Pictures galore

Now that I have a new camera, I've been taking a lot more pictures to try to get used to how it works. No sense practicing on BGB when she comes, I need to get my practice now so I can make sure to document every 15 minutes of her life, much like we did with Andy. I swear with the ease of digital photography we could almost put all the pictures of Andy in a row and watch him age before our eyes. That would be kind of cool actually.

Andy and I walked down to the park last week to check out the playground and feed the ducks (and play with my new camera). Those specks in the distance are the birds. Andy is waving the bag at them telling them we have food. As you can see, the response was not immediate.

We had two stale hot dog buns to feed the ducks. I gave Andy one and instructed him on tearing off bits to throw into the water. He them promptly threw the whole thing in. At least he hit the water.

The ducks, er, mostly geese once they finally came around. The buggers were pretty aggressive so after a bit, I had to shoo them off with my feet to keep them from chasing Andy. By the end, he was karate kicking at them to keep them away. Rather amusing.

This one is out of place with the others, but I liked it anyway. Here Andy is after a bath where he declared it was "too cold" and promptly curled up in the hallway. I'm not sure why exactly either, but he wasn't so cold that he didn't want to smile for the camera. This kid sure loves to mug for the camera.

New toy!

As an awesome anniversary gift, Bjorn got me a new digital camera. To be exact, it's a Canon PowerShot SX100 IS which is tons more powerful than my Kodak EasyShare DX7630. It's so much more powerful and fancy that I still haven't figured out how to use it properly. But when I do, stand back (even Andy looks scared here of what can happen) because it's going to rock the house. I'm pretty excited about it.

I've even been reading the manual for this one because it's so much fancier than just pointing and clicking (and I know once I figure it out, I'll be able to do all sorts of neat stuff). What's funny is it uses terms I used to (almost) have a handle on, like ISO, shutter speed and aperture, but with the last few cameras I've had, they have been so simple I didn't have to bother. Now I'm finding I need to look up what they mean so I can use it right (sure, the manual has 12 blank pages for "notes" but they couldn't include a basic glossary of terms?)

Figures

It was bound to happen. After I have had the stomach flu and strep throat and Bjorn has had a sinus infection, odds are Andy would be the next in line to get sick. Naturally this comes during the busiest season of the year for me at work so in addition to stressing about him not feeling great and waking up every half hour last night, I was worried about my schedule. Sigh. It's never easy, is it? I haven't figured out how this is going to work with two yet.

Also, my digital camera is acting weird and I'm taking that as an excuse to start looking for a new one. I have a Kodak EasyShare that I have liked, the second generation for me, but now I'm looking for a pretty small camera that I can more easily put in my purse. Heaven forbid I not have the ability to whip out the camera and take adorable kid pictures. Like the TiVo, this is required gear for a new baby, right? Anyone have a camera they can recommend?

Hair

See? Photo evidence that the bangs on the right were clearly longer than on the other side. I'm not sure I made it much better, but you've got my back, right?

Meanwhile, charming face the boy is giving me. He's actually saying "cheese", but the camera delay is just enough to make it appear that he's shouting obscenities at me. You know, since toddlers do that.

Suit up

The big boys went out tonight for a steak dinner in honor of Mark's 18th birthday. Eighteen. Seriously? Mark's big present was a brand new (expensive) suit so he can now hit the important milestones this year in style. Bjorn's mom came over to wish Mark a happy birthday and see the boys dressed up. Andy - never one to miss a photo op - even insited on smiling as I tried to take their picture. I included him in a couple of frames because it was so funny. He just walked over and inserted himself into the picture because of course if the camera was out, he would need to be in front of it.

In disturbing news, guess who has figured out how to turn on the TV with the remote control? Between the DirecTV box and the TV itself, I know several adults (cough, Mom, cough) who can't turn it on successfully, but an almost two year old can. He is fascinated with "babies" which is what he calls cartoons. To lure him into the bath, I turned off the TV and put the remotes out of the way only to turn around and see that he's this close to being able to reach up and turn it on manually. I can't really fault the kid - I lurve me some TV, too.