Focus

I seem to struggle with focus when taking pictures. I tend to use my 50mm lens when taking pics of the kids around the house. This lens allows me to open the lens more allowing more light to get in. Because I can get this lens open as wide as 1.8 I seem to want to use 1.8 most of the time. I don't think, however, this allows for great focus. Here are some pictures of Josh taken in our favorite spot; me sitting on the couch and him at my feet. The two windows behind me usually provide nice catchlights. I change my AF points all the time so many times when photographing the kids, they move which causes my focal point to be in the wrong spot. I thought these pictures of Josh had pretty good focus on his eyes. It's a bit tough to see here since the pictures are small. I'm still learning and practicing! If there were only more hours in the day to play!

Feeling better

Josh was pretty much himself today thankfully. I have taken away his bottle and we are doing it cold turkey. That means he will not be drinking milk anytime soon I am sure. He drank 1 oz. this morning and that was it for the day. He has his 15 month check up yesterday and he actually lost weight. We are sure it is due to his sickness. He weighs in at 24 pounds and measures 33 in. tall! He is in about the 75th percentile for everything. The dr. was pleased with his vocabulary (this is a first for us!) and his walking skills. Josh even danced for Dr. Bornstein!

Out of Harms Way

I forgot to write about this the other day. The boys and I were in Wal-Mart, as were are about 3 times a week, and there was a man on a cherry-picker type machine working in the ceiling. They are rennovating our store. Anyway, the man had a blow torch and a long metal pipe. As you all know, Jared is obsessed with this kind of thing, so we stopped to watch the man. Seconds after we walked away - I am talking like 5 seconds people, the man dropped the metal pipe which was on fire at one end. If we were still standing there like idiots, we would have been hit by this pipe! Someone was watching over us at that moment! I don't think they should have "worker mens" working on something that dangerous while the store is open. How about you?

Jared and Josh's Dance Moves

Josh's Poor Belly

This was Josh eating applesauce after he got sick again last night after choking on a macaroni.

Sickies

Well I guess it wasn't the apple juice that made Josh sick yesterday. He must have had a stomach bug because when he woke up this morning, much earlier than he usually does, he got sick a few more times. He wanted his bottle of milk so bad when he woke up. I only gave him 3 ounces because he had gotten sick a bit in his crib. Bad mistake because it came right back up. I have never had a sick kid like that before so I called the ped. as soon as they opened. The nurse told me to give him a tbsp. of clear liquid every hr. and see if he kept that down. If not I would have to call them back in the early afternoon. He did finally stop thankfully. Drew was a trooper and took care of him while I was in bed feeling sick myself. He eventually had to go to work so Jared and I held up the fort. Josh is naping right now at 5:00pm. I had to put him down b/c he was so tired. Poor baby.

Josh and his cereal.

Charles River

Drew asked me if I would be interested in taking a ride into Boston to walk along the Charles River to get us out of the house. I packed snacks, juices, bottles, etc. and in the car we went. Jared rode in his new big boy booster seat. He is very proud that he graduated from a five point harness car seat to using the regular seat belt while in a booster. This is only in Daddy's car though. He is still strapped in while riding with me. Anyway, we were in Boston looking for a parking spot when Josh started coughing and then throwing up EVERYWHERE. I am convinced he drank too much apple juice. He was covered as well as his car seat. We were 45 minutes from home and the traffic going south was backed up all the way into Boston. If we turned around and went right home we would have been stuck in the car for hours. We immediately pulled over (not so easy to do in Boston), took off Josh's clothes and cleaned the car seat the best we could. Josh seemed to be feeling OK after the fact. I think he was scared just as I was. We put him back into the car seat, sans clothes, and continued looking for a parking spot. We found an illegal one, put the boys in the double stroller and took a walk. Josh didn't seem to mind being only in a diaper, socks and sneakers. When Drew asked if I wanted my camera for the walk I told him no and I regretted it. Josh walked around some and I wanted to capture the naked baby walking around in public. I was somewhat embarrassed but since I knew the reason he was naked I didn't mind. Poor baby. We gave him some crackers and cheerios when we got home and he went to bed fine. Needless to say, I couldn't wait to get out of that car when we got home. I hope Drew got rid of the smell when he took out the car seat and dirty clothes or else he is going to have to ride to work with the windows down for sure.

My Patriotic Little Man

Josh's new obsession is American flags. He spots them when we are driving and he loves to carry his around the house. I guess it must be the combination of colors and the "wave". Maybe he is just proud to be an American!

Don't Mess with Josh and his Cereal!

Josh has a small obsession with cereal . I thought it would be harmless to leave the cereal cabinet, which is under the island (easily within Josh's reach), unlocked. Needless to say, we have locked those cabinets as well so he can no longer help himself.

Cheeks full of cereal.

Just look at that face!

Projects Around the House

I don't know if you would call this a project or not, but it is something that I had wanted to do for awhile. Because I am obsessed with taking pics of my children, I have a lot of them. I have a handful of really good ones (in my "mommy goggle" eyes at least) and a ton of not so perfect snapshots. What does one do with all of these pictures you ask? Well, I love to scrapbook so some go in scrapbooks and albums. Pictures that I really like I have been printing larger than usual. I used to go no larger than 8x10 but I have opened my eyes to bigger and better. I loved these pictures that I took of Josh when he was 9 months old. I put him on my bed with a fluffy white blanket and just let him do what he wanted. The pictures are far from being technically perfect but my mommy goggles sees perfection :) I had them printed and mounted on foam core which allows you to stand them without framing. I bought the shelf at Michael's and there you have it. This is hanging in our bedroom.

A Muggy Day

I was just thinking to myself the other day that I missed the humid, hot weather of South Jersey. When I walked outside the other day, I changed my mind. It was hot and humid. When Josh woke up from his nap we decided to take out the big beach ball that hooks up to the hose. Kim had given this to Josh for his birthday. The kids really liked it. It was a perfect way to cool off.

Drying off on the deck.

A tender moment between Josh and Daddy.

Enjoying a cookie snack.

Josh, of course, had to have some cookie as well.

Commonplace

This is becoming much more common in our house these days. The boys are starting to be able to "play" with each other a little more as Josh gets bigger. They "rough" with each other mostly and I love to watch their interaction. Just tonight they were "roughing" on the couch and Josh's face and neck were covered in red splotches. He laughed the entire time Jared grabbed him on his head, face, neck and shoulders.

Step stool

If Little Man wants to get on the couch, this is how he does it. He prefers the cushions to be off of the couch so he can climb on and off easily. At this particular moment he must have wanted to sit on the cushion like normal people do.

"Trip" to the zoo.

I made the decision, yesterday, that we weren't going to go to the zoo. There were rain showers and thunderstorms in the forecast so I felt it wasn't even worth it to get Jared's hopes up. When I woke up this morning, however, it didn't look like it was going to rain. I changed my mind and in the car we went. I drove to the library to pick up the discounted zoo passes (which allows you to get in for $2 instead of $13) and off we went. The Franklin Park Zoo is in Boston so it took about 40 minutes to get there. As soon as we pulled into the parking lot it started raining. We didn't even get out of the car b/c we didn't think the rain was going to let up anytime soon. Jared cried because he didn't get to see any "aminals". There is always tomorrow, or the next day!

Mom Mom Bonnie is here!!!

My mom came to visit us yesterday. She will be here all week - yeah!!!! Josh had an eye dr. appt. this morning because he has teary-eyes. It has gotten a lot better in the past few months but his pediatrician referred us to a pediatric eye specialist just to make sure everything is fine. I contemplated cancelling the appt. b/c I figured it would be a waste of time and $50 copay. I had no idea what they would do to a 14 month old with teary eyes. Well, they put 4 different drops in each eye to dilate them. I was NOT expecting that at all. Josh was not expecting it either and was not happy about it. Try holding down a kicking, screaming, thrashing 14 month old and then try to open his eyes to get the drops in. Ugh. We then had to wait 20 mintues for his eyes to dilate. At this point Josh wanted out of the office. He was all over the place. I am sure it could have been much worse. I didn't even want to think about what the Dr. was going to do to him when the 20 min. was up. It was much less painful thank goodness. He shined some lights in his eyes, pushed very hard underneath his eye to see if any "goop" would come out, and then shined some more lights. Josh was not having the lights and refused to open his eyes. I think the Dr. finally pretended to see what he wanted to see since Josh was so unhappy. So, after a wasted hour and $50 we were on our way home with the diagnosis of 2 healthy eyes.
When we got home we packed up the car and headed to Horseneck Beach. I have been wanting to go to the beach with the boys but since we are still new to MA I didn't know where to go. We have been to the Cape once but I was thoroughly confused I didn't want to venture back without Drew with us. Since my mom is here we tried this beach that Drew has heard about. It was very nice and we will definitely be going back. The sand was not rocky or shelly at all. This was Josh's first time on the beach since he was 4 months old. He sat his behind right in the sand and had not a care in the world. He immediately started digging his hands in it and throwing it in the air. Therefore, he became immediately covered in it from head to toe. He must not have minded the taste since he would drop a fish cracker in it and without hesitation pick it up, along with a fist full of sand, and eat it without a fuss. Jared enjoyed the water but he was shivering so his stay in the water was short lived. I wish I had pictures to post with this entry but can you believe I forgot my camera. Like Drew said, it was probably better that I didn't bring it since everything was a sandy mess since Josh could not keep the sand where it belongs. It had to be flying high in the air. I really wish I had a picture of his sandy body. Jared never got that way since he cannot stand the feeling of sand anywhere on his body. We may be going to the zoo later on in the week. We have to see what Mother Nature has planned.

Another field

In our travels yesterday, I noticed a field of white flowers very close to my house. I have known that this field was there and I have been noticing that the grass was getting high but when I saw the white flowers I had to check it out. I called Melissa, of course, and she came over and off we went. We had the little boys in the double stroller and Jared walked beside us. Melissa's husband, Billy, carried the ugly chair and a bench. It was quite a sight I am sure! The boys were definitely not cooperating. I was trying to bribe them with goldfish but neither of them wanted to sit on the bench or the chair. it is a shame because the lighting was so good and the field was so pretty. The grass was way over their heads so we had to have them at the very edge (actually in someone's yard). There were so many bugs and whining that we did not stay long. This is what I came home with.

Our excitement for today

Josh had an appointment to get his hair cut at 10:30 this morning. This made me get out of bed at a decent hour and get showered before I got Josh out of bed. This is what I should do everyday but my lazy behind doesn't get out of bed until the last minute which means I do not shower to go out of the house until Josh's 12:00 nap. After the hair cut we had to go to the post office to mail a package. The weather was so nice I didn't want to go home just yet. I decided to take Jared to the Raynham fire department to check out the trucks. Raynham is the next town over and they have A LOT of fire trucks to see. Our town of East Taunton only has one, greenish-yellow, truck and we have already visited them. So, off to the Raynham fire department we went. Jared was in heaven. They had the LARGEST ladder truck I have ever seen. The ladder itself can go as high as 102 ft.!!! Fire fighter Matt showed us all around. He was so good and patient with Jared. He listened (Jared talked A LOT), answered our questions, and allowed Jared to go into 3 fire trucks and an ambulance. Matt was amazed at Jared's fire fighting knowledge. Jared learns constantly from informational DVD's and books. We just went to the library the other day and all of the books were about fire trucks, ambulances, and police cars. I purposely did not bring my camera (if you can believe that) b/c I just wanted Jared to enjoy the fire station without a camera in his face. I have pics of him in fire trucks already so it wasn't necessary. Matt spent a good 1/2 hr. with us and we left with more fire fighting knowledge and 2 plastic fire helmets. Josh was very intruiged by the American flags on the front of the ladder truck. Jared is now watching his new movie, Fire House Dog, and Josh is napping. We hope your day is going as well as ours. I plan on taking Josh to a field with white flowers so I may have pictures from today after all. We'll see.

Sleeping Beauties

Fourth of July Celebration

The city of Taunton's firework display was definitely on a tight budget this year. Although the fireworks were much less than stellar, Jared and I still had a nice time. We stopped and got ice cream to eat while we waited for the fireworks to begin. Josh was sleeping so Drew stayed behind. It is nice to be able to spend quality time with one child since it doesn't happen too often. The fireworks were set off in the mall parking lot so we found a parking spot among thousands of others and enjoyed the show.

This was my first attempt at shooting fireworks and I should have read up on what settings to use before we left. I had my shutter speed slow but I had my ISO up way too high. This is the best I got. I also used a tripod.

It's Just Jared being, well, Jared

What's that on his head you ask? Well, it is a headlamp of course. Don't you know you need a headlamp at 10am in the bright sunshine while sitting on the deck?

Love/Hate Relationship

As with most siblings, Jared and Josh can be found sharing the cutest, intimate moment and the next thing you know they are pushing and biting. These pictures describe my life everyday with a 4 and 1 year old.