Dang is she cute!!! ;o)

Tracey asked “What little slice of heaven do you have to share this week?” Well, my girl is my heaven. Heaven is in the little every day moments…if only I slow down and appreciate them.

Now start your week off right and visit the hub of Best Shot Mondays for more slices of heaven!

Oh, and one more thing for all you photo folks…I’ve noticed that anytime I crop or make certain other edits to a photo, it strips my Exif data. It does this whether I save as a new file or over the top of the original. I’m working with Photoshop Elements 2.0. Got any ideas why this is happening, or what I can do to stop it?? Thanks!

She could barely contain her excitement as we watched the train pull into the station and climbed aboard. But once the train started up, she just settled right in and quietly watched the scenery go by. I was surprised by her lack of excitement now that we were finally on the much-anticipated trin ride.

But then the train made a stop next to a concession stand, and I let her buy some popcorn. And all that excitement came rushing back. The entire rest of the ride, she sat there swinging her legs and shoveling popcorn into her mouth as fast as she could, repeatedly exclaiming “I have popcorn!” Evidently in her world, slightly-stale, salty popcorn is much more exciting than trains.

But as thrilling as that popcorn was, it just couldn’t compare to the ladybug cookie she got at the cafe where we stopped for lunch (cuz the lunches I packed had been left behind on the kitchen table. *sigh!*)

That cookie was seriously exciting! Yummy too. I know this personally since offered me a bite – “but only little bite, Mommy. It MY cookie.”

It’s been almost exactly a year since we last rode this train. Amazing how much she’s grown since then!

I loved those glimpses into her little mind, being able to communicate with her on a whole new level. And as she talks more and more, it just keeps getting better.

And oh my does the kid talk….I don’t think she ever stops! I’ve even heard her mumbling in her sleep.

She’s a riot, too. And since I don’t want to forget all her funny little sayings, I’ve decided to start a weekly “kids say the darndest things” post every Friday. Do you want to join me, and share some of the ways your kiddos tickled your funny bone this week? We can all use a good laugh. )
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Last night as we were tidying up her room before bed, Nadia told me “okay Mommy, I do books and you do animals. Hey, we’re working together! We’re a great team!”

I guess she really does listen to what I say.

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We’re driving down the road, no school buses in sight.

Nadia: “I want to go on school bus.”
Me: “I know you do, sweetie. One day you will get to. That will be fun!”
Nadia: “And I will go to school!”
Me: “Yes, you will get to go to school when you are 5 years old.”
Nadia: “I will go to school when I am one-three-four-five (yes, she usually skips 2, her own age), and I will put on my jacket and I will go on the school bus and Mommy will come, and at school I will mow the grass and eat things.”
Me: “really?! I had no idea.”

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One morning we were playing Playdoh together at the kitchen table and she purposely dropped some on the floor.

Me: “whoops, you’d better get that!”
Nadia, shaking her head: “no, Mommy, you get it.”
Me: “hey, you’re the one that dropped it so you get it.”
Nadia, in a no-nonsense voice: “Mommy, I am getting upset with you. You need to listen to me. I told you to pick it up.”

Ummm, kiddo? I’ve got news for you. You’re not the one in charge around here.

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Ba-Ba Black Sheep has been her favorite song lately. I’d already sung it a few times when she made a new request:

“This time, sing Pappy Black Sheep.”

I guess in order for this to be funny, you’d have to know that Nadia’s grandparents are called Baba and Pappy.

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Nadia’s best buddy is in Germany right now, visiting his relatives. They’ll be gone a whole 6 weeks – an eternity for their young love! Anyway, D’s mom sent us a video of him eating ice cream, and we watch it about a dozen times a day. Nadia just loves it. The funny thing is, she imitates everything she hears them saying – in German! Her inflection is perfect, too. “Das gut?”

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Here’s my little chatterbox talking a mile a minute.

Thankfully TedBear’s always ready and willing to listen, when Mommy’s not the most attentive audience.

No, no, no, settle down -not MY baby news. Don’t you think I’d come up with a clever way to spill the beans if it were MY baby. Well, maybe not since I’m short on cleverness some days…but anyway, it’s not my baby.

It’s my little brother’s baby!

This baby could not have been a bigger surprise. Tim and his girlfriend MaryAnne have been together for a couple years now, but a baby was the last thing on any of our minds. So when she had a positive pregnancy test shortly after the new year, well, it was a real shock to all of us! But it didn’t take long for shock to give way to excitement! She is due September 11th, so we’re hoping that this kiddo does not come on its due date!

Tim is going to be such a great Daddy. He and Nadia share such a bond now; she adores her Uncle Tim and he loves her right back. He is great with her – playful and fun, but also firm, and he never misses an opportunity to teach her. I can’t wait to see him with him own child.

He’s already a great daddy-to-be. He used to stay with us Monday-Friday (since he and V work together, and the project site is 5 minutes from us with a 6:30 a.m. starting bell), but since the news of the baby he makes the 1.5 hour drive home a couple times a week to be with MaryAnne. He’s made 2 a.m. trips to fulfill cravings, he’s on the phone with her all the time and is never anything but patient and loving, and – most telling of all – he’s considering selling his current “baby,” an orange 199x Camaro.

Yesterday was the much-anticipated big ultrasound. Would it be another girl, continuing the girly trend in our family? Or would it be the first grandson, following a string of 5 girls? Tim, just like every man before him, has been utterly convinced it’s a son – until the night before the u/s, when he said “they only thing I’m sure of is that it WON’T be Delaney!” (MaryAnne’s name choice). LOL.

Well, it’s a girl!!!

Congrats Tim and MaryAnne! I’m so excited for you!

It wasn’t an extravagant wish. I didn’t wish to win the lottery…I didn’t wish for world peace….I didn’t even wish for a clean house.

I merely wished for 10 minutes in the shower, alone. One of those simple pleasures of life which I used to take for granted, but elude me now that I have claimed the title of “mother.”

It’s not the first time I’ve wished for this, but rarely does it come true. But I thought my chances were good this time. I’d asked Nadia no less than five times if she wanted to shower with me, and every time she’d adamantly insisted NO, no shower today.

So I left her sitting on the couch watching the weather channel (hey, it was her choice!) surrounded by toys (remember, no clean house).

And I proceeded to take my solitary 10-minute shower.

Minute 1: I undress in peace and step under the steam of cool water. Showering alone is a luxury but I can’t afford to luxuriate too much. Every second that passes increases the chance of finding chaos when I emerge from the bathroom. So I only relish the water streaming over my back for a few moments before reaching for the shampoo bottle.

Minute 2: My calm haven is invaded. Nadia barrels into the bathroom and sweeps the shower curtain aside to show me the aquarium magazine she’s found. “Mommy, I looking for Nemo” she reports. “You help me?” I barely manage to knock the magazine aside before it meets a watery grave.

Minute 3: I have convinced Nadia to sit on the closed toilet as she searches for Nemo. Over the sound of the water, I engage in a discussion of fish I cannot see. Without me there to correct her, they are all green.

Minute 4: The shower curtain is again thrust open and Nadia offers me her basket of bath toys. Since she opened the side by the shower head, water sprays out and covers the bathroom before I can clutch the curtain closed again. Nadia gleefully says “now you can play, Mommy! I share with you!”

Minute 5: Nadia announces that she needs to go potty. She is still wearing pajamas and a diaper, and I consider how to undress her while in the shower. But when I peer out, I find her standing there stark naked. Evidently pants, shirt and diaper no longer pose a problem for her.

Minute 6: Now we face another potty-related dilemma: the little potty seat isn’t in this bathroom. It almost always stays here, but last night we brought it to the other bathroom while Daddy bathed (alone, I might add). Yet Nadia clamors onto the toilet without a problem and she perches there in leap-frog position. But then she freezes, paralyzed over the gaping hole large enough to swallow a small girl. She can’t get back down by herself, so I get out of the shower and rescue her, again dripping water all over the bathroom.

Minute 7: I’ve sent Nadia to retrieve the potty seat from the other bathroom, and I’m frantically lathering my body and worrying – where she will potty?? what she will destroy while free in the house??

Minute 8: Nadia is back (without the potty seat). Now she wants to shower with me, and telling her Mommy’s almost done does nothing to dissuade her. She climbs in and “helps” me shave by wiping all the shaving cream off my legs and onto her own legs. She proceeds to “do that (ie, shave) just like Mommy” using a foam flower in place of a razor. Hey, whatever works!

Minute 9: As long as she’s here we may as well wash her. I squeeze “The Mayor’s Melon Shampoo” into my hand and work it into her hair before she can protest.

Minute 10: Now we just have to rinse her hair – something easier said than done. She hates having her hair washed, hates it with a passion. I scoop her into my arms and muscle my way through it, reminding her to look up so water won’t get in her eyes as she screams like a banshee. She kicks and flails, knocking me off balance so we both almost fall. But we’re done. And – bonus! – we even made the 10 minute goal.

Nadia climbs of of the tub faster than I can catch her, slippery as an eel. I grab a fluffy green towel to wrap around her, but she throws it back off, shrieking for her towel. But since I hadn’t planned on her showing with me, her towel’s not there; Elmo is in the laundry, Bunny is in the closet across the hall. She streaks across the hall, opens the closet and gets Bunny herself. Isn’t it great having a self-sufficient kid! (haha).

So much for my wish for 10 minutes in the shower alone. Maybe next time I make a wish, I’ll aim high – world peace, winning the lottery, a clean house. If it’s not going to come true anyway, might as well dream big!

I rarely take “nakid” pictures of her anymore…but she asked for these ones! And she posed! So how could I say no? And they’re just so dang CUTE. There’s a whole bunch more that I’m keeping over at Flickr protected by the F&F designation. So if you’re a Flickr Friend come on over and see some more adorable bunny pictures.

Ahhh, the cuteness! It’s almost more than I can stand! This lil darling is my youngest niece, LuLu. And oh my is she a sweetie.

She’s at that wonderful age of bear hugs and squeals of delight for those she loves most. And, her Aunt Christina just so happens to be one of those lucky people. In fact, these last few weeks I’ve pretty much been her favorite person – which works out well, as she’s one of my most favoritest people, too. It sure is a great feeling when she sees me and comes toddling over as fast as she can, arms raised, an impossibly wide grin stretching across her chubby-cheeked face.

She just turned one last month, but she doesn’t seem to realize she’s still little. She’s always right there in the thick of it, wanting to be a big kid. I suppose that desire is no surprise, considering she has three big sisters. What is surprising is how well she does with it. This little gal runs and jumps and climbs like a monkey. Last week, she was throwing and kicking balls – purposely running up, lifting a foot and sending the ball sailing in one fluid motion. Dang, she’s a smartie. I am allowed to be the proud auntie, right?

Yup, I love this kid. I love her jacket too, and I wanna know if they make it in my size? I also love her eyes, which BTW, are untouched. They really are this amazing and blue.

This last one is my favorite and my Best Shot…at least, I think it is. But she’s so dang cute in all the pictures, it’s hard to chose one favorite!

Visit Tracy for more beautiful Best Shots.

Once again, thanks to all of you for your feedback and suggestions regarding photo hosting. There are some great ideas there – I wish had enough computer knowledge to run my own domain. Alas, I am not nerdy enough. ;o) But I have made my decision, and just now I renewed my Flickr account. I know that’s exactly what I said I didn’t want to do….but I really prefer to stick the the familiar tried-and-true method and I found a way to do that and still feel relatively safe about it.

The picture included in yesterday’s post (Nadia looking all crazy playing with Playdoh) is “friends and family only” on Flickr. I wasn’t sure if it’d be visible on my blog with that privacy designation, but it appears that everyone can still see it. So from now on I’m going to keep on using Flickr with everything set to “F&F.” I’m glad to continue with Flickr, since I’m familiar with the interface and like being able to search based on tags. Changing the privacy level of all my existing photos would break the links, so for now I’m leaving them alone until I get the blog downloaded, but all new pictures will be listed as F&F.

I’m still working on downloading the blog, so I have it just in case, but the urgency has lifted somewhat. I was surprised to discover that evidently there are quite a few shareware programs designed to download websites. Kinda freaky, actually!! WinHTTrack seems to be one of the most highly rated and popular ones. I downloaded it and gave it a try, but it didn’t work on the first attempt and I haven’t had a chance yet to troubleshoot it. I think it has something to do with Proxy settings…but since I have no idea what proxy settings even are, I might have trouble resolving it???

Thanks again for sharing your experience!

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*Update 2*

The Sandman has returned to our home, and for this I am very grateful. Nadia is once again sleeping well in her own room, provided I stay there with her for a while. I think her “fear” is simply not wanting to be alone.

So for the last 5 nights, we’ve done our evening routine as usual and then she happily goes to the crib and I lay down on the floor next to her with a book. In fact, she’s so excited about “Mommy sleep with me!” that it’s easier than ever to get her to the crib. She doesn’t even talk except to say “thank you for sleeping with me Mommy”; she just lays right down and silently stares at me. I stay for about 15-20 minutes and then leave. A couple times she’s fallen asleep in that time, and the other nights she just asks me to turn on the light on my way out. And she’s been sleeping straight through the night just fine, even sleeping late!! Yahoo!

Last night I went in to check on her before going to bed myself, and as I pulled the blanket back up her eyelids fluttered open. I went to stroke her cheek but before I got there, she turned away and said “go out, Mommy. I sleeping.”

That’s exactly what I wanted, for her to sleep well on her own…and yet, now that I had my desire, it pained me a bit. Doesn’t it often happen that way? It’s such a bittersweet thing to see our kids grow up.

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The blogosphere has been filled with “truthiness” these last few weeks; women everywhere are posting pictures of themselves as they truly are, first thing in the morning. So I’m finally getting around to doing it, too. Honestly, since I almost never wear makeup anyway it’s not a big deal for me to show my bed head. The harder part was simply remembering to take a picture! But I did it this morning, and yeah, I should have gotten out the remote or used a wider angle lens so it’d show more, but heck, it was first thing in the morning and I was lazy. Be happy with what you’re getting. ;o)

That’s what I thought. All of us.

Well, I’ve actually been going through and making some of my must-try recipes lately. I’m feeling tried of the same ol’ standbys, and with this warm weather I’m in the mood for some fresh, light ideas.

Once of the recipes has been a smashing success. Well, I think so anyway; neither Vasily or Nadia will touch it. But hey, they just means more for me! And there’s been a lot of it for me, since I’ve made it three times in the last week. Hey, quit giving me that look; it’s really quite healthy!

The recipe originally came from Reader’s Digest – I know, what an unlikely place to find a recipe – but I am posting it with my adaptations. I always have adaptations and I never measure, so just tweak it to match your taste.

Barley, Black Bean and Avocado Salad

Combine the following in a small saucepan:
1 cup V8 juice
1 cup chicken bullion
crushed rosemary
pinch of salt
several dashes of hot sauce (I use Chipotle Tabasco)

Bring the liquid to a boil and add 1/2 a cup of barley. Cover, reduce the heat and simmer until the barley is tender (how long varies according to what type of barley you have, so keep an eye on it!)

Once the barley is cooked and cooled, add the following:
1 can black beans, rinsed and drained
chopped tomatoes
chopped avocado
chopped green onions
lots of cilantro
couple tablespoons of lemon juice
drizzle of olive oil

Stir it all together and serve either room-temperature or cold.

Yummy! It’s great for a warm spring day..or maybe it’ll hurry spring along for those of you still staring at snowdrifts? Either way, it’s seriously good and guilt free.

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Now I’m going totally off-topic, but please tell me if you can see this picture? I’m trying something new. Thanks!

I have been uploading (almost) all my photos to Flickr, and then posting them to my blog from there. I like having all my pictures all in one convenient place and being able to search for one based on tags, and I like that all the images I post on my blog have a static address so there won’t be broken links if I ever move my blog.

So that’s all been working well for me, except that I think I want to quit Flickr. It’s a great community full of inspiration and support, but I really don’t use it that much and I’m becoming increasingly uneasy with the reports of photos (especially children’s photos) being stolen and misused. Of course there is that risk with posting any photo online, but Flickr especially seems to have been targeted.

I currently have a “pro” account on Flickr, but it’s due to expire in two weeks…so I need to make some decisions about which way to go.

I have considered uploading directly to Blogger, but I prefer to have all my photos hosted somewhere else with a direct, static link to each image. Does anyone have suggestions for photo hosting sites that offer this? Preferably free or cheap suggestions, too. ;o)

And as long as I’m asking for suggestions, I have one more thing to ask about. Since I will probably not be renewing my Pro account, the links for the majority of my pictures will be broken and the images will no longer show up on my blog. This upsets me, but there’s no way I’m going to go back and re-link the pictures in 472 posts (yes, I really have had that many posts in just over a year. sheesh!)

I do want to preserve the posts in their entirety, though. So I would like to download Momology…I don’t really care about the format, a Word document would be fine. The only way I know to do this is to copy and paste each post individually…and since my time is limited before pictures disappear, I would have to do almost 50 posts a day to meet my deadline! Anyone know of an automated way to do this??

I have no doubt that you guys are going to come through for me with some terrific suggestions, so thanks in advance!!

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Hey, anyone have any experience or opinions about this Web site downloader?

My photography is all about capturing life as it naturally happens. I am not a fan of “look at the camera and say cheese” portaits; I don’t feel that they capture who a person really is. I prefer to chase my subject (ie, Nadia 99.99% of the time!) around, snapping pictures like a crazy person. I want to capture the unplanned moments, the personality and soul and truth. I rarely pose or ask for smiles. I suppose all that’s to say I have a candid, photojournalistic approach to photogrpahy.

I am a natural light photographer. I hate flash and almost never use it – I would say “never” but you know, never say never! I would rather have a bit of blur than the harsh light and shadows of flash. I have no interest in studio lighting; I only want to use available lighting and maybe a reflector. I am still learning to make light work for me; I can recognize good light, but I don’t always now how to work with it if it’s not favorable.

I appreciate both color and black & white images. It’s interesting how I seem to go in phases; sometimes I lean towards the classic beatuy of b&w and other times I have to have all the vibrant color. The last few weeks I have been on a color kick; I have tried converting images to b&w but always prefer the color version. I find this intruiging and wonder why that is.

I love unique angles and perspectives and leading lines. I love pictures of the little details: tiny feet, hands grasped in friendship. And I have a thing for “walking away” pictures.

Above all, I love pictures that transport me back to that moment in time…pictures full of emotion and joy and love.

Here are a few of the photos I have hanging on my walls:

Many of my favorites are collected here…but I’ve been pretty bad about keeping up with it!

I am interested to see how others define their style today for Theme Thursday!