Year One of Triumph!

A year ago today my friend Katie was diagnosed with Stage 4 colon cancer.   She's had a few bumps along her road to recovery but she has not let colon cancer define her or most importantly take her smile.   Here are Katie's thoughts on her journey this past year.  Continue with me to Pray in Purple! 

Eighteen Months Old

My little girl is a year and a half old! She's growing up so much and it's so adorable to see her expand her world, vocabulary, humor, and joy on a seemingly daily basis!  

In just a month not much has changed, but when you look back at the last six months SO much has changed!

New firsts for Month 18: first chipped tooth, first full day away from mommy, a new puppy, another tooth finally breaking through, her first Popsicle and more words!

Yes, Mae has had an explosion of words including: shows, Pix (Pixel), coak (coat), hep (help), cap (clap), shoe (often said 'SHOOOOES!' very excited), cheese (the food this time, not just to take a picture), eat, poop, sheesh (fish), car, Pop Pop, Brrrr (bird, which has evolved from 'Bah'), wah (water), boo/book (she alters), cook, hiiiiii (she has become far more enthused saying hello), mar/more, uh oh,  ball, rock, owww (owl), cheek, ear, eye, mouw (mouth), aff (off), cam (come), wak (walk), liiin (lion), chair, two, teat (treat), bed, nigh-nigh, doll, piggy, wee-wees (this little went wee wee wee all the way home!), hawt/hot (everything is hot even things that are cold) ... and I know there is more but that's all I've got for the moment.  :)

In the teeth department we've had quite the excitement as well.  She already was born with her front tooth fused with another one - causing a super giant front tooth that was misshapen.  One evening when both her and her brother were sick and out of sorts - Ace was already in bed trying to sleep and Mae climbed up on him - he rejected this by pushing her off the bed and thus her overly sized malformed tooth became chipped - it now has a canine tooth look to it but isn't overly sharp.  Here's hoping her adult tooth is normal up there!   Mae also this past week FINALLY had a fifth tooth break through on the bottom.  Hooray!  Her brother by 18 months already had 12 teeth including his first set of molars.   This has drastically limited Mae's ability to chew foods...

In the eating department - when she's not sick - she does pretty darn well.   She loves chicken nuggets, fries, english muffins with peanut butter, cheese sticks (often if I ask if she's hungry she asks for "cheeeeeese" which is super adorable) she loves to suck on goldfish crackers and suck off all the salt (she is her mama's daughter!) and occasionally she'll consume them.   She happily eats cookies of several variations.  Yogurt is often consumed and where we hide her liquid vitamins! :)  She enjoyed her first popsicle the other day at a BBQ and she did pretty good consuming some of it before it melted away.   Mae for the most part will eat a little bit of anything but quantities are really sparse.  So we try to entertain high fat/calorie concentrated foods.

Health wise we continue down a similar course of cold catching and continue to hope for the virus season to leave our home!   She never truly gets out of sorts whenever she is sick and is so happy in spite of it all!   She's such a sweetheart!  We're hoping that the summer months will give us a break in colds. 

Mae and her brother (and the parents) recently got a new puppy and he's tiny.  Which is good because he loves to jump on Mae and although she is tiny, he's smaller and that's good.  Mae has really warmed to him.  Loves to pet him, bring him his toys, and recently wanting to give him his 'teat' (treat) which she does very well to let the dog lick out of her hand.   It's pretty cute.  

In the play department she wants to do everything her brother does. :)  She does pretty good climbing up on things at the playground, at the lake she wants to wade in despite the consequence of going face first when the water gets too deep, and she loves to go on walks.   On her own she loves to play with her dolls, be flipped upside down by her dad, and play 'wee-wees' which she'll ask for by name while wiggling her fingers over her toes.  Yes, the timeless 'game' of 'This Little Piggy Went to Market'   :)  She is adorable and will do it to me too.   She still loves her piglet but she's not as exclusive anymore with him.  At bedtime she often wants multiple friends to hug and fall asleep with.  She loves to read books at bedtime and her favorite still remains Goodnight Gorilla.

Mae this month also finally started to let me do her hair and leave it in longer than three seconds!   If I just put a clip in on the side she'll still yank it pretty fast but pony tails of various heights and location seem to remain all the time with some varied results when she's in her car seat.

Mae is such a joy and we love her.  She loves to jump (bounce up and down) and go for walks, and she knows almost all of her 'pieces' (head, nose, etc..)  Every day she surprises us and always is smiling!   We can't wait to see what the rest of this year brings us!

Ten on Ten - July

This month marks one year that I've been participating in Ten on Ten - officially June would have marked a year, but I didn't get around to participating in June's because I was busy doing my first newborn photo shoot!   Which was sooo fun!  :)   I'll eventually blog about it.  Maybe.  

Today was a typical Tuesday.   Ace is no longer in preschool for the summer so we're doing school at home.   We got a new puppy a few weeks ago (yah I need to blog about that too!) so life keeps us busy and on our toes!  Today also in Mae's half birthday! Our little girl is 1.5 years old!  Impossible! (and of course there will be a blog about that too!)   Our days start early and time escapes me so my 10 on 10 is throughout the day as I remembered so within the 13 hours I was taking pictures, I managed 10 of those hours to get at least one shot.  :)  Not too shabby!   Happy 10 on 10 everyone!

Ace decided he was still tired so he went and climbed into our bed... he was shocked to find me photographing him.

Awake and joining the rest of the family downstairs, Ace was less than thrilled to share his blanket with his sister.

Yay our second Boon arrived (we have a LOT of stuffed animals!) Time to stuff it!

School time!  Sight word fun!

A little reading application of those newly learned sight words with some pen action!
Also I was really impressed that both kids sat in one place for over 90 minutes without needing wiggle time.

Mae Mae is 18 months old and time to take her traditional (or as this picture depicts) not so traditional photo in her chair.

Blogging World meet Pixel our little cairn terrier and tea cup (or mini) Australian Shepard mix.  More on him in another post.

It's 80 degrees!  This is so much fun!!!

Bliss: eating cantaloupe with salt in the backyard on a warm summer day... really makes me miss my dad.

Bath time after dinner!   This picture was snapped and then one 'page' was read before Ace bellowed
"Moooom, sister pooped in the tub!"   No rest for the mommy... I needed to clean the tub anyway.

To see more visit A Bit of Sunshine...

Our Graduate!

Last Day of School!  Ace decided he wanted to be a fireman...
although the day before it was a policeman.

Ace had a great first 'year' of preschool!  Yes, our time has drawn to a close on our first school experience!   He loved it!  There were many MANY theme days and he enjoyed participating in almost all of them.  

The big day arrived and it was just as big of a production as his mother's day program.  Loving Husband echoed the sentiment stated by the dad in The Incredibles about celebrating mediocrity and merely moving from one grade to another - and while yes, it's true, it's still something to be proud of.  It was his first (half) year of school completed and he is fully done with preschool (technically!)   Next year he begins Pre-K at the same school site. 

The ceremony began with them all walking in to graduation pomp and circumstance.  It was cute as they all filed in with their teacher and their borrowed hats on.  

After class pictures were taken, the hats were collected and the program of 10 songs began.   Ace was less enthused to participate in these as he was the Mother's Day program but he still enjoyed some of them.    Particularly he loved "Apples and Bananas"  song (you know the one where you change the vowels)   and especially enjoyed the props.  :)

Ace and his friend ... and other kid who I didn't get permission to put his face on the interwebs, so I won't. :)

After the program was over they received their diplomas and buckets.  Pictures were taken with his teacher and then we enjoyed some cookies and chatting with his teacher and classmates.  

 Ace will really miss his favorite friend from school. They no longer will be in the same class come the fall. Ace is moving on to Pre-K and his friend who won't start kindergarten in 2013 will remain in the preschool class for an extra year. Ultimately they'll still see each other for playdates, but it won't be the same and I know Ace is a little sad.

Mae wanted in on the picture action as well. :)

We are so proud of our boy!  It was a great first year of school for Ace.   Can't wait to see the adventures he has in the fall!

Our graduate!

1000

Not sure if anyone noticed, but my post on Saturday was the first in nearly two weeks.  I took a break.  I took a break to reflect what I wanted out of this blog.  Where this blog has been, where it is going, what does it mean.    That and I was tired.  I've been feeling worn down lately for a variety of reasons, frustrated with illnesses, circumstances and communication.   Not felt like saying much... and not so ready to write the celebratory 1000th blog post!  

In May as this milestone approached I was excited - I thought about getting a sponsor and having a giveaway, but then I just couldn't find something that was fitting. June rolled around and my numbers of posts became closer and closer to the grand occasion and I still wasn't sure what I wanted to actually blog about ... so I stopped blogging.  For two weeks.   If you look back prior to 2009 a two week gap isn't much to note.  I never blogged more than 2-3xs in a month for several years. 

The tone of this 1000th post is starting off far from celebratory, but aren't milestones also opportunities to simply reflect?    It seems to me a look back at where I've been would be good.   This blog in large part has taken on many roles - a catalog of daily events, a sounding board for my own growth and grief, a catalog of my children's milestones and adventures, a review and giveaway forum, and most recently a place to share my photography.   For the last eight years this blog has been a place to gather my thoughts, share my feelings, and a piece of my life - this post is no different.

Aside from these words of pondering - I couldn't come up with any words that were so profound that they needed to be memorialized here in this the 1000th blog post.    As a result I am going to fall back to what I know best, my current focus: photography and allow you to enjoy 1000 photos from the past eight years

I've always loved photography - and the innovation of digital photography truly allowed that passion to explode so I had plenty of 1000s of pictures to wade through to create this collage.   1000 pictures is kind of hard to display in a concise manner.   The pictures are itty bitty so and I was on the hunt to find a way to display them in a unique manner.  So I went in the hunt for a mosaic program.   I found on Cnet: AndreaMosaic a free mosaic program that is super easy to use!   So if you'd like to make your own, enjoy!  :) 

Thanks for following and reading, I'd happily blog without an audience as I find this to be a good way to document my history and memories, but sharing it with others is always fun and often rewarding!      Here's to another 1000 posts!

Seventeen Months Old

As the days speed past us every day is new and more of an adventure with Mae.   She is becoming her own little person.  Gaining speed, vocabulary and attitude!   :)  Her smile is huge, her laugh is adorable, and her scowl is just plain funny and so pronounced!

New things in her 17th month:  Attended her first baby shower and was an adorable little lady, and lots more words!

Mae has had an explosion of words in this last month.  She's really gotten the parroting thing down and tries all sorts of new words.  Her favorite is "NO!"  She says it with a cute sing-song melody often and it's adorable, but for the connotation attached to it. :)   She also really likes the word 'lello' (yellow) and GO!   Other words she squeaked out this past month include:  puppy, booo (blue), kieee (kitty), eat, skoo (school), sheee (sheep), loouv (love... she curls her little tongue up and it's so adorable to see her try), blow, two (which is her amount for anything and everything when you ask her how many?)  you, boo, choo choo...

Yes, if you're familiar with children's literature those last few words will be a bit more obvious in theme.  They are all words from the book Peek A Who?  Mae loves to read this book over and over and over during the day and she can say all the words except when I prompt her to say 'moo!'  she says 'MEEEE!'   It's adorable and silly and I love it.  Her other favorite book is Good Night, Gorilla.   She is adorable when we read it because when we get to the part opening her eyes in the dark after all the animals say good night back to her,  Mae every time will mimic the gasp sound that I typically make on that page - although for Mae it's more of a grunt and it's adorable.

Mae loves to say her prayers.  She folds her hands and closes her eyes and often will repeat the beginning of the prayer 'De-Ja' (Dear Jesus) and then at the end she will say 'Mon' (Amen)   it's adorably sweet and this past few weeks when we're done praying she will sign for more and fold her hands awaiting my starting of more prayers.  It's seriously the most adorable thing and I love that her faith, while likely not growing in understanding just yet, is growing in eagerness and anticipation!

In trending toward two, Mae has started to enjoy and invoke the rite of passage with some tantrums.   She is extremely dramatic and a slight grievance is often met with massive yelling, screaming, water works - her physical self seems to remain mostly still - although she has gotten down and laid on the floor a time or two for dramatic affect.   To date though she's avoiding the head banging that Ace did during this phase of his life.

Growth wise she is still itty bity - 17lbs and 8oz.   She just had a weight check at the doctor and to check for an ear infection which she was cleared of, apparently she just likes to tug on her ears.  :)   Her coughing continues and we're working through yet another cold.   She still just has the 4 teeth although I can start to see the bulges where the molars are going to come in.   She still loves her mama milk on demand and I'm happy to oblige - although I'd really love for her to sleep through the night! 

Sleep wise she's no different - still wakes a few times a night wanting milk or comfort.  She does start out in her own bed every night but often is in our room by midnight.   Rarely do I get to bed before she's coming into ours.   But I don't complain.  This season is fleeting and if she trends like her brother then we have less than a year before she's in her bed full time.  We'll see though :)  

Speaking of her brother - she loves him.  She loves to climb on him, crawl on him, play with him, get in his way, smack his head, and lay in his bed.   She is a typical little sister and Ace is very patient and loving with her.  

She continues to be my climber - she can freely get herself on the couches, beds, and now knows how to use those heights to get other places.    Eating wise she is very opinionated on the subject.   She's not picky - she eats spinach, she LOVES pasta, and has easily eaten 4oz of steak (I'm not exaggerating!)  in one sitting - but there are times where she just doesn't want to eat without a battle.   To say it's frustrating is an understatement, but I'm hopeful that we're on the downward trend of this phase as well and I'll continue to endure her stubborn ways... I don't really have a choice otherwise. ;)

Mae is a great hugger, she's got a good grip around your neck and she likes to say 'blow' when she blows kisses.  Even if she kisses your cheek she will do it as she says 'blow!'   It's adorable.   Her hair is crazy long but sparse and thin and WILD!  She likes when I do her hair and she leaves it for about 3 seconds.  :)  She loves to try and put her own socks on and she can successfully put on her own pants.   She wants to dress herself often and loves purses, hats and her stuffed animals.  Piglet remains the top favored friend, but she loves to rock and cuddle lots of different ones.   She is adorable and we love her!

Friday Fixins - Focus and Impact

A picture is worth a thousand words.   Making that statement even more bold can be done SOOC or you can take a capture and enhance the meaning you're trying to convey.   I'll be showing you how I accomplished that with this photo below of my mother receiving my father's flag (that's me on the left and my brother on the right.)
 

Photo credit:  Loving Husband

The first step is to find the focus of the shot you really want to make the statement.  In this case this photo is presenting of the flag.   Now this whole photo tells a very meaningful story for our family; facial expressions, body language, and the somberness of this moment are all beautifully captured.   However, if you're wanting to make a more specific statement as I wanted in my Memorial Day post then cropping was necessary.

By cropping out faces I am are focusing the story of the picture.  The impact in some ways becomes greater with less going on in the picture.    However, there are now more obvious cluttered points in this picture.  My headless brother, legs, random hands, tissue.  All still distractors for this photo.   Lightroom to the rescue!

First I began with some basic sharpening and smoothing of the image.  Bumping up the exposure, brightness, clarity... generally just tweaking the image.  Finally I altered the temperature and tint of the photo.    Until I arrived at something like this.

Now that the color is a bit richer I still have the pesky issue of distractions and so that is when I break out the adjustment brush.   I basically paint all over the main areas and then I alter the sharpness, clarity, saturation, contrast, brightness... basically zero everything out and creating a darkened backdrop.  

Ultimately where I am at this point is this picture below.  I wasn't satisfied.  My mom's black shirt causes her arm to look chopped off and missing, the added light is still distracting and my brother's arms while I was going for a shadowed effect are still too distracting.

 

Back to the editing bay! More adjustment brush, further darkening.  A tighter crop and finally the finished product.

It's far from perfect.  There are obvious issues: sharpness, noise, and that odd edit mark near my mom's left arm (didn't notice it before I mentioned it?  Well good, but it's been bugging me endlessly and no tweaking I do seems to correct it without massive damage to my mom's arm!)  However, the message of the photo has a much greater impact and for the purposes of my editing a broader audience is reached with this photo rather than the one with friends and family in the shot.  

So there you have it!  A small post on how to make a memorable photo into an impactful one.  Just remember to focus and to remove distractions in order to highlight the point of your photo.   And that adjustment brush is a great friend! :)