My decision Friday, Aug 31 2007

Many thanks to all of you for sharing your thoughts on my post yesterday. That’s one of the thing I love about this world of blogging: with one little post, I can get a variety of different perspective and it gives me so much to think about! It’s sad that we have to give even a fleeting thought to such things, but the response to my post show that it’s something we all think about as mothers. We all come up with different answers, but in this day and age we have to at least give some thought to those ugly considerations.

The picture is still there…so obviously I decided to keep it up. In my mind, that image is perfectly innocent and reveals nothing more than the sweetness of childhood. There is nothing the least bit untoward about a round baby belly and flat baby chest. To remove it due to fears of corruption somehow turns in into something it’s not. And I don’t want to do that. “My gut” says it’s fine, and so that’s what I’m going with.

But from now on – no more naked pics. Say goodbye to Nadia’s adorable little round baby belly, because I won’t be posting any more pictures of her naked from the neck down. That saddens me….but the thought of someone defiling a picture of my little darling is so utterly revolting, and it’s not worth taking any chances.

Thanks again for taking the time to share your thoughts on the subject!

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My fifteen minutes Friday, Aug 31 2007

If you were to attend the Texas State Faire next month, and if you were to visit the Photography exhibit…you would see a familiar face looking out at you from amongst the winning photos. And next to that photo would hang a 4th Place ribbon.

YES!!! A picture *I* took will be on display at the Texas State Faire, for untold millions of people to see! I am award-winning photographer!!!

The whole story started one evening back last month, when my in-laws called to rave about the 4th of July pictures I had e-mailed them. My mother-in-law said, “Christina, we think you should enter a photo in the Texas State Faire…I have all the info on how to do it right here.”

Well, okay! I hadn’t thought of doing that but sure, it sounds like fun. The chance of me actually winning anything is pretty small, I reasoned to myself, but it’d be a fun experience anyway. And ya never know!

So we decided to enter two photos, in two separate categories:

This was my MIL’s choice. To be honest, it’s not one of my personal favorites, but since it was mother-in-law’s idea to enter in the first place I went with it. Guess it’s a good thing I listened to her, huh?!

And then I chose this one, which was my most recent favorite at the time.

So I got the pictures printed and had my brother-in-law mat them for me (he used to work as a professional framer), and a couple weeks ago Nadia and I, Baba and Pappy made a trip down the Faire Park to deliver them. It was interesting to see the “behind the scenes” of the faire, and I was looking forward to seeing some of my competition. Well, unfortunately the other pictures were not on display so I had no idea what I was up against.

I really wasn’t expecting to win anything. I was all just about the experience; this was the first photo competition I’ve ever entered. In my mind the story was over. So when I got an envelope in the mail today with “State Fair of Texas” as the return address, I hardly even got excited. I was excepting the letter so say “No win….come pick up your entries.”

But it didn’t say that.

It said that my picture of Nadia at the doctor’s office had placed tenth (which even that is pretty incredible!). And my picture of her in the 4th of July bandana placed fourth, which is an “honorable mention” and it would be on display at the State Faire.

WOW!

I had felt lousy all day long, but all of a sudden that was forgotten. I was too excited to gripe about a scratchy throat, headache and non-stop coughing. I had just found out that I’m an award-winning photographer (I know, that’s a little melodramatic…just lemme have my 15 minutes!).

I do wonder how many entries there were – was I competing against a dozen pictures or a hundred or ten thousand? I don’t know, although considering the size of the State of Texas it’s probably a decent number. But ya know, I really don’t even care. I won, and that’s all that matters. It would have been nice if they offered a cash prize, though! ;o)

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Laugh at his expense Thursday, Aug 30 2007

Yesterday after playgroup, Nadia and I made a quick stop at the grocery store for a few sale items ($24 of stuff for $3 – woohoo, gotta love coupons!). The store was surprisingly crowded for Tuesday of back-to-school week. As we rounded a corner, eagle-eye Nadia spotted the display of beer being stocked. And she loudly announced “Daddy’s Cup!!!!”

Everyone around us found that pretty darn amusing. They were all rolling with laughter, so of course Nadia joined right in and repeated “Daddy’s cup!” over and over!

Out of the mouths of babes…

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Second thoughts Wednesday, Aug 29 2007

So I just posted my Wordless Wednesday pictures, with my little sweetie exploring the great wide world of reading. I really love those pictures, especially the first one with her cute little belly, and I was pleased to share them.

But now I’m second guessing myself. A friend mentioned that maybe I should make it “friends and family only” on Flickr, because otherwise there’s no telling who could stumble across it and there are a lot of perverts out there. Of coruse she’s right – and I changed it to F&F only on Flickr. But now I’m rethinking my posting it here, as well.

99.99% of people will see it for what it is: sweet baby innocence. But there’s always the chance that somebody will make it into something it’s not. That pisses me off SO much! The thought of anyone viewing it as anything less than pure innocence is so utterly revolting and makes me sick to my stomach. Ugh.

I posted that picture without even giving it a second thought. I mean, she’s a BABY for heaven sake! And it’s not like it really shows anything. But the world can be a dark and ugly place and I need to be more conscious of that.

So now, what to do. Should I remove it? Part of me says YES, because I feel a little sick with each new comment coming in, thinking of all those eyes on my baby. But another part of me says NO, because it really is perfectly innocent and sweet, and to remove it feels like admitting “they” have won. I guess that’s a little silly, tho. Any thoughts from my regular readers?

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Wordless Wednesday – The World of Reading Wednesday, Aug 29 2007

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Photo printer give-away Tuesday, Aug 28 2007

I just couldn’t pass up this contest: 5 Minutes for Mom is giving away a brand spankin’ new HP Photosmart A626 Compact Photo Printer! Maybe if I had that and could print right here in the comfort of my messy house, I’d actually get back to scrapbooking…Go ahead, you can enter too (but please don’t win; I want the printer!).

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Taming the Beast Tuesday, Aug 28 2007

I need some help taming the beast.

What beast would that be, you ask? (after all, some days it feels like there are a lot of beasts around here).

THIS beast

the tangled-curls beast:

I love Nadia’s curls, I really do. They are so sweet and adorble and I always wanted a little curly-headed daughter.

But I also hate her curls, because they are nearly impossible to control. Her hair’s almost always a mess of matted, snarly, frizzy curls. I do NOT want to cut them, so if anyone has any suggestions feel free to share!

(Carrie and Stacy, I am looking at you. Addie and Anya’s gorgeous curls always look so perfectly coiffed and picture-perfect! What’s your secret?!)

If all else fails, I guess there’s always this solution:

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Anyone wanna doll sling? Tuesday, Aug 28 2007

Go take a look at this doll sling Amy at Musings of a Crunchy Domestic Goddesss is giving away! Isn’t that the cutest little thing? I’m entering the contest for Nadia…she was never much of a sling-baby herself (even from the beginning, she wanted freedom to move around!) but I bet she’d have a blast wearing her own babies like that. I can almost see TedBear peeking up over the edge of the sling now…aw, how sweet!

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Funny Baby Clothes Tuesday, Aug 28 2007

Hehe! I just discovered Trendy Tadpole and their witty baby clothes give me the giggles!

I mean, all parents of a baby/toddler can relate to this:
And this ones is pretty appropriate for most of our rotund little guys and gals, too:
But this one is by far my favorite. Yup, I think you can expect to see Nadia sportin’ this funny little number before long!

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BSM – new camera! Monday, Aug 27 2007

Maybe she will be an accountant one day – she sure does love the calculator! She calls it “Nana’s ‘puter.” Hmmm, maybe I should start letting her pay the bills….

That first one is from Saturday morning; I saved it for my BSM in case I didn’t get anything else decent with my new camera!

Visist Tracey over at Picture This for more Best Shots!

Yes, I have a “new to me” camera. Yay! No, it’s not my coveted DSLR but it’s a pretty snazzy PAS, definitely a step above what I’ve been using. My sister’s FIL passed this camera along to her when he upgraded several months ago, and since she isn’t as photography-obsessed as I am she agreed to trade cameras for a while – thank you, Jen!!! I was so excited to get this camera in my hands, and I think it will be a great stepping stone for me. But, it will take a while to get the hang of it. I thought I had a pretty good basic understanding, but I’m learning all about the difference between book-learning versus putting it into practice! I just got the camera yesterday, and so far I’m getting a LOT of noise, a LOT of dark images, and LOT of poor focus. But there are some features I really love about this camera (as well as a few I don’t love) and I think it will serve me well. Anyway, here are a couple of my first pictures with this camera.

I’m generally not a big fan of noise/grain/texture, so right away I went to get rid of the noise here. But then I decided that this particlar image works better with the noise, so I left it.

And this one…I know, I know; hotspots galore, nothing more than a poor-quality snapshot. But it makes me smile so there it is! I think it’s her bored/annoyed expression next to my cheesy smile that gives me the giggles.

Visit Tracey at Picture This for more Best Shots!

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