Thirty Days Has September

April, June and November. Can you believe it's almost October? Gee, does time fly or what? It's September 30th, it's the last day of the month, it's a Friday. What more could you want? Before we delve head first into another weekend, which sister I'm ready to do, I have just a couple more photos to share with you from the last week or so. Here we go:

First, these...love love love.

My boys, resting up after the bike ride.

LM, checking out the remote. 

One of his favorite things to do.

Then there are these photos.

Last weekend, one night after we stopped in a restaurant to eat dinner, on the way back to the car LM was a little fussy. So, we picked him up between us and swung him back and forth. He loved this, of course. And, when we got to the truck, we picked him up and deposited him in the bed of the truck. That he loved even more. When we got home, he wanted to check that truck bed out some more. We took a couple of photos of his exploration.

He was so proud.

He checked out every nook and cranny.

And every hook, nut, and bolt.

Of course, the crocs were there!

Love, love love.

Good thing for that diaper flap, or we'd have plumber butt, people. 

I'm just sayin.

It should also be noted, that before LM was finished, every single piece of acorn had been eliminated from the truck bed. Every. Single. Piece.

And, of course, there was sitting to do.

Do you remember sitting in a truck bed when the wheel well was just the right size?

I do.

Boy, did the boy have fun.

I seriously get what parents say about buying toys now...I mean really, we have a house FULL of toys, but I'm pretty sure the highlight of the weekend for him was to tromp around inside the truck bed for fifteen minutes. Forget the toys. More truck beds, please!

More truck beds of fun.

We have a very full weekend planned. By Monday, we'll be wishing for a weekend from the weekend! We are going to an event called "Touch a Truck" where the boy will get to explore all sorts of vehicles. Then, we're going to a family reunion on S's side. And, I very much hope to get a bike ride in each day. Sunday, we plan to celebrate LM's Papaw's birthday. And do laundry and grocery shopping and other such errands so we can sustain this hamster wheel of a life we're living just a little bit longer. 

Here's a diet update. Week one, I lost eight pounds. EIGHT POUNDS!!! Amazing. Week two - I lost nada. Not one pound. Nothing. Zilch. Zippo. Zero. And, I ate the same both weeks. Sigh. I'm sticking with it though. I've had an OK start to the third week (weigh day is on Wednesdays) so we shall see. I must get some more regular exercise into the mix. Not sure when that will happen, but I'm gonna figure it out. One day! 

I hope whatever you have planned for the weekend that it's all you wish it to be. 

See you soon.

Baby Karaoke

LM has a new keyboard. He loved playing with his baby keyboard for so long that we decided he might like a "toddler" keyboard. We picked one up at Target, where you can go in for Q-tips and come out with a new living room and a new wardrobe. It has lots of stuff on it besides the keyboard, including a microphone. Here are a couple of videos of some fun S and LM had one night just before he went to bed.

First, a video to showcase LM's technique.

LM's technique, as you can see, involves sort of "eating" the entire microphone head and making noise into it while breathing heavily. It's not unlike the technique used by some of the artists we see come through at work. Heh heh. You will also see he doesn't let that pacifier get too far from his mouth...we don't normally allow him to have it while at play, but in this transition time at school when he's so tired, he's gotten away with it more than once. It's true.

Then, a little duet.

Not only does LM like the keyboard, which he was actually playing with more a bit before these videos, but as you can see S likes it too. S sat down and belted out a few tunes while LM moved on to stacking blocks on pegs, one of his other favorite things to do. On the second video, at the end, LM decided to join in. I'm so glad I caught it on video. S has a nice voice, no? Oh, and of course, so does the Little Man. I see a record deal in their future. Do people still get "record" deals? I suppose they do, along with "streaming" deals, "download" deals and all sorts of other deals. I see all sorts of deals in their future.

See you soon.

Quarter Eaters

And so it begins. 

His love affair with the quarter eaters.

See you soon.

A New Bike Ride Routine

Sunday, we took a bike ride around the lake, using the trailer for the first time, and took some goldfish crackers with us to feed the boy and the ducks. First, we had to get the trailer all set up and attached to S's bike. The boy had a nice time "helping".

In the trailer with the helmet on.

And provisions people - provisions.

I risked life and limb to bring you this photo. 

We stopped when we saw some ducks near the shore. Apparently, goldfish crackers aren't their thing, because they swam away from the food. Or, perhaps they are so well fed at this lake that they didn't want any more food. I don't know. What I do know is they weren't interested in our food, sister. For the second day in a row.

OK, so maybe this doesn't have to do with ducks. 

But I liked it then and I like it now.

There's S, trying to entice the ducks to come closer.

That's right...there go the ducks.

Those are the back sides. Ahem.

The boy didn't seem to mind, though. He still liked watching them and checking out the lake. It was a fun ride. And, certainly a different change to the regular bike ride routine B. LM. (before Little Man). Certainly different. And wonderful.

Another life and limb photo for ya.

See you soon.

The Ducks Weren't So Impressed

Twice last weekend we tried to go to the lake with the boy to feed the ducks. We used to do this with our friends the Smythes when they lived next door to us and their girls were small. On Saturday afternoon, we were headed to have dinner with Kim and Mark and their girls, but had some time to kill before we went. So, we took some stale bread to the lake. First, we had a hard time finding any ducks at all. Then, when we did find them, we could not entice them to come close. In fact, they swam away from us pretty quickly.

You'll notice most photos these days include those crocs...

...he wants to wear them all the time.

Since we could not feed ducks, we decided to just walk up to the bridge and take in the pretty scenery for a few minutes. Funny thing - there were some runners and bikers going along the path - not as many as in the morning, but a few. There were even a few dog walkers. LM felt  this was either a parade or a bunch of people who came to that exact place just to see him because he was just waving and saying hello and good-bye to everyone.

Waving to his adoring fans!

The sun was just about at that "magical" hour where you have such beautiful light. This meant I had to snap photos even though the ducks were nowhere to be found!

Well, at least it's a good photo of S...

It was time to head to the restaurant after just a short time, which was really just fine as LM was getting a little cranky - combination of being a little tired and a little hungry I think. He is still adjusting to the toddler schedule - I will say he wasn't quite as tired THIS weekend as last, so perhaps we're making progress. But, he was still not his usual happy go lucky self. By Sunday, though, he was, and we had a great day which I'll tell you more about later.

Back to the truck...

Mr. Independent did NOT want to hold anyone's hand.

LM didn't want to hold hands either. Heh heh.

The second time we tried to feed ducks last weekend was on our bike ride early Sunday morning. I'll tell you about that tomorrow.

See you soon.

Friday Five

Some of my blogging friends do a really good job at answering Friday Five questions. I have looked at them from time to time and they have never really inspired me. But, since I'm trying to blog more again, and I need to hone my writing skills, I thought it might be a good exercise. And, as it turns out, one of the sites with Friday Five had one today sort of on photography. And, since I started this blog as an outlet for the photos I like to take, I thought perhaps this would be an appropriate topic for me. So, here we go:

1. Yourself. Do you like having your picture taken? Why or why not? Do you have a "good side"? 2. Your pet(s). What are their names? How long have you had them? 3. Your favourite vacation spot. Describe exactly where the picture is taken. What's special about this place? 4. Your bedroom or favourite room in your home. Explain or tell a story about some of the items in the room. 5. One of your favourite pictures of all time, whether for artistic or sentimental reasons (it doesn't necessarily have to be one you took yourself). Why is this picture special to you?

1. No. I don't like having my picture taken. This is, at this time, mainly because I am heavier than I'd like to be. I recently covered this when announcing the return of the four letter word.

Photographed from "below" - I'm sure you can see why this is usually not flattering to people.

I don't have a "good side" per se, but a "bad side" would be shooting up from my feet (pretty much everyone's bad side).

Goofy chin in the air smile.

I also tend to raise my chin too high when I'm pleased or smiling. When the photo captures this slick move, I am even more mortified of the outcome. Blech. So, I try to remember to keep my chin down when photos are in progress. I'm horribly bad about remembering this.

2. I have two pets at this time. You know them well, I think.

There is Echo the dog. 

We have also Norman the cat.

Not that long ago we had four furry children. Little Bit and Ellie have left us. I wrote about Ellie's passing this last summer. I still miss her. She was a great dog. I hope someone's throwing her endless frisbees in heaven. Little Bit is another story - she was never really  a pet to begin with, so I didn't have the attachment to her that I had to my other animals. Norman and Echo keep us great company and have learned to tolerate each other more in Ellie's absence. I'm a "pet" person. I've had many, and I'm sure we'll have more. I love my furry children. 

3.  My favorite vacation spot. I am not sure I can pick a spot that is my favorite. I spend a great deal of my vacation time traveling to Indiana to visit my family. This is a favorite thing to do, but perhaps not really a vacation.  That said, we have had many wonderful activities in Indiana that you have all read about here.  We have had other vacations that were fabulous for this reason or that. I always like to get away from the city and take in beautiful scenery, whether that be at the beach or in the mountains or somewhere in between. Since this is supposed to be about photography, I'll just pull a couple I've taken on vacation I am fond of...but I'm not prepared to choose a favorite. Perhaps I should go into politics - I've done an excellent job of dodging the question, don't you think? Ha. 

On vacation in Wisconsin.

Fall in Indiana. How I miss thee.

Napa. Beautiful place. 

Sicily. Too many photos to choose from.

National Parks and mountains.

Glacier, Yellowstone, Grand Tetons, Colorado.

The beach. Tropical air.

Can you tell vacation plays a major role in my photo-taking life? In my life in general? I try to have the next one planned before the last one is over. It helps me traverse the in-between, shall we say. 

4. The favorite room in my house is the kitchen. I love my kitchen and I love cooking in it. I don't do nearly enough of it right now, but it is still my favorite. Maybe one day I'll make it back there on a regular basis. We shall see.

5. Favorite photo of all time. Well, again, senator, I plan to deflect this question. I can't pick just one. But here are a couple that come to mind. 

S took this one. But that's a picture of the happiest woman in the world. 

The butterflies.

The sunflower.

Miss Veda.

Yellowstone runoff.

S and his grandmother.

The still life.

Scottish Rite in Indy

The ducks.

My girl.

The bean.

The sleeping cat.

My boys. 

OK, by not answering it directly, this post might never end. I'll stop there. Ahem. OK, this has turned out to be a long post! Who knew I'd get-a-talkin' and get this far. Thank you Friday Five. 

Hope your Friday is a good one. See you soon.