travelling the world, and, once she agrees to a plan, she does not waver or have second thoughts.

7. But as bold as she is, Liza also allows herself to be persuaded by reason. She is not pig-headed in following goals and will switch strategies if she thinks it wise to do so.

8. Liza is a loving person. As an example, see her post about me where she left off the 145 ways I annoy her. She loves her family unconditionally and is raising three loving, caring children who learn from their mom.

9. Liza has vision to see what could be. When we look at houses or talk about renovations, she can visualize things after changes are made. She also once took a chance on an aging bachelor who just quit his job and was without a plan for the future. Few in her shoes would see someone worth pursuing. I will always be glad she did.

10. Liza is good at expressing herself. She always has well reasoned support for her thoughts. This makes her interesting to talk to and someone whose opinion everyone who knows her values.

11. Liza is amazingly smart. She remembers all of her math and economics training in detail years later. She also specializes in finding connections between seemingly unrelated things.

12. She has welcomed all my friends and family from the beginning. And given how good she is relating to people, she gets along better with many of them than I do.

13. She loves playing with the kids and will do any of the goofy things they ask (although she does not relish the "poopy" talk and games).

14. Liza is a great planner. She can create an accurate budget for any situation like trips to New Zealand or major home repair. She also is good at finding places to stay and things to do. Online, she somehow arranged for a limousine service to pick us up in Bangkok when we got off a cruise ship.

15. Liza has a great sense of humor. From day one, she laughed at my jokes (which may just mean she is polite). But she also makes me laugh everyday as well.

16. Liza looks really cute wearing a hardhat and goggles. Now that she is no longer working at the plant, we don't get to see this anymore - but maybe she will model the look for you if you ask her.

17. She is willing to look hard at her own character and flaws, and actively works on them with a therapist.

18. When Grace was born, after all Liza had been through, her first thought was that it was so amazing that she wanted to do it again.

19. Liza is tough physically and determined mentally. She did not complain much during her pregnancies and continued driving to Columbus, OH every week even when very pregnant with Grace. Now she is lifting free weights with a personal trainer to work at getting her body back in shape.

20. The yellow Jeep. She was so cute driving this, her first new car that fit her personality perfectly. But when the time came, she traded it in for a minivan without shedding a tear. Someday we will get her another Jeep.

21. She spends her spare time helping untouchables in India. Oh wait, that's Mother Theresa. Never mind. (I almost took the bad joke out of this list, but I thought it would make her smile so I left it in).

22. She puts up with me - bad humor, get-off-my-lawn moments, messy house and all.

23. She went along with her friends plans for dressing her in a humiliating way at her bridal shower, yet would not go so far as to take off her new leather pants.

24. I have always liked the way she moves. I have told her this from the start but I don't think she believes it. I think there's a song in there somewhere ("Something in the way you move..."). Naw.

25. She willingly sacrifices for others. Sometimes it is for me, like the way she used to sleep on the side of the bed near the leaky window without complaining. Much of the time now, she sacrifices for the kids.

26. She can figure things out for herself. Her new website is live now - she wrote it all herself after figuring out Flash.

27. She makes good choices and has good taste. This helped us rehab the downtown house into a showpiece that we sold easily. Even the other house sold quickly due to design changes Liza suggested.

28. She is a good partner and sidekick. If "wingman" could be used in a context other than pick-up bars, it fits her well. She is someone you want on your team.

29. She is accepting of the choices others make and she does not judge. In fact, she likes to talk to and learn from those who are different from her.

30. Liza visits her Grandma every week and often convinces the kids to go as well so Grandma can see them.

31. She is aging very well and doesn't look anywhere near her age (although she no longer gets carded).

32. She still went out with me even after I showed up late for our first date in my rusty old pickup truck.

33. I love how excited she gets from happy events and from life in general. Hopefully this list will add some additional joy.

In all, Liza is an amazing person and I think we are all lucky to know and love her. Especially me.

Posted by Derek

Grunge

Eli got this jacket as a present from Grandma. It is stiff and he has trouble bending his arms when he wears it. The good news is he gets into a lot less trouble :)





I grunged it. Not my usual thing, but it is fun to play.

Random

Derek asked me to get the camera to take a picture of Charlotte. She feel asleep on the bed using her new bouncy ball as a pillow. It didn't look that comfortable.





Bonus - it happened on one of the very rare days when my bed was made. So posting this will not bring great shame to my mother.

Eli outside. I like when he raises his eyebrows like that.



I wanted him to stand by the window, so I let him hold onto the blinds cord. I figured I could just edit it out later if I really liked the shot. Um, yeah.

Not quite a total bust

My goal for this winter was to build a portfolio of fun snow images. I talked to Alex and some friends and a couple of favorite clients in December. We were all set, just waiting for the right conditions. To recap this winter...January, the snow was plentiful and beautiful. But it was minus #$*@&! degrees the whole month. February, someone in my family was sick every single day. Ugh. I touched base with a few people at the beginning of March, all set for some nice spring snow. But we never got any. Oh well, maybe next winter. Anyway, when it snowed yesterday I made Eli go out and stand in it for me. So at least I got a couple of frames in this winter.

Better late than never

Another blogger that I really like did a happy birthday post for her husband's 40th birthday with a list of things that she loves about him. I thought it was great so I stole the idea. This post, of course, is well past Derek's birthday. In my defense, this list took some time to compile. The idea is one thing for each year, and that's a lot of things.

Actually, these were the easiest 45 things I've ever come up with. I could have written lots more.

In no particular order...

1. This “happy birthday, Derek” post is over a month past your birthday and you won’t care in the least.
2. I made a joke in the paragraph above about your age and you won’t care in the least.
3. You stop to get groceries on the way home and you always remember all the things that I eat, even before I notice that we are out.
4. You are very often simultaneously the smartest and the least pretentious person in the room.
5. You cried when you said your wedding vows.
6. You cried when you watched the slideshow of pictures of Heidi and Dan’s new baby Kat.
7. You cried when…OK, I’ll stop with the crying examples, but there are lots more to choose from.
8. I knew you were going to be an incredible father the first time I watched you hold your cat. I shared this observation with you and you asked me, “can I twist the baby around into lots of goofy positions?” Yes! And you do. And they adore you for it.
9. You have this enigmatic combination of a dry and goofy sense of humor, with some occasional irony thrown in.
10. You let me put my cold hands on your bare stomach to warm them up.
11. You are really interesting to talk to about almost anything, including boring stuff like politics and finance and law. You are especially interesting to talk to about those things, actually.
12. You can drive really big vehicles and make it look easy.
13. You can drive a vehicle with something towing behind it and make it look easy. Watching you back the trailer into the driveway, make the corner, uphill and around our parked car is a sight to behold.
14. When Charlotte was a baby she liked low voices. You sang her Johnny Cash songs and she stopped crying.
15. When you clean out the refrigerator, you don’t just wipe off everything off with a sponge. You take every last thing out and soak the shelves in hot, soapy water in the sink.
16. You don’t care if people don’t get you. In fact, I kind of think you sometimes enjoy it.
17. You told me on our third date that you were going to marry me.
18. Then you got all cute and embarrassed and tried to walk it back.
19. You always bring home a cheesy heart shaped box of chocolates for Valentines and a big chocolate bunny for Easter.
20. You get excited about change and new possibilities. We have had countless conversations for hours at a time hatching plans for the future together. I look forward to many, many, many more.
21. You have great hair. You totally rock the graying at the temples thing.
22. When the girls were at the stage where they fought over who got to ride in the front of the shopping cart, you would push 2 carts side by side through Target. You didn’t even mind. You told me how cute they were giving each other high fives over the gap.
23. You’re a really good kisser.
24. You shoot video of the kids. My favorite part of watching them later is hearing your voice in the background behind the camera. Charlotte and I watched through the entire set recently, and I fell in love with you all over again listening to you gently coax and encourage the kids to do whatever it was you were trying to catch on film.
25. You don’t sweat the small stuff.
26. You generally don’t sweat the big stuff either.
27. You have broad shoulders and a narrow waist and strong arms that I get to climb into whenever I want.
28. And a cute butt.
29. You don’t like gossip and you very rarely say bad things about anybody.
30. Commercials stymie you. Completely. The marketing people of the world just don’t speak your language.
31. Except for drug commercials of any kind. You don’t know what those purple pills are for, but you know that you want them.
32. You laugh at my jokes.
33. You voted for Ross Perot. And you named your cat after him, too.
34. When we were shopping for a glider for the baby’s nursery, you sat in the one we picked and said, “this is really comfortable. I could sleep sitting up in this.” And you have.
35. You love to drive in the out. When I point it out to you, you have this devilish little laugh you do.
36. You find conventional wisdom overrated. Just because no one in the history of modern architecture has ever supported a roof that way doesn’t mean it won’t work if it makes sense to you.
37. Similarly, just because every electrical system ever designed has been done a certain way doesn’t mean it’s the only right way to do it.
38. You could eat a peanut butter sandwich every single day for lunch and never get tired of it.
39. When you told me the story about when your house burned and how you were the first person to come home and discover the fire, you made this very offhand remark about how you were glad that you knew for certain that no one was home at the time, otherwise you would have gone in. I have absolutely no doubt that you would have.
40. You pack a raincoat for me when we go camping, because you know I will forget.
41. One morning when Grace was throwing her daily fit over getting dressed, I stood in the doorway and watched you sing a little song about how her pants really wanted her to put them on. Then you made the pants do a little dance. And I mentally added another piece to the mountain of evidence that I married the right guy.
42. You are the cat whisperer. I don’t think we’ve ever encountered a cat that wouldn’t come to you.
43. You can start a campfire with gasoline. You have your own patented technique for not setting your arm on fire.
44. Having gone from insurance actuarial to corporate lawyer to finance professor, most people would probably never guess that you are an artist. You are a wonderfully innovative thinker and you are inspired and compelled to create things.
45. You will disagree with at least a dozen things on this list. But they’re all true.