Snow or Go?

Standing on the sidewalk watching the snowflakes fall

Oh yeah, look at that cute belly!

Hey, it's already March!  It's been such a strange winter.  This morning it started snowing although it will probably be 50 degrees by the afternoon and this will be about the third day of warm temps in a row.  Just a few things I wanted to mention (and this is mostly for my own personal journaling!).  Those of you reading can skip down to the pictures at the end :)

1. Yesterday (wed) was our last Music Together class in the Bells series.  We've had a lot of fun going every Wed morning from 10:30-11:15 with Miss Sherrie.  Sherrie is actually a good friend of mine who was my mentor when I started teaching early childhood music classes.  So, naturally, I think she is a wonderful teacher.  I love how creative she is in her song development, and how thoroughly she implements the Music Together method in the classroom.  Wally has really developed over the last 10 weeks of this class.  I was noticing yesterday as he was walking independently around the room and would stop every now and then to either watch or pat his legs or give a little shout.  When we started the class in January he could barely walk and just stared into oblivion the whole 45 minutes.  Now he's engaged.  And he must feel very comfortable with the other adults because he'll walk up to the grandpa in class and give him a hug or point at him.  
2. Yesterday also marked the end of a big push at St. Luke to perform the Schubert Mass in G.  We paired with Valley Community Presbyterian Church, and hired a string quintet from the U of M to play the counterpoint.  It has been a really lovely experience and lots of fun for me because I got to sing with the altos (after 2 months of rehearsing the choir from the piano, of course).   The late rehearsals were a little tough at times because I was getting home so late, sometimes not going to bed until 11:00 or so, but still getting up at 4:15am for Wally's snack. Hsu-Hui really put together a nice experience for folks with this one.  Challenging, but rewarding!
3. I have finally found a treadmill!  Hooray! I've been failing miserably at keeping this bod in any kind of decent running order, and have really been feeling old, out of shape, and full of creaks and groans.  For some reason in my head I've been hinging my lack of commitment to my health on the fact that I can't go running.  So, this weekend we'll be picking it up from this other family in Mound (that worked out well!) and then hopefully I will stop making excuses... After I eat the plate of cookies we recieved when we hosted a play date on Tuesday.
4. Finally - just so it's down in writing for later reference - Wally has been crabby as heck for about two weeks now.  I guess crabby is not exactly accurate - more like really whiny.  I'm blaming it on a mix of teething (he's getting 2 new teeth on top, and I think i see a bud on the bottom too), seperation anxiety, and even maybe not getting enough sleep.  It could also just be a little boredom at being cooped up in the house all day.  Brian and I have been racking our heads about it.  Basically, if Wally is not being held, completely absorbed in an activity, or having your full attention he is REALLY whiny.  Especially when I'm in the kitchen trying to do anything, Wally is draped around my legs.  How he instinctively knows to toddle around to my front side, grab my pants, and throw his head back with the most exasperated look on his face is utterly amazing.  Mostly it's a closed mouth drone. Sometimes it's a squack of protest - like if you put him down and he doesn't want to.  Others it's a mini tantrum with the stiff body, closed fists pumping, tears down the cheeks.  I'm missing those days when he would walk around the room and find little things to do, or play nicely by himself for 10 minutes at a time.  I love spending time with him and playing during the day, but that dishwasher isn't going to unload itself.  Sometimes I really depend on those 10-15 minute increments to answer an email, or clean, or talk to someone on the phone.  Aarrrgh!

OK, time for more pictures!

Lightroom 3

So I've been trying to get used to Lightroom 3, which we just installed late last week.  So far, I'm really impressed!  I started by watching about 10 youtube videos on how it works, but it just takes some getting used to, so I figured no better way than to just dig in!

Tanya called me the other day to ask about taking a family photo.  Well, here's a great example of setting up the tripod and using the timer on your camera.  All you need is some good light and an overflowing laundry room that just makes you want to find more important projects to occupy your day!

Here's my before shot, cropped and color balanced: 

This is after applying a very simple bleach bypass preset:

I'm really impressed with how Lightroom was created with workflow in mind.  It is very easy to import, catalogue, and edit photos.  What I really love is how systematic you can be about cataloging your photos, which will be really handy when trying to search for specific shots among thousands of pics.  I can give each photo a star rating, color tags, keywords, and all kinds of metadata that can attach to the photo. It makes me feel like I actually know a little about photography, ha!  In my last post I was able to batch edit that group of photos of Andy swinging Colin around.  It took about 2 minutes to make all the color corrections and export them as a group.

Here are a few shots I was playing around with.  These are mostly using the Presets with a little crop/rotation and tone/color adjustments.  On the shot of my piano student at our Rectial on Saturday, I actually went in and erased all these chords that were hanging down from the piano so it would look cleaner.  Then I colored in the red spots on her dress.

Wally at Colin's birthday Party.  No pants!

Wally loves to run away before I can get the new diaper out

Trying a vintage-type yellow effect

At last weekends piano recital.  I might try and use this one for some new business cards??

What a cutie!  She's going to be my star performer in about 3 years at the rate she's going!

Happy Birthday Colin!

This past Saturday we got together and celebrated our nephew Colin's first birthday. Now both Colin and Wally are officially toddlers - and they are patiently waiting Ryder's entry into the mischief making. This is probably going to be the last event Andy and Kacy have at the house they are currently renting because on March 8th they will close on a new house in Rockford!  Woo hoo!  I know they have both been really looking forward to moving into thier own place, so this will be a great transition for thier family.  We drove past and peeked in the windows (don't worry nobody lives there currently) and it looks like a wonderful home in a family friendly neighborhood.

Colin's party was very fun.  I was laughing just about the whole time.  Colin is now walking but unlike Wally who is very stable and solid around the midsection, Colin is a toothpick.  Or...more like a toothpick holding a meatball.  So you can imagine how he walks....  Frickin' hillarious!  Wally walks like an elephant - stable and deliberately.  You can see the effort in his face.  Colin, on the other hand, walks like a little bird skidding accross the beach.  His head stays in one spot while his feet frantically try to keep his nogin moving forward.

Kacy made really cute cupcakes that said "Happy Birthday Colin."  I completely missed taking a pic of those, darn!  The picture above might look like Colin was digging in with both hands, but the truth was that he really wasn't that interested in eating his cupcake.  Andy and Kacy tried for about 5 minutes to get him to take a bite but he was pretty skeptical.  Wally happily gulped down as much cupcake as I would give him.  Now you can see why there is such a difference in body style between these two boys!

 Andy loves to throw Colin around like a little gymnist.  And Colin loves it too.  Here was a little sequence they did after Colin was freed from those messy cake covered clothes!

Here are a few pics of Colin with some family members who were there that day!  Kacy's grandma and grandpa were there along with her parents and sister Erin.  Grandpa and Grandma Rock also came, and it was so nice to have them there!

A Few Quick Shots

Here are a few photos I've been playing around with.  Brian and I just bought Adobe Lightroom 3 (great sale...check out Slickdeals.net) so I'm hoping to try that for organizing and editing my photos.  We'll see how different it is. I currently use Gimp for editing, which is free and a really great alternative to Photoshop.  It's taken me about a year of poking around and watching tons of youtube tutorials to really start getting a handle on it.  I'm crossing my fingers that this knowledge base will transfer at least somewhat for Lightroom :)

My current favorite

Wally is getting quite cuddly these days.  He loves to grab a stuffed animal and smash it into his face.  The same goes for Hazel.  I really had to play around with the effect of the picture above in Gimp because I liked it but couldn't quite get the look I was going for.  This is as close as I could come.  The trouble was the windows, which originally just looked like washed out trees.  So I did a Lomo effect which just whitewashed out the windows completely, brought the saturation way down, and cropped out all the junk on the floor in front of Wally.

 

I really wish I had been on the other side of this one to get the faces.  Oh well!

Sunbathing and getting a little R&R while Wally takes a nap

My next few are a storytelling sequence.  Brian and Wally have really been into Megablocks recently. Look closely.... who's really playing blocks?

Ookie Dookie Brothers...Yee Haw!

This morning Brian and I took Wally down to the elementary school for his first "concert."  We saw the Ookie Dookie brothers play, and they were very good.  The songs were super fun, and these two guys performing had all the kids and parents singing and dancing the whole time.  My favorite was "Mama don't allow no guitar playin' round here"..... they had kids come up and play along on different instruments while singing "I don't care what Mama don't allow, I'll play my triangle anyhow."  I thought it sent a good message...

Initially, it was a little overload for Wally - loud music and lots of people.  He was pretty clingy to Brian and I for most of the morning and wouldn't really venture out into the dance floor.  But that's ok, I think it was a good experience for him.  "Mama don't allow no clingy babies 'round here."  We stayed in the back and danced, which was still fun.  By the end of the morning, Wally was really getting comfortable with the surroundings, and bolted down the hallway after I bundled him up to climb up a big flight of stairs.  Did I mention stairs are his absolute favorite thing right now?  He's actually pretty good at using the railing to walk down (not crawl backward like I taught him).

I'm not so sure about this....I think I'll just look bewildered for a while

Hold my hand Dad

My girl's cow hoodie totally matches these balloons!

Action shot!

Now this is my territory! They call me the stairmaster.

Happy Birthday Colton!

We had a really fun weekend, highlighted by a trip on Saturday to the MOA to celebration Colton's 2nd birthday at the Underwater World.  Very cool place for a birthday party!  Jackie and Justin had reserved the party room where we played with some fun underwater-themed toys and stuffed animals.  After gifts and food, we then got to walk through the exhibit, which was really interesting.  Neither Brian or I had been to underwater world (or the Mall for that matter in years!) so it was a new experience.  Wally loved watching the fishes swimming, and had his mouth wide open the whole time as he looked around.  It is really fun to see Wally and Colton *kind of* playing together now that Wally is getting older.  When Colton was opening presents, he got a little bicycle horn which he walked over to show Wally.  That was cute.  

Just taste testing Mommy

Oh oh, one girlfriend!

I like this shark because it doesn't have scary teeth like the other one

Wally, let me show you how to throw.  You see...

Astounded by the shark tank

Electric Jellyfish....I want to thouch it!

My favorite shot of the day.  What a cool place!

Random Jan Pics

Today we were at the Library picking up some books, and Wally decided to go for a walk.  He ending up walking laps around the library (unassisted, no falls, completely walking) for about 20 minutes.  It was so cute, he just stopped and said hello to everyone as he tooled past.  Up and down the rows, past the computers, around the checkout counter, and back.... around and around.

Anyway, made me think that I hadn't put any pics up for a while.  Here are some random Jan pics

Just a few pics of us hanging around the house