Sony Alpha Nex

As an early anniversary present, Bjorn got me a new camera, the Sony Alpha Nex-3. This is the new kind of camera that is small but has almost the same shutter speed and capabilities as a big DSLR but at a fraction of the cost and size. I've been taking pictures like crazy, partly because it's so easy to take 10 all at once and delete the bad ones. Here are some of the ones that made the cut.

Andy and Barrett playing Bakery Story.

These kids are fascinated with putting their bikes upside down and "fixing" them. It seems very familiar.

She's quite intense when scooting. Plus, shoes are for the Suri Cruise's of the world.

He does this funny thing when he's chilling, he spins in circles.

Andy's school obsession, a game called First in Math that we have a log in through the school. He's so proud as he's the second highest in the class consistently. He's definitely got Bjorn's math skillz.

Seriously? Look how pretty this kid is? The skin, lips and eyelashes just blow me away. And look what a great shot it is? Love this camera. And obviously I'm a gifted photographer.

See how gifted I am?

Andy really wanted to do the rock climbing wall at school during the fall festival. It was pretty cool. The whole rock climbing wall folds up onto a trailer to take away at the end. It was a little more advanced for him but I know we'll be back to do this kind of thing again.

She is totally the Ghostest with the Mostest.

I love the hair! And the dancing.

Mommy's little axe murdered, I mean, firefighter.

Bjorn and Fafa. We were scouting out Grapevine Mills for the Big Bennett Family Christmas this December. I totally want to take the kids to Legoland. It looks awesome.

Andy loved this spinning teacup.

Obi-Wan at Book Character Day at school. We don't call it Halloween here. Some of the Religious Right are very against pagan holidays like this.

Margaret and Fafa reading. Meg was so happy to have her grandmother to read her this book. She's also wearing her other Halloween shirt, "Out of Candy: Need Refill."

One very happy Batman (Batwoman?) with her loot.

Happy Wearing Costumes Day

Friday was Halloween. Actually, for Andy though, it was Wear Your Costume to School Day. It never occurred to me that Halloween was anything really except an excuse to get dressed up and pass out candy. But apparently some people and religions take the whole pagan holiday thing somewhat seriously and don't celebrate it. I can sort of see their point, I mean, if you are religious, it seems that dressing up to celebrate a known pagan ritual is probably a pretty serious breech.

What has amused me is the amount of serious backlash from people who believe those people should just "get over it" and be American already and stop taking away all the fun holidays like Christmas from the other kids. Not that I've had the nerve to say it in person, rather, I just politely nod and file it away, but the answer for me is to put your kids in a private religious school and you can celebrate all the Christmases and Easters that your heart desires.

Bjorn's impressive Jack-o-Lantern. You can't really tell from the darkness, but the pumpkin guts are coming out the mouth of the pumpkin like he's "puking." Andy and Bjorn thought that was just hilarious.
Their other Jack-o-Lantern who seems to be feeling fine, thank you.

Andy showing off the bat on his face his teacher painted on for him.

Little Miss Lobster. I intended to put her into a pot like Dylan over here, however, I didn't have a pot big enough for her sturdy 23 pound frame.

Andy in his Thomas the Tank Engine costume as Jennifer paints no. 1 on his cheeks. We all his the cul-de-sac together, then Jennifer later took him to a few more houses and he loved it!

A little bit OCD and Pre-Halloween

Andy is going through a slight OCD phase. He recently went through and paired up all the shoes in the house. He also went through all the toy bins in the house (there are several in various locations on three floors) and collected all the stacking cups to put them in order (see picture below).
From when he was a baby/toddler, I think I have three or four sets. They are all made from different manufacturers obviously since some start at with the biggest at 8 and work to one and others start with the biggest at 1 and go to 8. They are also a colorful assortment. After we located all we could find, he spent time organizing them by number. I'll admit I'm totally proud of how his mind is really working these days. Well, when his mind isn't totally focused on how to solicit another cookie out of me or Bjorn. Aw, hell, I find that pretty impressive, too.

We went to the Halloween festival in the neighborhood and I snapped this picture. The lighting is a little too bright (which is sort of good since you can't see the candy remnants on his face unless you really look for them), but I just love how it turned out.

Here he is posing at the festival with his Thomas costume on. After he got a few pictures taken and proudly pointed out the other three Thomases we saw there, he took it off so he could properly jump on the moon bounce and climb the slides.

We went to a Spooky Lunch on Saturday and Andy proudly decorated a pumpkin, which is now adorning our front porch. At this party, he also started with his costume on and promptly took it off after a few group pictures. He has now worn his costume twice. He now has to wear it to school on Friday and then out trick or treating Friday night. I would say we have definitely gotten our $22 worth. After I bought it, he spent two weeks refusing to even try it on so

I am thrilled that he has worn it at all.

Happy Halloween

I rushed home from Los Angeles to celebrate Halloween to find that Andy's sinus infection (or goopy eye, running nose and cough) appear to be back, putting him somewhat in a cranky mood. We didn't tour the neighborhood, but Bjorn was able to get him into his costume and the boys sat on the porch and handed out candy. I already had a follow-up doctor's appointment scheduled for the afternoon so we'll just go to that to have his symptoms looked at again. Of course, I'm already worried that this means we'll be going through another series of ear infections that will ultimately lead to getting tubes in his ears. I know, I know, there is nothing wrong with tubes, it's just if we can avoid a surgery - however minor - I'd prefer to do that.

Spiderman

Behold, the cutest Spidey ever. Well, on our block anyway. It took a few days of talking about the costume and touching it before Bjorn was able to convince him to finally try it on (over his pajamas, hence the bulky look). Since then, he hasn't stopped talking about it. There is a mask that goes with the polyester jumpsuit, but I don't believe he's going to be putting that on his face. I can't say I blame him though. I tried it on to get him interested and it's hard to breathe in that thing.

Also, my doctor called today to say I did have strep throat, you know, a week ago. Turns out going to your OB for a strep test isn't the right place to go since I just found out about it now, but hey, they did give me the antibiotics and I did recover so that's good. My ailment this week is back pain. I'm so far attributing it to sleeping funny as I'm in denial that I'm pregnant enough to have this already. Not that I'm not ready to go ahead and not be pregnant anymore, but I have more than 120 days left of this (hey, I was in a really, really long meeting and somehow counting back from February 2 seemed like a good idea at the time).