Three Months Old (Elliot's Monthly Photo)

One thing everybody says about Elliot is that his neck is so strong!  I know it's a good thing, but I also kind of want him to be a little helpless newborn still.  It seems like he never was one... he came out with such a strong neck!  My mom reminded me that the first week he really didn't have much head control.  I guess that's something.  One week.  Still, I'm glad he's growing and is nice and strong.



Speaking of strong, his lungs are very healthy.  He is a car screamer like his big sister.  Tonight I sang "The Itsy Bitsy Spider" about 50 times to keep him quiet on the way home from a friend's house.  At least it seemed to keep him happy, whereas I never found any song that pleased Lucy enough to keep her quiet in the car.



He is cooing now - so sweet.  He doesn't seem to be the adrenaline junkie Lucy was at this age, but he does seem pretty pleased with being tossed in the air (not high).  Another thing people comment about--his blue, blue eyes.  And his cute McKinney ears :)



He is still a huge fan of eye contact.  That alone will often calm him when he's fussy.  He's so different from his sister in that way. 



Elliot, we are thankful for you!  You are such a gift. 

Twenty Months (Lucy's Monthly Photo)

Good grief these collages are getting very time-consuming!

Lucy is saying all kinds of words now.  Our favorites are:
hello (he-whoa)
butter and brother (both sound like "buh-wer," so context clues are helpful)
potato (tay-to... as in the "sack of potatoes" game we play in the evenings)
Elliot (said "Ey-yi-yi-yet")
pacifier (said "powow")



Lucy's down to just having her pacifier at night time and nap time (and in the car.  Gotta keep my sanity somehow in the car).  Which means she's obsessed with Elliot's pacifier, which is always clipped to him.



On a couple of occasions, I've glanced over, thinking Lucy is bent over Elliot to give him a sweet hug or kiss.  But no.  She is sucking on his pacifier, tethered 6 inches from his clothes.  She stays like that until she's gotten her pacifier fix, and then she moves on.  Don't get me wrong though, she loves Elliot.  And she does give him a fair number of hugs.  and kisses.



Lucy has become like a little sister to Jack recently.  She tries to annoy him by shouting, "MINE!" whenever he is near.  It used to drive him bonkers, but he's become more chill about it - partly, I think, because we've begun really correcting her when she does it.

We're at one nap a day now, though she still goes down for a "rest time" in addition to the nap time.  I'm hoping to keep the 2 nap/rest schedule for as long as possible.  Some days it is a life saver.



One of Lucy's favorite evening games with Daniel is the game of "Whoa" - played by standing on Daniel's tummy, with him holding her hands.  She leans to one side and then the other, and both Daniel and she say, "whooooa" as if she were about to fall.  She's taken to playing it at other times, too - - in front of a mirror while leaning back and forth, for example.  It is so cute.

She is definitely keeping us busy!  Lucy, you are such a joy to Daniel and me.  We love you and are so grateful for you.

Slides Are Great

We stayed busy this last week.  Many visits to parks, photo sessions, playing outside, reading books... lots of activity. 

Lucy seems to always be on the look out for a park or playground.  I hear her shouting from the backseat, "pie!  pie!  pie!" (play) or else "side? side? side?" (outside or slide).  I love playing with her at the playground.  She gets so delighted.  It's so fun.

Baby Roman

My next photo shoot this week was baby Roman - 7 months.



I had all these great "sitting"-type poses ready to try out.  But Roman's not sitting yet.  So once again, I was sort of stumped.



Again with the backlighting.  I think I got the exposure better this time, and with less haze (yes!) than the last attempt.



This pose is super.  I need more go-to's like this one.  Mom and baby look beautiful to me.



Doesn't this look mom look like a rock star?  She reminds me of you, Charlie.



Black backgrounds are difficult.  Baby appears to be floating a lot of the time.  Not sure what the solution to that is.



This shoot made me a little crazy.  I kept my camera in manual but had to keep switching the settings.  I was using my speed light, bounced off the ceiling's corner behind me - but I also frequently switched to all natural light... which meant I had to increase my ISO by a lot.  I was so frustrated, because it seemed that every image came out over- or under-exposed.  Thank goodness for the ability to post-process.  I would like to get proficient enough that my images come straight out of the camera with little need for editing.  Maybe some day.  Practice makes perfect.

Photos Upon Photos

 

Despite both kids being sick and with fevers, I managed to get this shot today!  Wish Elliot were smiling, but otherwise I love it.  



I volunteered to take photos for all the moms in my Monday Playgroup.  So I've been taking lots of photos lately.  It's really helpful to have other subjects to practice on.



Yesterday I shot baby Julia.  She's almost exactly the same age as Elliot.  Isn't she beautiful?



I will admit that after my initial "tummy time" pose didn't work out, I was sort of stumped.   Doesn't she look sad (above)? 



I quickly had mom pick her back up to keep her happy, and we tried every different pose I could think of.  Mom had brought several outfits, so that was helpful. 



We went from one to the next and didn't spend much time trying to make a pose work if it didn't from the get go.



I've been working on backlighting.  One of my favorite wedding photos is back-lit, and I never thought anything about it.  But actually it's quite difficult to shoot a well-exposed subject in front of a light background.



This one has quite a bit of haze, but it's an improvement over my first few attempts.  I tried this shot both in front of my front door (with a moderate amount of light coming in from the sky tubes in the living room) and again in front of my dining room window (with almost no light in the dining room).



After a lot of editing (including some valiant recovery in CameraRaw), my end result led me to this conclusion: I think it's better to shoot a back-lit subject with lots of light in front of them... unless you want a lot of noise from the obligatorily high ISO necessary in such low light.  Or unless you want a a silhouette. 



I think she looks like a doll.  This shot (above) might have been better if there were two adults holding Julia's hands.  But I didn't have two adults - I just had mom.  Any ideas for this situation?



The photo gods looked kindly upon me during this shoot.  Baby Julia fell into a sound sleep, and we were able to position her for a couple cute shots.  I didn't even have the heater going or anything.

 

One helpful piece of advice I read recently is to just keep moving.  Even if you think nothing  good will come of it, try a different angle.  



I think it's good advice. 

Meeting Joshua

Joshua is our newest little nephew, just 4 weeks old!  (Shout out to Carrie, who made this cute blanket)



Isn't he sweet?  He is such a cuddly little thing.  My niece and nephew are so proud of him.



Every time we see my niece and nephew, Lucy is able to interact a little more with them.  Abby is only 9 months older than Lucy, but at first that makes a big difference.

 

She is still taller than Lucy by a few inches and is talking a lot more, but before too long they'll seem closer in age - especially when they are in the same grade. 



It was mayhem with all the kids running around when we first arrived - they were so excited.



Daniel's grandparents also enjoyed having visitors!  We stayed with them while in Houston, and they'd never spent that much time with Lucy before.



She loved seeing this snow globe ("BALL!!!") and listening to its music. 



And she loved getting Daniel's attention while he and Grandpa were visiting.



We enjoyed hearing some about their memories of the Great Depression and of their courting years.
 

Daniel's grandpa lived with his grandparents during the Great Depression, which means he could have heard stories of what life was like in the late 1800's.  That's fascinating to me.



Yesterday we enjoyed getting the little cousins back together for a trip to the park.

We were a sight, the four adults (two of us with babies strapped to us) walking, dragging a wagon with two little ones, and Jonathan on his scooter.



The park wasn't too crowded, but enough to feel busy.
 

Lucy loved their slides.  I think they must wax them or something.  They were really slippery.



She was amused at the see-saw.  Such a shame she'll never know the truly fun (and terrifying) taller see-saws of my childhood.



We had a great time visiting with our family and are already looking forward to seeing them again.



All the cousins (below):

Unfortunately, as I type this we are waiting on a roadside assistant to come.  Why do they make the wheel nuts so stinking difficult to loosen??



Hoping for a less eventful rest of our trip.  Thankful for roadside assistance and the picnic Grandma packed for us this morning.  Lucy's happy.