Where Are You Now

I'm gonna blog today. I'm gonna, I'm gonna, I'm gonna!

Man, I have been so bad at this lately. And it's weird because it is not that I don't have anything to talk about - the reality is I have SO MANY things to blog about that my brain is clogged and nothing is coming through. I still need to finish the vacation series, I have a post about my morning in Huntsville in my old church and so much more.... I am sorry I haven't been a good bloggy friend lately.

Yesterday was Kiddo's 4 year check. He was supposed to have it last week, but he and Port both caught colds so we postponed it to yesterday. Kiddo did so well - I am so very proud of him. He weighs 43 lbs (95%) and is 42 inches tall (85%). He got 3 vaccinations and didn't cry or anything. He is really good about things if I prep him right before and tell him what to expect. He whined a bit and flinched when he was being injected, but would still answer questions and smiled all through it. He is such a big, brave boy. I am so proud of him.

Didn't I say that already? Well, it is worth repeating.

Kiddo has suddenly started drawing "scenes" in addition to his detailed figures and objects. It is so fascinating to me - the kid has more artistic ability at 4 than I ever have had in my whole life. Yesterday he drew a picture of himself and a friend on a see-saw. There was clearly two boys with arms and legs and faces and bodies on a detailed see-saw with a sun in the sky. On the way to the doctor's office he drew himself lying on the exam table and the doctor standing next to him. It was awesome. I wish I could have taken a picture but he drew both scenes on one of those erasable magnetic boards - which made the fact the drawings were so detailed even more incredible to me.

And yesterday was significant because little Port turned 5 months old.

5 months. Has it been that long already? That is almost half a year!!!

I am still pumping between 5 and 6 times a day. He is suddenly eating way more than I can produce again. It happened overnight. For the past few days I have been supplementing with about 8 oz formula and 2 feedings of rice cereal. And the boy is still hungry.

Yes, I started cereal again. I know I said I was going to wait till 6 months, but the kid is just so miserable watching us eat. He LOVES cereal, regular cooked rice, oatmeal, puffs; anything I will give him. For now he is only getting tastes of other things, but I am ok with the cereal for now. Of course his eczema is flaring again, but I'm not entirely sure it is from the cereal - more likely from something I am eating.

He is sitting up very well now and he has also started to spit. He thinks that is hilarious. Me, not so much. ;)

And yesterday was significant because I officially hit being only 5 pounds away from my pre-pregnancy weight. I have lost 14 pounds in the last 7 weeks! My size 6 jeans fit again (loosely! woo hoo!) and I am feeling so much better. Now if I could only get the skin to shrink as fast as everything else...

I owe the weight loss completely to breastfeeding. I don't exercise at all right now. My diet has been pretty poor lately, especially this last week since I caught the boys' cold too. My throat is raw and water and salad is so unappealing right now. I have been indulging far too much on sweets lately and I still lost a pound this week. Go figure.

My current obsession right now is Facebook. *sigh* Babycenter (where I spend most of my days chatting with a fantastic group of August '04 moms) is switching to a new format and no one likes it, so everyone is scattering to different corners of the Internet universe and a bunch of us have gathered at Facebook. It is fun and soooo addicting over there. I have got to get off that site! lol!

And, I am gearing up for the holiday photography season! I am so excited; please pray that I will be super busy! This is my favorite time of year. I have a mini-session weekend set up and full session dates available. I have ordered some promotional post cards (can't wait to get those) and have also ordered some amazing prints for a display in the doctor's office. I am so excited to see what comes of it. One of my favorite things about my business is that I get to start thinking about the holidays in September! I am soooo ready!

So, that is the quick update I guess. I swear I will try to get back into the blogging habit again. I miss you all.

Until,

D :)

"Where Are You Now" Jimmy Harnen with Synch

Sunshine Superman

Ok, if you want to claim to be a photographer, never, ever, ever leave home with just the camera and not the bag with your EXTRA battery! Seriously, what the heck was I thinking? You know, I even checked the battery in the camera before I left and it looked ok. Now that I think about it, it was already saying the juice was low - ummm, hello? Brain? Oh brain, where are you?

Kiddo and I went to the park today. The mom's group was meeting and I haven't been to an event in forever and it was absolutely gorgeous out AND I didn't take him anywhere yesterday, and we have a touch of cabin fever, and I needed to get some pictures (and this is the longest run on sentence EVER) so we went. Kiddo had a blast! He ran, he climbed, he wanted to slide but didn't get quite that brave, but he did learn to fling himself off of the spinning deal that scares the beejeebers out of me (thank you adventurous 3 year old that thought crash landing was funny, now my kid thinks it's funny too). He dug in the dirt and laid face first in the dirt and jumped in the dirt; oh excuse me, gravel. That is by far the dirtiest gravel I've ever seen. We were both covered head to toe in dust when we left. But, I have to say that is by far one of my favorite parks. One, because it is so close to me, two, because of how big and spread out it is, and three because there are lots of different things to do and even when it is crowded you don't feel like your kid is going to get run over. (ok, that was four things)

Anyway, my goal was to get some pictures of the cutie patootie, but I only got 5 shots fired before my battery died. pppbbbbbttttt! So, so aggravating. Never again will I go anywhere with my camera and not an extra battery. The day was perfect for pictures. The sun was a little hot at times, but I totally could have worked around that. Anyway, here are 2 of the 5 I got.

AHH HA HA HA HAHAHAHAHA! What kind of face is that?!?

Ok, in my defense the thing was spinning. This was the last shot before the battery died and I was having trouble getting the camera to focus. Oh well. And, I didn't edit these at all because really, what's the point?

The other three pics have another child in them and I'm not sure how K would feel about me posting pics of her kiddo, but they are pretty cute. The two boys were having a very serious little gibberish conversation on the spinney thing; it was a beautiful moment. ;)

Anyway, I just wanted to share. Hopefully I'll have something more interesting to say later.

Until,

D :)

A Life Uncommon

Looks like BabyCenter is having some difficulty so I am forced to do something else right now. I know, I could be cleaning or cooking or laundry or playing with Kiddo - but I don't want to clean, dinner is in the crock pot, Kiddo is out in the yard playing by himself and the laundry, well it can wait.

As with most days, but especially Mondays, I have been doing a lot of surfing on the computer today. Mondays tend to be my decompression day; I unwind from the weekend, enjoy the solitude of my cup of coffee and my computer in the morning and start my week with absolutely nothing on my plate. I was looking at some one's profile on a website today, snooping really; just checking in maybe? whatever you want to call it - and this person had one of those goofy questionnaires on the page. You know the ones, they ask 50-100 ridiculous questions about your likes and dislikes, habits and pet peeves, etc. and the very last question asked if they had any regrets. His response was "one". Hmmm, a bit curious, don't you think?

It got me thinking about regrets. We all have them I'm sure. I have them, but they are not necessarily bad things. I mean, if I knew what I was getting into at the time, I probably wouldn't have done something I regret. And if I hadn't done those things, I wouldn't be who I am today. And who I am today is pretty ok. I guess. Right? So I guess really I have no regrets.

But what about this guy? What is his "one" regret? What could have possibly been so significant in his life that it is the one thing, "The One Thing" that he regrets? Well, the possibilities are endless I guess. But what if that one regret was a person? Ooh, wouldn't that be interesting? What if that one regret was me?

I know what you're thinking, narcissistic much?

No, I don't think I am that significant, but we did cross paths in life on many occasion. And I strongly believe that everyone comes into your life for a reason. I believe God puts them in your path to mold you and make you who He wants you to be. Every person leaves their mark; no matter how small. And what if the mark I left really made a difference? Something to ponder I guess.

But not for long. I have laundry to do. ;)

Do you have any regrets? What are they - if you don't mind sharing? I look forward to your comments.

Until,

D :)