Some recent

Eli helps me test out using the 70-200 lens and a wide aperture in the studio.



When you make him laugh he likes to make this face. I have so many shots like this.






The light was nice the backyard the other day and I tried to convince everybody to let me take a group shot. The Middle Who declined to participate.

Not to be disuaded

The baby remains hell bent on his plans for world domination (read: learning to crawl). As soon as I put him down sitting he flops down on to all fours and gets stuck there, rocking back and forth and staring at whatever is in front of him that he wants to get. To his credit, he seems much less frustrated by the process than I think I would be in his place.

Nothing good can come of this

Against my fervent admonitions, the baby has begun to scoot. At the moment he only scoots backwards and it takes quite a bit of time and effort for him to cover any significant ground. However, he and I had a long talk about how backward-scooting is a gateway to forward-scooting. And then crawling and cruising, walking, running, jumping, climbing. He was unmoved by our little chat. If I didn't know any better I would think he actually wants to be able to go places and get into things. Time to put up the gate at the top of the stairs.





The good news is that his breathing is much better today from the past week. He is still wheezing and congested, but there is a noticable improvement.

Our little patient

Probably most of the 6 of you out there reading this already know that Eli has been sick. I took him to the ER in the middle of Friday night and he tested positive for RSV (though his oxygen level was good and chest xray clear). He is in good spirits. He charmed everyone at the hoispital, smiling and playing at 4 am. The wheezing pains me, it probably bothers me more than it bothers him. You can hear him breathing always, sometimes from across the room, and his chest really heaves working for air.

These are from this afternoon. Looking at him you wouldn't really know that he is sick, which I guess is a good thing.






I tried to take some of Charlotte but she likes to make goofy faces. This one is a pretty good shot of her crooked little front teeth. I think after all this time it will look odd to me when her permanent teeth come in straight. She claims that one of the teeth is loose. Apparently she was told that her teeth would start falling out when she was 5. She was already giving me the third degree about the tooth fairy.

Mr. Happy

My cousin Laura bought Eli this shirt when he was a newborn. It fits him perfectly now, both in size and sentiment. You can't see the writing on it, but underneath the little happy guy it says "Mr. Happy". (Remember those Mr and Miss characters from the '80s? My era for sure.) Eli is definitely Mr. Happy at this age. He smiles and laughs and chirps away to anyone who will give him some attention.





I have a whole bunch, but only time to edit this one. More later hopefully. A few of Charlotte, too. She consented to a few pictures since she is 5 and all. I hope it is a trend.

A few from last week. I am including this one, which won the blue ribbon this week in the "Personality" challenge on www.dpchallenge.com. Fun stuff.



I wrote in the comments on that image how Charlotte says the word "drump" and I love it and I hope not to forget how cute it was when she learns to say the "j" sound correctly.

Getting the girls to run and jump is easy. Getting them to sit still for a moment is a much bigger challenge.




The baby. His hand is poised in the air to rip the hat off. He would much rather play with it than wear it.



I tried to get them all in the frame for this pose. The Littlest Who wasn't really enchanted with the idea.

Stripes

Derek laughs when he sees me dressing the baby up in outfits to take his picture. Considering how much trouble the girls give me over what they will (and will not) wear, I figure I have to take advantage of this unopiniated time in his life. Plus he's so freakin' cute (Hi Mel!).




And, er, there may have been a hat...


And just becuase I already had the brown paper out...

Green couch

I had two little couches recovered for the studio. I picked this cool, kind of retro-ish green for this one. You can't see the whole couch here but this color suits its era, I think. I wanted green so that it would blend in well for taking it outside, too. We have so many cool fields around here. Derek groaned when I mentioned it, because for its size this little couch is remarkably heavy.

I like this one because you can see his dimples.







A little overexposed, but I thought his expression was sweet.