The Baby

We still call Eli, "the Baby".  Maybe sometime that will start to bug him.  For now, I am glad he doesn't mind.

Eli talks more and more, but still not always when we want him to.  He's a funny little guy.  He likes when I toss him high and then he lands on the mattress in my studio.  He sits up and says, "I'm okay, Mommy!"  Derek had never heard him say that, and was standing in my studio when Eli rolled off the mattress in an odd way and hit his head on the floor.  Derek said, "are you okay?" and Eli came right back with, "I'm okay, Daddy!" and we laughed.  Eli loves to start sentences with, "hey look...!"  My day starts almost every morning with the sound of padded footsteps, the door banging open and a little voice saying, "hey look!  There's Mommy!" 

Here he is trying to escape the camera by heading in the house the other day.

My Nephew

I meant to post this awhile ago and saved it as a draft while I checked with Shawn to make sure it was okay, and then I haven't been back to it...

I had the chance to watch Shawn play hockey the other night, and although I messed up the times and missed some of the game, I really enjoyed it.  Here are some shots of him in action.

#47

Two years ago, I posted a list of 45 things that make the man that I married such an amazing guy.  Last year on his birthday I added one more.  To continue the trend..

47.)  You don't cry over spilt milk (literally or figuratively).  This week I made a stupid mistake.  I spent money on something on-line and paid to have it shipped here, and then happened upon it locally and cheaper.  Grrr.  I was tired and grouchy and as I was driving home from the store I was mentally hollering at myself over the waste.  It bugged me.  I was embarrassed to come home and tell you about it.  In my head, I told myself what I knew you were going to say.  No big deal.  It happens.  Don't worry about it.  At risk of sounding cheesy, I actually heard your voice in my head saying those things to me.  And I truly felt better, right then.  Both because you're right - it's not a big deal.  And because I know you love me and you don't want me to feel bad and you have this indefatigable confidence in me and in us, no matter what, that after almost 11 years continues to astonish me.  You bring a Zen-like, self-assured, steady and calm element to my life, Derek.  Thank you.

P.S. - In addition to not crying over spilt milk, I could add that you have been known on occassion to, say, wipe up spilt milk with your sock and leave the sticky spot for me to discover when I step on it.  But it's not like that bothers me or anything.  ;)

More family pictures coming soon...

Hi there

Here's a picture of Eli that I took yesterday.  When I uploaded it just now, I realized it has been over a month since I took a single picture of the kids.  Oh well.

This image illustrates an interesting point about the color of light, I think.  When I was getting my hair cut the other day, I was talking with the stylist about light and how different sources have different colors.  She asked about mixing natural light with indoor artificial light and how it would change, say, the way hair colors looked, for mixing the color just right.  It does.  This picture was lit half by the cool/blue outside light coming from the sliding door (main light - blue sky) and half from the warm/yellow light from the kitchen light (main light - tungsten bulb).  See the big difference on each side of his face?  Not just in the shadow, where the cast is really noticable.  Compare the cheek right next to his nose on each side.  Big difference.  I didn't fix it becuase this is kind of a throwaway little shot.  I thought it was interesting, anyway.

Kat came over and we asked her to give Eli a hug.  Eli wasn't feeling the love.  These two have an interesting relationship.  At the moment, it is largely contentious.  I think Kat sees him as someone smaller than she is so she can try out being the boss of someone a bit, since compared to all of her other cousins she is always the littlest one.  Eli isn't particularly social at his best moment, and he doesn't respond well to someone invading his personal space. I have high hopes for a great friendship for these two little guys in the future.

Ballerina

This is the face Gracie makes when you point the camera at her.  She does it very purposefully.

This is me trying to make her laugh.  Sometimes I can get her to break out in a big grin.  Not this time.  She just. barely. contained. it.

I did get her to spin for me, though.

Father-Son

Today being MLK day, we eked out one more day of do-nothing-on-vacation.  Tomorrow, back to school/work.

I came downstairs yesterday morning to find my two boys, both with their hair sticking straight up.  So funny.  Eli got his Daddy's hair for sure.  He also seems to have gotten his individualistic free spirit and occasional aloofness.  If he also gets a fraction of his Daddy's generosity, compassion, and strength of character, I will be a happy, proud Mom.

The men in my life...

Eli wouldn't sit for me to get a picture of the two of them together, but you can kind of get the effect from these two frames.  Derek and I laughed about it looking at these.  Then, last night I was watching the Golden Globes and look at the style that Al Pacino is sporting... :)



Sledding

We had a great time in Lake Placid.  We did alot of sledding just outside our hotel room door and swimming in the awesome pool.  The girls made it out skiing with Derek one afternoon and went for a dogsled ride.  Eli said his longest original sentence to date  - "Come on!  Let's go!  To swim!"   Well, I guess that's 3 sentences (or fragments) actually.  But it was clearly understandable and he said it directly to us to tell us what he wanted so it's a big milestone for him.

I intended to take more pictures, but just didn't get around to it.  These are from our first afternoon there.

 Eli didn't really like the sledding.  He loves to eat the snow.

Happy 2011

I think the holiday/New Years cards are a bust. We'll just look ahead to next Christmas, mmmkay?

These are from the photo shoot before I threw in the towel on the cards. I have more - some cute shots of Grace and some of all three - but I will spread them out over several blog posts. I'm not a real New Year resolutions kind of person, but I would like to make more posts in 2011 than in 2010. So I've got to pace myself.

My sweet boy. He's pretty hard to photograph these days.  But still super cute (bad haircut and all).