Day 59: Mall Shopping

Last week at my MOMS group one of the women shared that, once a month she has a Mom day - a day all to herself to do whatever she wants (shopping, massage, nice lunch, etc). I thought that sounded like a GREAT idea! I plan to start having these too, and thought I would actually start today. Hubby had to help with a Knights of Columbus project for a couple of hours after lunch, so I thought after I got Edward down for his nap I would head to the mall to spend my Christmas gift cards all by myself. But you know what they say - the best laid plans... Edward is going through a phase of fighting his nap. So when hubby got home he spent some time in his room with him trying to settle him. I didn't want to leave Elizabeth on her own, so I ended up taking her with me. She was pretty good. She sat in the stroller the whole time, and I got her some chicken nuggets to keep her quiet. I got to try on some clothes (she kept telling me I looked 'distinguished'!) and easily spent both my gift cards! I probably would have stayed out a bit longer if I had been on my own, but it was still nice to do something (mostly) for myself. Next month, it will be all about me!

Day 58: Parish Night Out

Tonight was the annual parish night out. Well, I say annual, it's only the second time they've done it! We didn't go last year, but decided we would this year. I'm not sure we'll bother next year (if we're still in this parish). There was free food and drink, and a disco. The new Bishop came so we all got to see him, and lots of people lined up to meet him, but we didn't bother. Elizabeth spent most of the time out the back in the childcare room making friends. We just sat at our table trying to keep Edward entertained. We didn't see anyone we knew! I was hoping I might see someone from my MOMS group or Elizabeth's school. Oh well. We stayed about 2 hours, then Elizabeth wanted to go home so we left. She was really tired and had been napping before we left home. She still has a nasty cough, it's really lingering.

Day 57: No Paper? No Problem

Yesterday I gave my daughter a Sharpie so she could draw some faces on some stones she had collected. This morning when I went to put something on the table I noticed these two little faces drawn on there! I had to smile. She loves drawing faces and people, whenever she has to write a birthday card or something she always likes to add a face or two, usually one for each of us in the family :)

Day 56: One Small Step for Man

I am very into astronomy, I love taking pictures of the moon. I spotted that the almost full moon was already out when I went to pick my daughter up from school, so when we stopped at the supermarket on the way home I took a few shots of it. Daytime shots of the moon never seem to look as good as it does to the naked eye, and I can't seem to do anything to improve them in Photoshop either. This is quite a nice one though.

Day 55: More Blossoming Trees

I pass this tree every day on my way to my daughter's school, and the white blossom against the green leaves always catches my eye. As the sky was nice a clear I decided today was the day to take a picture of it. There are lots of trees like this around the school, and they are all starting to drop their blossom like snow now, it's so pretty.

Day 54: Blast From the Past

This is one of the birthday presents Edward got. We got it for him with some money he was given. My hubby and I both had one of these when we were kids. Ours were wooden though, this one is plastic. I hope it lasts as long! Edward loves it of course, because it has wheels! Once we showed him how it worked he liked making calls on it too. Elizabeth also loves playing with it!

Day 53: Busy Bee in the Blooming Blossom

I spent an hour in the backyard with the kids today, and took over 200 hundred pictures! It took a while to choose which one I wanted to use for the photo of the day, but I settled on this one. I actually took this out front. It's the same tree I photographed on Day 42. I was just planning on taking a couple pf shots to show how the blossom is developing, then noticed there were lots of bees hard at work in it. I was really pleased when I downloaded the pictures onto my computer and saw I had captured this little guy in flight!

Day 52: The Rain's Back

We've had a lovely spring week this week, but yesterday it started raining again. I took this shot on the way home from church through the passenger window of the car.

Day 51: Valentine's Flowers

These are some flowers my husband gave me for Valentines Day. I really like the unusual pattern on them. I have no idea what species they are though!

Once again, this is not the shot I had planned to take today. We went to Sears today to get our annual portraits taken. I had hoped to snap a quick shot with my camera phone to show the shoot in action, but I ended up being busy the whole time. Edward seemed to think he was at the doctor's, and was quite scared. He eventually calmed down, but he wasn't very cooperative, so I spent most of the time trying to get him to pose how we wanted. We ended up with a pretty nice set of pictures. I would have liked a better one of the kids together, but Edward was just done posing by that point. We got some really nice ones of each of the kids alone and all of us together though. I also got the whole shoot on CD, so I can make some collages with the pictures we're not getting printed up.

Day 50: Cat

We've had a pretty quiet day today. Well, except for when Edward took his diaper off and pooped on the floor! But I figured no one wanted to see a picture of that. Elizabeth is sleeping right now, Edward is eating, and I'm waiting for hubby to get home. I realized I hadn't taken a picture yet today, and decided to mess about a bit. So I put my adapter ring on to see what effects I could get. The adapter ring allows me to use filters with this lens that were designed for my smaller lenses. When the lens is zoomed right out, you get a kind of vignette effect in the corners as the adapter creeps into the shot. I quite liked this one, which I took hand held without the flash, with the ISO bumped up. I have no idea what she's looking at though. Probably some dust blowing in the breeze!

Day 49: New Splash Guard

Whenever the kids have a bath, they always splash so much the whole bathroom gets wet, and it drives me nuts! So I have implemented a tip I read in a parenting magazine. I have put up a clear plastic shower curtain. So now I can easily keep an eye on them, and they can splash as much as they want! The only minor problem was when I pulled back the curtain to wash their hair, they kept on splashing. But it was still a lot less mess than usual, so I'm happy with this investment :)

Day 48: Edward's Checkup

Today Edward had his annual checkup. He's doing fine, all his development is on track and he's in great shape. The only minor concern the doctor had was his speech. She said he should be saying about 100 words by now, and be able to put two words together in a sentence. She told me to start making a list of everything he can say. So far I'm up to 25, with about 5 'sentences'. A lot of those aren't really words yet, but I know what he means when he says them. I'm not worried about his speech at all. I've heard boys start speaking later than girls, and he doesn't seem to have any problems communicating.

Edward was very scared of the doctor. I'm not surprised - 3 out of the last 4 times he's gone he got shots! Now he thinks every time he goes he's going to get a shot. But even though he was scared he did really well. He clung to me while the doctor examined him, but he didn't make as much fuss as I thought he would, and he let the doctor do what she needed to do. The worse parts where when he was weighed and measured, as I couldn't hold him for that!

While we were there I also had the doctor check Elizabeth out. She's had a nasty cough for a few days now, and was running a fever for a couple of days too. But the doctor said her lungs sound fine, and her ears are clear. So for now I'm just continuing to give her cough medicine, but the doctor said she can give me a prescription one if it doesn't clear up soon. Elizabeth has been quite down with this cough, complaining about feeling sick all the time, and not eating much. I'm hoping she can go back to school tomorrow though, I think it will do her good.

This is a picture of the outside of the doctor's office building. I was going to take a picture of the kids while we were waiting, but I never got a chance. It's a nice place, all the doctor's seem nice and sensible too. The hospital is in the same building which is nice. So when I was going for OB checks, when I gave birth, or whenever we have to go to the ER, it's all in the same place. And it's only 10 minutes from our house, which is very convenient!

47: Caught in a Web

This is the same spiderweb I photographed on day 27. The sun was low behind the trees at the bottom of the backyard, and it was lighting the web beautifully. I tried to get some macro pictures of it, but suffered from the same problem as before, not being able to get the tripod high enough, and thus not able to get a steady shot. It didn't help that there was a slight breeze too. Eventually I noticed that some tiny bugs were caught in the web, and with a lot of patience I was able to get one or two reasonable shots of them. I really need to find a way of getting my tripod up higher so I can get a good shot of this web before it collapses!

46: My Little Man Turns 2

Yes, two years ago today my second bundle of joy arrived. We celebrated with a family day at home. Hubby had the day off for President's Day which was nice. Edward slept late, and Elizabeth was so impatient for him to wake up and open his presents! He was very excited to see the big pile we had for him, and he seemed to like everything we got him, as he wanted to play with each one before opening another. That meant it took him ages to open them all up!

After lunch we went into the back yard to take a family picture as it was a gorgeous day. Then we came back in and lit the '2' candle on the train cake Dave and Elizabeth made. He loved us singing happy birthday to him (a stark contrast to Elizabeth who hated it the first 2 or 3 years).

After we'd had some cake we drove to Mountain View and caught the CalTrain for a ride into San Francisco. Edward really loves trains, so we thought he would enjoy a ride on one. He did have fun, except when we went through the tunnels. He didn't seem to like everything outside disappearing! When we arrived in San Francisco it was already getting late, and quite chilly, so we just walked up to the nearest McDonalds, had a burger, then caught the train home again.

All in all it was a very nice day. It wasn't quite what we originally planned though. In previous years we have always held a barbecue in our backyard on the kids birthdays and invited our friends. Last year we didn't get many people coming to either party though, so this year we decided to just have a family day for Edward's birthday (Elizabeth will be having a party with all her school friends). We thought we would get the train into SF and ride the cable cars. Or alternatively we thought we might go to the children's museum in San Jose, and/or drive down to Monterey and visit the aquarium. In the end we didn't do any of that as both the kids are sick. They both have a nasty chesty cough, Edward also has a stuffy nose, and Elizabeth has a fever. So we decided to just take it easy instead.

Nothing ever goes to plan when you have kids, but as Oasis once said, you gotta roll with it :)

45: Happy Valentine's Day to Me!

This was my gift from hubby today. He knows I love Godiva truffles, so he gets them for me for every occasion. The only problem is, I'm giving chocolate up for Lent this year, which starts in 3 days, so I don't have much time to eat them!!

44: Fashionista

Elizabeth got a new coat today. We were in Target looking for a nice dress for her to wear on Edward's birthday on Monday, and I saw these coats. I showed one to her, and she loved it. She really doesn't need a new coat, but I couldn't resist, especially when I saw her in it! She's such a poser though.

We did get a nice dress too. We had to find one with no 'holes'. She won't wear anything that buttons up if there is too much of a gap, and she won't wear anything backless. She's very fussy!

43: Playdate at Super Franks

Today I took the kids on a playdate with some of Elizabeth's school friends. We went to a place called Super Franks. I had never been there before. I think it's like Chuck-e-Cheese, but I've never been there either. They have lots of rooms with stuff for kids to play on like slides, bouncies, cars, etc. Both the kids had a great time.

42: Spring is in the Air. And on the Trees.

I popped into my front yard this afternoon to take some pictures of some nice shadows I had spotted from the kitchen window. Just before I came inside I glanced towards my neighbor's house, and saw that blossom had started to bloom on one of the trees. It was so pretty, so I shot a few pictures before I went back inside. It wasn't until I uploaded the shots to my computer that I saw how beautiful the pink looked against the dark bark of the tree and the bright blue sky. I think this may be one of my all time favorite pictures now! And yay - spring is here!

41: A Valentine's Flower for Teacher

Elizabeth's class are all taking a flower to give to their teacher tomorrow for Valentine's Day. I let Elizabeth pick which ones she wanted, and she chose these pink ones. I have no idea what species they are, possibly some kind of daisy. They are artificially colored, I believe by just putting them in colored water, which is then sucked up the stems and goes into the petals. Even though the color is artificial, I still love it! I took several shots of the flowers, most in macro, which I will post on my blog soon.

Elizabeth's class are having a Valentine's party tomorrow too. It's just for the kids, no parents allowed. I don't know what they'll be doing, but I'm sure they'll have fun. Elizabeth made a card for Miss Kristin (her teacher), and we got a pack of Toy Story Valentine's cards for her to give out to her friends. She wrote her name on each one (writing over my letters) and put heart stickers on them. We also got a pack of monster stickers for each child.

40: Kindergarten Screening

We have applied to St Raymond Catholic School in Dublin to enroll Elizabeth in Kindergarten in the fall. Today she took their screening tests to see if she is ready. I have no idea how she did as the parents had to wait outside. She seemed happy when she came out though. Her preschool teacher says she does well one-on-one when she is doing tasks, and they were in groups of 3, so hopefully she did ok. I just hope she wasn't too distracted by the whole event. She seems to be quite excited at the thought of going to 'big school'. I think she will do fine. Even if she passes the tests though she might not get in. There are only 35 places, and priority is given to siblings of current students, and members of the parish. They will be mailing out the results on March 20th, about 6 weeks time. In the meantime we keep our fingers crossed and pray!

The testing took about an hour. While I was waiting I took my camera and went on a photo walk at the park across the street. It was the first time I've been able to do that completely on my own and it was wonderful! I had a chance to try out a few techniques, including reflections in a puddle, and experimenting with fast and slow shutter speeds on a fountain. I got some nice results, but I need more practice.

39: Dave's Birthday

It was my husband's birthday today. He is 46. During the day I got Elizabeth to make a 'Happy Birthday Daddy' sign that we hung in the dining room. She also helped me make a cake. She wanted to do a Super Mario cake, so I made it in the special tin we have. The cake came out fine, but when I tried to ice it, well, let's just say I wouldn't get a job at Charm City Cakes! It looked a mess, but it tasted good.

So when Dave got home we gave him his presents. We got him a t-shirt and a beer mug with pictures of the kids on them that I made at Zazzle, an automatic apple peeler and corer, some Pi cologne, the Michael Jackson DVD This Is It, and the first series of Quantum Leap on DVD. The kids helped him open the presents. Edward especially enjoyed that. I think he will have a lot of fun on HIS birthday next week!

38: Superbowl Sunday

Today was Superbowl Sunday. I'm not into football, so I went shopping with Elizabeth to buy birthday presents for Edward, and to get our weekly supplies. It was GREAT! There was no one about. I got great parking spaces, and there were no idiots in the stores. The only drawback was that there were also no checkout clerks around. I actually had to find someone and ask to check out in Toys-R-Us! It was worth it though. I wish there was a superbowl every weekend. Next year I'm going to the mall! Unless the Steelers are in it. They are my husbands team, so if they are in it I will probably watch with him. This year the New Orleans Saints won, and I gather they have never won it before, so they were fairly chuffed!

37: Every 6 Weeks

Time to get my roots touched up! I go every 6 weeks. I have red and blond highlights on my dark brown hair. I always like the way it looks, and I often get compliments on it. I'm thinking of going completely dark at some point though, for a change. I recently saw a picture of my sister with very dark hair, and I really liked it, so I think I might give it a try. I'm going to wait until I have to let these highlights grow out first though, which will be the next time I'm pregnant, which hopefully won't be too far in the future :)

36: Tools of the Trade

It's my husband's birthday on Monday. Today I wrapped the presents I've got him. I'm not going to say what they are, just in case he happens to read this! I also made a card for the kids to give him today, and had Elizabeth write in it and draw a picture. Edward left his mark too. I used the new photocard paper I got last month, and it worked really well. I'm looking forward to making more cards with it.

35: Raindrops on Windows

I took this through the windscreen of my car while I was waiting at a stop light. I really like how the raindrops are in focus and the headlights and traffic light are out of focus in the background. I had to focus manually for this shot, as the auto-focus kept wanting to focus on something through the windscreen, not the raindrops that were on it.

34: Hot Off the Press

I just published my first book of photographs using blurb, and the first copy arrived in the mail today. I was so excited, and it turned out even better than I expected! I flipped through it with a big smile on my face the whole time :D

I'm going to try and sell copies directly from blurb. I sent a email to all my friends and family, and I posted a link on Facebook, Twitter and StumbleUpon. I don't realistically expect to sell many copies, probably only a few to family. I really do think it's a good book though. Unfortunately the price is a little high, because it's print-on-demand. There's not much I can do about that though.

Backyard Treas...

By TracyLynn Seeger

Book Preview

I'm going to order a hardback copy for myself, then this one and another softback copy will go to my parents and nannie as gifts. I was originally planning to give this as gifts to everyone for Christmas last year, but I ran out of time to get it done.

My next project is to put together a yearbook of the kids for last year. I do this every year, and again keep one copy for myself and give copies as gifts to my parents and nannie. I also have another secret project planned that I'm not going to go into detail about, just in case a certain someone happens to read this :)

33: Happy Groundhog Day!

Today is Groundhog Day, and when I got up this morning I found this poster. My husband is originally from Pittsburgh, so he takes Groundhog Day quite seriously. A couple of years ago he built a big working model of the groundhog coming out of his hole!

He also made a cake last night, but it's not finished yet. He's going to put a little model of a groundhog on it. It already has the shadow on it. As I've mentioned before, he loves cooking and baking. He always makes the cakes for the kids' birthdays.

32: Jesus Loves the Children

I co-oped at Elizabeth's preschool again today. I am doing two days this week, as I was the last person to sign up, and ended up with whatever days were left. We had a fun day. In this picture, their teacher is telling them the story of how Jesus loved the children, and told the disciples not to keep them from him, but to become more like them (Matthew 19). She used the whiteboard to draw the scene, and the kids were totally engrossed! Mind you, they were also engrossed when she read them "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs' too :)

This isn't actually the picture I had planned to post today. Edward developed an ear infection during the night, so I had to take him to the pediatrician this morning. I had planned to take a picture of him in the waiting room, or waiting in the examination room, but I totally forgot. He hated the whole experience! He cried when the nurse weighed him, he cried when she took his temperature, and he tried to get away when the doctor was trying to look in his ears. I think he thought he was going to get a shot! In fact, he was supposed to get one tomorrow. The kids have an appointment to get their H1N1 booster shots tomorrow, but now he can't have his. It's probably just as well, they both hate getting shots, so at least now I'll only have to deal with one hysterical child!