"Where are you Christmas... Do you Remember?"

Well I can't really leave that ridiculousness up, especially not at Christmas time. (Although I'm glad to that you all are outraged too.) So here, have a picture of Santa with some cute kids.



I took this picture immediately following one of our shortest lines to see Santa ever (about 10 minutes: it was like a miracle) and immediately preceding a trip to The Rainforest Cafe for lunch. Which we do almost ever year, because it's in the same mall as Santa and has all sorts of animitronics and what not 'to keep kids entertained' while we eat. If 'keeping kids entertained' means 'scaring them so badly that you have to take shifts out in the mall with a four year old so that everybody can eat their lunch' then Keep up the good work, Rainforest Cafe ! Simulated thunderstorms? Whose brainstorm was that? Giant gorillas that screech at you are so not lunchtime companions, thank you very much. We should have skipped lunch altogether, since Lil Girl was not feeling her best, but she was adamant that she was ok, and her brother and mother seemed to have it all worked out before they even got there. So we tried, and I got to spend a lot of time trying to look at fake fish and explaining that lightening wasn't actually going to come and get us inside the building.

Even with all of that (and having to pay highway robbery for the one sheet of pictures we bought, because they've outlawed just sitting on Santa's lap and using your own camera, unless you buy one of theirs), we had fun. I'm afraid it might be that boy's last visit to Santa - 10 seems awfully close to the Age of Not Believing even to this late bloomer - and so I tried to keep that in mind when I needed to keep my patience. We've been doing this since he was an infant, so it'll be tough when he tells me he's too big. I made sure to enjoy it this time - even the parts that made me wonder if it would be legal to just leave a kid in a candy store (It's a good place! She'd love it there!) just in case it was the last time it was all of us.

Just in case.

Look at that little smile :)

Here's the part of this post where I could go on and on about how big Baby B is getting, and how much growing little guys do in the three/four months between the times I get to see them, but that's not very entertaining. It's true, but not exciting enough to babble on about in a post. Instead, I'm just going to say how adorable he is, and show you my favorite picture of him during this past visit.



And then I'm going to send you over to Tracey's for some birthday happiness and more Best Shots.

Best shots - 2 for the price of 1

Here are two of my best shots from the last little while -

Here's Lil Girl, down at the beach. Since Auntie and sunlight are not friendly, we sat up under the bandstand and blew bubbles that floated down to the ocean. Then the kids collected shells and rocks, and we ate pizza and drank Shirley Temples. It was the very definition of a fine summer day.



And here's another recent favorite - (No Longer) Youngest Nephew, reading along with the Harry Potter and The Chamber of Secrets book on tape. I love this picture for so many reasons: The fact that he was voluntarily reading; The fact that he'd never used actual tapes before and I had to instruct him on how to flip it over and press play (even though it made me feel ancient); The fact that, since the spring, he's powered through three of the books, and he's as excited as I am about part one of The Deathly Hallows coming out in November. It's just an all around favorite.



So there are the two kids I'm spending most of my time with this summer; Don't forget to head over to Tracey's place to check out who she's spending her summer with, and the rest of the Best Shots.

It's been weeks and weeks,

actually probably closer to two plus months, since I've participated in My Best Shot Monday, but I'm planning on contributing tomorrow. Our new days with the kiddos mean I won't get a post up till after they leave, but I'm determined to post something. Hence this really useless post that only serves as motivation for me not to 'forget' or be 'too tired' to post tomorrow. Commit to an action publicly, they say, and you're more likely to follow through. I tend to agree, when it comes to myself, that if I haven't said "I will do...." then I can convince myself to just put in on hold indefinitely. So: Tomorrow a picture! Of something! Or someone! Let's all be surprised together. :gulp:

My goodness

have I had a busy weekend: a 2nd birthday party for my cousin's twins on Saturday (about an hour away), and then yesterday, instead of getting our Christmas tree, we got my newest nephew instead!

Here he is SisterS's new baby, BabyB ... it'll have to do for now: Poor Youngest Nephew is going to need a new name too, but I'm too brain-fogged to think of a good name for either of them today, so ... settle for a picture?




I thought so. Here's our newest addition. I'm now an auntie to four great kids: How did that happen? (And, literally, this is less than half of my siblings... I could be in big trouble, eventually.)

Have a great week, everybody, and don't forget to head over to MBSM.

This is a picture of SisterK, from earlier this year, back when I was spending the summer at Grandmother's house. We were corrupting our nephew teaching Youngest Nephew to play poker using pretzel sticks and marshmallows. We had a ball that day, not only because Youngest Nephew rocks at poker and decimated SisterK's snack pile (see photo of the devastation below), but also because SisterK is usually phenomenally busy, and so having some family time was pretty amazing. (Just as an example of how busy she is, the day after I took this photo, she flew to San Fransisco for 4 days, then Colombia for 3 weeks. After that she taught at an extremely intense private summer school program, until the first weekend of September, when she went back for her Junior (!) year at Harvard. Like I said: very busy.) Today is SisterK's 21st birthday, and so MBSM is this shot of her, rocking the mini pretzel sticks, being her awesome self. (The completely decimated photo is just a little bonus, because it makes me laugh that a 9 year old, playing his first game of poker, can out-bluff my worldly baby sister.)


Have a great week, everybody!

Halloween Best Shots

I'm assuming that the majority of today's MBSM will be Halloween related, and I am so excited ~ I love to see all the costumes!

As for our Halloween, Lil Girl and Youngest Nephew came over early and spent the day hanging out with us... I miss spending time with Youngest Nephew now that school has started back up, and was so glad to see him. His sister was in a pretty nasty mood for part of the day (Sharing; what's that? Standing still so that Auntie can get a good picture: Que es esta?), and nobody understood my costume at all (Oracle; but nobody knows who the heck she is), but the majority of the day went well, nonetheless.




Youngest Nephew wasn't feeling particularly inspired this year, and wore his Army man costume from last year (and the year before), but with additional weaponry (yippee). Lil Girl was going to be a cat; then she wanted to be Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz (because it came with a little stuffed dog), but while we were at the store, she saw this Dora the Explorer costume and decided she had to be Dora - because of Backpack (who she calls "Pack Back") - Lil Girl is all about the accessories. (There were a lot of comments in our family, about her being a little blond Dora, but I thought she looked adorable... I do wonder how many people she had to explain the costume to, though.)

We had more trick or treaters this year, in our new house, than I've had in the past 5 years at the old house, and were lucky enough that we had a bunch of older candy hiding in the cupboard, or else we would have run out of candy before 7 o'clock.

Now I'm off to see what everybody else did this weekend!

A good way to start off the week

I know sometimes it must seem like all I take pictures of is Lil Girl, but that's just because she's here the most... On any given day, it's just me and Mum in the house for the majority of the day, and we both don't like to have our picture taken, so it's only when Lil Girl (a child who has known how to take her own picture since she was less than a year old) is around that I get the opportunity to play around with portraits.

Of course, she's also three and half, so a lot of the portraits come out looking like I was trying to take a picture of a blond and pink tornado, but I'll take what I can get. Anyway, here's my favorite shot from the batch I just finished editing (completely out of order, which is a pet peeve of mine, but I skipped ahead because of a friends wedding and forgot to go back).

I've been playing around with the sun and natural light lately (just in time for it to go away, right?), because I like the way it creates a halo through her curls... here's one of the ones that I think came out pretty good:



As always, you can catch more Best Shot Mondays over at Tracey's, where you can also hear about her exciting news! Way to go, Tracey! You can also check out some more of my newer pics by clicking on my Flickr badge in the sidebar.

Have a great week, everybody!

Bubbly

I know summer's just about over (and I'm not exactly sad about that), but this I really like this collage. It's a collection of bubble-shots that I took with Youngest Nephew, and we spent the day working hard together to figure out F-stops and distance, zooming and shadows, when to use slow speed, and when to use fast. It's funny how trying to explain things to a 9 year old makes you realize how many wholes there are in your own education. Even with that, though, we both took some pictures we really loved. The one of the bubble in the grass is his, and I think it's awesome.

Don't forget to head over to Tracey's for more Best Shots.

:)

Yesterday was my grandmother's 92nd birthday, and I spent today in bed recovering- hence the late Best Shot, but it's still Monday, at least! The party was great - nobody bickered (or if they did, I didn't know about); there were munchkins for everyone to coo over, food for everyone to eat, and fun for everyone to have.
Grandmother was almost in tears twice - once because of truly heartfelt gift and once because of a truly hilarious gag gift.

Everybody should have a grandmother who requests a weapon for her next birthday, who'll help you search when your sippy cup goes missing (poor Baby O, we still didn't find it!), who'll tell you the potato salad was wonderful even though you know it was too dry.

Who'll sit through a long-winded cousin's story without rolling her eyes, but commiserate with you when you tell her you were thinking of rolling down the porch steps to escape.

Who gets a kick out of her children, her children's children, and their children ~ who you always know is watching, listening, and is guaranteed to catch you in the act.

Who manages to love with her whole heart, even if people sometimes don't notice.

So, in honor of the day, I've been saving this picture from a couple of weeks ago: Happy Birthday, Grandmother ~ many happy returns!

Snuggle time

One of the best things about the time I am spending here at my Grandmother's house is that Tuesdays and Thursdays are still my days to watch my little munchkins. Which means that the kids have been getting to spend a lot more time getting to know Grandmother, UJ, and Sister K.

As a result, Youngest Nephew is now aware that UJ is an excellent baseball coach and that Grandmother's favorite soda is cream soda, and that her family used to make their own root beer in the cellar every summer when she was a kid (80 odd years ago). Lil Girl knows that Sister K's room is an unmitigated disaster area, that she can con UJ into taking her up to the park if she asks in just the right way, and - perhaps the most universal truth in our family - that a grandmother's lap and a rocking chair is the most comforting thing in the world. (Or, in this case, a great-grandmother's lap.)



Starting the week off on the right foot, with this Best Shot. Don't forget to visit Tracey for other fabulous shots!

My Best Shot

Here's Lil Girl & Sister K practicing on the piano.

If there is a 3 year old in your life who has access to a piano, then you know that practicing actually means "making as much noise as humanly possible," and so you can appreciate the patience of SisterK appropriately.

Happy Monday, all. Now head on over and check out some more Best Shots.

Getting back into the swing of things

with a best shot for this Monday.

Lil Girl, enjoying Grandmother's garden last week. I've got a series of her and Uncle Jack playing hide and seek that I'm working on, but this one brings a sunshiny smile to a drab and dreary day.

Don't forget to head over to Tracey's for more Best Shots.

Because I need some smiles

and, although I missed Monday, these are My Best Shots: Lil Girl looking all grown up. (Which she needs to stop, immediately.) iThe first one, in my mind, lacks only a big banana clip, and then she'll be a totally awesome 80s girl.

And this one shows her feistiness in all it's glory. She's a handful, but it's a fun, wonderful handful, that's for sure. :D


Hope you all are having a great week!

MBSM: Off the rails

When Youngest Nephew went through his Thomas the Tank Engine stage, I learned to hate those twisted curvy tracks with a twisted curvy passion. Now that Lil Girl is going through a similar stage, I've decided that trains don't need to stay on their tracks. Our trains are rogue trains: going wherever they want, however they want. Rebels.



After lunch the other day, Lil Girl took her trains to a trip to the zoo, when she noticed that her cup had animals all around it. Here's part of the story she told me:

"This is Lady. She's a magic engine. And she likes monkeys at the zoo. Zebras are not like monkeys, but they're at the zoo too. You are Donald" (I'm always Donald, and he was not included in the photo shoot, unfortunately) "and Donald doesn't have magic, but he can play with the monkeys if Lady says so. Did you know monkeys throw poo?"

Tracks: who needs them? Would I have ever learned that monkeys throw poo - as part of a totally normal conversation that veered way off its tracks - if we had stayed on the stupid tracks in the first place? I think not. (I have no idea where she learned that... although if I were the betting type I'd put money on her big brother.)


That's My Best Shot for today... I'm going to head over to Tracey's and see what other people have been up to.

Pretty pretty princess

Here's my Best Shot for this Monday, a little dancing action from Lil Girl. She's been going to 'gim nas tis' on the weekends, and now does all these little routines, which she then concludes with a full out bow. It's pretty cute, but she got upset at Mum & I the other day, because neither of us knew what she was doing the first time she did it. Our problem was that she was doing the bow before the routine. We did eventually finally figure it out, though: sometimes we're so slow.

Another Best Shot, with - surprise! - books

And Lil Girl!

And I can tell that you are all shocked.
 

No, really: I've been trying to broaden my horizon, and look for more things in my everyday life to take pictures of, and so far have gotten quite a few shots of the clocks in doctor's offices and waiting rooms, but they aren't very good (bad light + still trying to figure out manual mode = not the best pictures), so they're not post-worthy yet.

As opposed to this shot of Lil Girl, which I love.

I took this last week while she read me her version of Cinderella: We were baking cookies (of the slice and bake variety) and waiting for another auntie to visit, and Lil Girl wanted me to read to her. I kept having to get up every 3 minutes to check on the cookies (because we still have a suck-tastic oven: New house; new stove!), and she was getting perturbed. So I asked her to read one to me, instead. I also got a little bit of video, where she explains that "Cinderella was a be-a-u-tiful baby! and there were witches, but they's her sisters." Since Lil Girl is sister-less, I think I'm going to have to help her realize that sister does not necessarily = witch, but that's for another day.

On this day, we baked cookies, and read each other stories, and snuggled on the couch.

And if that's not beautiful, I don't know what is.

Oh, wait: I do... Check out some examples over at Tracey's, and enjoy your Best Shot Monday, all!

Brotherly love

I've been falling way behind with my pictures, mostly because I'm kind of an editing perfectionist and wind up running some of my favorites through 14,000 steps before I declare it finished, and so I've got months worth of pictures to finish editing, upload to some place and order. (Also, with the packing et al, I keep thinking "Don't order anything new, because then you're going to have to find a place to put it if you don't finish it." Ah, the joys of not being settled.)

So, I wound up with more than a couple of contenders for this week's My Best Shot Monday, which has a new home, because the fabulous Tracey has a new blog.

I did finally settle on this one, though, of Big/Only Brother and his Lil Girl:



Happy President's Day, everybody, and if your kids are on vacation this week, may it be as peaceful a vacation as possible. :D

Monday has not been my day

I missed my best shot monday, but maybe tomorrow I'll get one up... we did take a couple of family shots this weekend (which was both odd and comforting), and if I can get myself motivated to get them out of the camera, that would be good. Motivation and I? Today? Not even acquainted.

So I'll catch you tomorrow, and I'm glad I have this goal of NaBloPoMo, giving me something OTHER to think about.

Be Back tomorrow!

MBSM: Spooky

I'm pretty sure they'll be a ton of costume pictures today on the My Best Shot Monday rounds, but that's what today's for. Besides, I Love Costumes and we had a sum total of 6(!) trick or treaters.

So here's two of my three loveys, in their costumes:

We had a colonel (on a secret mission, apparently)
















Angelina Ballerina (although she had no idea who that was: "I's a mousey. With a Crown!")


























And here they are together: