comment hog

The title of this post is a much nicer name than what I've actually been calling my husband since his post yesterday. Begging for comments...I'm ashamed! If you know us very well you know that EVERYTHING is a competition and he is desperate to get as many comments (if not more) than he thinks I get. Can you believe the pettiness? Well, it certainly cuts both ways...I have to stop it before it gets out of hand (13 comments and counting! huh!) so I'm posting something new. Don't you dare comment on yesterday's blog...it's old news.

We went on a bike ride down the Santa Fe Trail yesterday and got some awesome shots of the Pigbear. I'm becoming addicted to black and whites these days (with just a hint of brown) so forgive me if you like a bit more color in your world...







And for those of you who are interested, I'm well on my way to buying my new lens after my latest round of Ebay purging. It's the 85mm/1.8 (Dan, I know you're interested) and I CANT WAIT to have it in my hands!

Little Helper Girl

It's been a while since I've been first author on the blog, but union rules require Deed get a break every now and then. I caught some good pictures of our little Pigbear helper the other day. Sarah is a girl of many helper talents--laundry helper, kitchen helper, yard helper, grill helper, etc. Just look at her working hard to help Mommy--who will eat the laundry sheets if she doesn't?

Someone told me that with the magic of software, pictures that are really underexposed and grainy can be made to look pretty good. Not that I need any help like that, but if any of you require assistance in that department later, I know a guy (girl).

By the way, I will be looking at the comments. If the number of comments goes down dramatically on this blog, I won't say anything--sit around in a pool of self-pity maybe, but I won't say anything. Thanks for letting me blog!

nine months

You're nine months old today.

You clap, you crawl, you cuddle (occasionally). You laugh, you holler, you play peekabo. You love watermelon (is this a surprise?). You pretend to be shy with strangers and burrow your head into daddy's or my shoulder. You've been on 6 plane rides; soon to be 8. You have two cousins and one on the way. You have hundreds of people that love you but no one more than daddy and me.

Happy nine months, sweetness.

mobile

Getting these mobile babies together for a group shot is getting harder and harder. Samantha had this bright idea...



And congratulations to Caroline on her first tooth! That makes Sarah the lone playgroup babe without toofers. If we weren't so attached to "Pigbear" we'd have to change her name to "Gummy".

excited about this

Last night I finally got my act together and figured out how to put a copyright logo on my pictures. The practical reason is so that if I post things on the web they won't be stolen (yeah right, like that's gonna happen!). I have to admit though that I just like how my pics look with my name on them...like they're real. Anyway, just had to share that excitement with you all. And while I'm at it let me just confess that I spent way too much time last night marking pictures. Not because they needed it - just because I wanted to see my name on them!










Did you see our baby CLAPPING in that last shot? She's all about it now!

did you know "BUSY" starts with a "P"?

Yep, it's spelled P-I-G-B-E-A-R.

I call her "Sarah" about 5% of the time, "Pigbear" about 50% of the time, and the other 45% she's "Busy Bee". (howdya like that math, Aunt Parmy?) These days, it's a fitting title.

See for yourself. These were all snapped in a span of about 60 seconds.









She's all over the place these days. You California folks better bolt everything down - she'll be tearing up your place soon!

impromptu shoot

Stumbled across these two little cuddlers yesterday evening.

They're seriously enough to make my heart melt into a big lump of cheesy velveeta.

the benefits of Grama...

Since my mom's here we've been taking advantage of her "services" which include...

1. free babysitting
2. cleaning the kitchen after dinner
3. loading, running, and unloading the dishwasher
4. someone to thrift with, yard sale with, and just hang out with (yadda yadda about not ending a sentence with a preposition...that wasn't technically a sentence)
5. taking the baby down to the "apartment" (the guest bedroom) which amounts to mommy ALONE time!

Might I add that the kitchen cleaning and dishwasher things are in no way enforced by me...she thinks she's earning her keep or something. I just let her go with it. Who am I to turn down a good thing?




Gotta love a Grama.

And here we are enjoying the luxury of free babysitting...





Didn't get a picture of the two of us so this will have to do...



Have a great Sunday. And Happy Anniversary Meghan and Dave. Happy Birthday Aunt Lu.

blogworthy

I'm struggling to find something blogworthy (photos, that is). Seems my mojo has dried up. My mom is here though so I'm hoping to get some good shots of Sarah and her grandma in the next few days.

Had to find something because I can't remember the last time I went 3 days without a post. So, here you go. Taken on the same day as Wednesday's pics.





Sarah's best friends: Clifford, Tubby Hobokin, dolly-that-has-yet-to-be-named (open for suggestions), Waddles, and RaeRae. She was a one RaeRae baby for a while there but now she cuddles with each of her friends on a rotating basis.

Anyway, here's a post. Blogworthy or not. Now, if only Charlotte's Momma would catch the hint and do the same!

caught in the act

We have a mischievious little diaper dwarf at our house.

She likes to pull all the diapers out of the basket and strew them about when she thinks we're not looking.





She's learned the word "no" and heeds it quite nicely. Unless that "no" is in regards to diaper strewing or paper chewing. Go figure.

books

She's got a thing for books.

We go in her room, she crawls to her books, starts pulling. Looking for that one. The perfect book - it's gotta taste right, feel right, flip right. Lately that one has been Ten Little Ladybugs. A few months back it was Five Little Ducks. Occasionally it's Daddy Loves Me. Or Chicka Chicka ABC. Or What Does Baby Say?




This girl, busy-bee that she is, will sit on my lap while we read through a stack of 10 books or more! I love that about her. We sure hope this interest doesn't wane because on October 28th she became the sole heiress to a book fortune - over 1,000 carefully catalogued children's books. The catalog system is my own invention, searchable on Excel. I like to call it the "DeeDee Decimal System". It took me the entire summer of 2002 to get them that way (and many hours here and there since) and they're all just sitting in the garage, waiting to be loved by the Pigbear. You'd think with that many books she wouldn't need anymore but it seems that everytime we're out and about she acquires another. You just can't have too many books I say.

So last night I picked up 3 more.

swimming

Had playgroup today at Krista's house which is always a treat because we get to swim! Here are a couple of shots of "the girls" and the one lucky boy!




I changed my banner because I'm still in love with those pictures and I wanted to be able to see them everyday. They're just so Pigbear.

new favorites

I joined a photography discussion group on line that entails some "homework"...here's what I came up with. I think they're my new favorites! Let me know what you think.













By the way, the adorable pink hat used to adorn my baby head!

the spirit of Book Club

First of all, I can't get anything past you guys! Yes, the Pigbear had a haircut. Yes, I did it myself (while she was preoccupied with eating rice cakes). No, it wasn't her first haircut - we actually did a few snips back in March but this time it was seriously hanging in her eyes so it was much more substantial. So a big Pigbear smooch goes out to all 9 of you that were correct but especially to Megan and Daphne who were so quick on the draw- MWAH!

Now to the title of my post. About a month ago Samantha asked me to bring my camera to our next book club meeting to capture "the spirit" of the group. It's hard to capture the spirit when two of our members have already left (insert wailing here: we miss you JODI and JENNIFER) and another is about to say goodbye (boohoo Susie!). Here's my shot at it anyway. As you can see the spirit of the group encompasses a lot of good food, giggles, PJs, and conversation that shall not be mentioned here. Just trust me, it's always about the book.

Love you girls.