Did I mention....

that my baby is one?

And though this post will be about her first year, I am not including any photos. It's feast or famine around here! ;)

Of course, as every mom in the world laments, I can not believe she is already one. A toddler. Her infancy is over. In all honesty, she was my hardest infant. But these days, in her babbling, tottering around phase, she is much happier. And her cheeks.... on. my. goodness. Softest, most kissable cheeks ever. Still fairly bald, but I'm okay with that. I don't have time to do any more pig tails in the morning anyway! She {FINALLY} takes a short nap at 10am and long nap at 3pm. She's getting down right religious about it!

One thing that I think contributed to my fatigue and just general I'm slowly dying of sleep deprivation feelings during this past year is exclusively breastfeeding her entire first year. Well, I don't know if exclusive is the right word since she did eat solids but never ever ever a bottle/sippy. No juice. No formula. Not even expressed milk in a bottle. Just nursed the whooooooole first year. Now... I am very glad to have nursed my babies, and obviously don't regret it. BUT. It would have helped me if she would have taken a baba once in a while!

Here's the moral of the {terribly uninteresting} story:

When you read in the baby how-to books that if you don't introduce a bottle to your baby, ideally at 2 months, they may never accept a bottle, they really do mean that! They ain't jokin'! Not even a little! It may not apply to every baby. But let me tell you: It does apply to some! Namely, Leila Christine McCoy.

I was pretty "by the book" with the older girls and made sure they could switch from breast to bottle comfortably. But with Leila I though oh fooey on the book; I'm sure it'll be fine. And of course it was fine in the sense that the child was fed and grew and pooped and grew and all that. And {I think} I survived it too. But around 6 months into it, I began to really really wish the baby would take a bottle... you know... at church or in the car or with a sitter or (and here's a big one) in the middle of the night! Even if she did accept a bottle, I still would have continued nursing... it just would have been nice to have a little variety in the "soothe the baby" tool bag. Because when only one thing and one thing only soothes the baby.... that one thing may occasionally want to pull the covers over her head and go back to sleep.

So maybe someone out there is thinking That's just crazy!A baby who won't take bottle? Absurd.

And last year around this time I would have agreed with you. But now I don't. =P

Yes, I just stuck my tongue out at you.

yes, YOU.

So the following guidelines will be in place should I have another baby:

1. At exactly 8 weeks, the baby will be introduced to her (because of course, it would be a girl☺) new friend, and my old friend- a bottle.
2. Bigger hair flowers will be worn.
3. The baby will pose for hundreds of photos.

I reserve the right to add to the list at any time without advance notice.


Love,

Attempted Maternity Shoot

My sweet friend and her cute lil' girls were willing to let me practice on them. I had several ideas, most of which completely flew out of my mind as soon as we started. I had wanted to try a few techniques for custom white balancing but only actually tried one.... but it was a learning experience for sure. Between an amateur photographer and a self conscience subject, it's amazing we got anything at all! Now look at this pregnant chick and you tell me: she's beautiful, right?

Given the chance, I think I'd do some things differently. For instance, we had set up in one spot where I was thinking oh I love the light right here! These are going to be so pretty! But in actuality, once on my computer, the light was very harsh and only one was salvageable. And of course my goal isn't to salvage photos! Reading the light is for sure an area to work on. But as I said, learning experience.

Here's the link for all the pics if you just can't enough of my bland photography!










(This silhouette would be more effective without all the trees, but try to find an un-treed landscape in Upstate NY... go on- just TRY! (I have and failed!) As is, she was on a picnic table!








I know that these last three are super similar. I suffer from a case of I never know which one is the best-itis.








Thank you for looking. I must now go put an end to the kung fu princess drama going on in the other room. I give 'em marks for originality in make believe! (No marks for keeping the noise level down though...)
Love,
 

If you like excessive pictures of someone else's kids....

then this post if for you!

So now that it's just me and my mom, I'll get right to sharing some of my practice shooting. I'm still in "basics" land... trying to nail focus and exposure. Lighting is an important factor, and reading the light is not as easy as I thought it would be. Before the pictures, in case any of ya are interested, here are two blogs that I've found helpful in this beginning of my photography journey:

The Coffee Shop Blog

Click it Up a Notch

And now, lots and lots of redundant pictures, because I can not decide which ones are the best. ☺







And at this point, it was time to put down the camera and catch the streaker!


And now my beautiful 5 yr. old:







I'm dying for feedback so if you have critique, I'll gladly take it!
Love,

Thoughts on this Thursday

Eden asked if she could play with my wedding veil, so we made a deal: she'd pose for pictures in exchange. I should have been more specific in our contract and included a "look at the camera" clause.


Obviously, my heart just hasn't been into my blog lately. I am keeping up with the blogs that I follow but just don't have the time or energy to write these days. Many evenings, around 7 pm. I am just DONE. Done done done.

I am enjoying learning about photography. There is really do much more technical information to absorb that at times, I feel frustrated and overwhelmed and doubt I will ever learn enough to be any good at this. But I'm trying to bite off one chunk at a time, and have fun in the process. I have not been doing much editing; the above photo is the first one all week I've done much post processing with. I'm focusing on getting quality pictures in the camera. Nothing spectacular yet, of course. I'm sure I'll be sharing more photos in the future. Hope you don't mind that.

In other news, it's birthday month at our house! ☺Leila just turned 1 (wow!) and Maddie turns 5 in a few days. I turn.... 28... a couple of days after. Candy land cake is planned for a simple party on Sunday. Maddie is literally counting down the days. It's really fun to have kids old enough to actually get into their birthdays!

For me personally, I'm just plugging away at the typical mom/wife stuff. I feel like it's a 'steady as she goes' kind of phase for me right now. No great highs, no terrible lows. I get bits of encouragement and instruction from my Bible every day, and it's enough to hold me over until my tank is empty 24 hours later.


Love,

Dear 14 yr. old Leila

I took these pictures of an uncooperative, but playful, almost 1 yr. old you. You had fun but didn't pose at all how I directed you to. You're future as a model is highly doubtful. And besides, your beautiful baby fat would not be appreciated in all it's pinch-able deliciousness.





Tutu. Check.
Glittery butterfly wings. Check.
Flower and headband. Check.
Put headband back on 76 times. Check.

What was missing?

Earrings. Little studs of sparkle glistening from your ear lobes.

Yes, by 14 yrs. old, you have realized that your older sisters have pierced ears, and have had them since infancy while you do not. Now you are faced with the choice of continuing a non-earring existence, or subject yourself to the pain of getting them pierced in your mature, conscience state.

Before you come to the conclusion that as the 3rd child, I loved you less, let me explain.

I also am the third born in my family and have been careful to take just as many if not more pictures of you. Decorated your room all pretty frilly just like I had with Maddie's. {Eden never got her own room!} Every once in a great while, I promise to put you in an outfit not worn (ie. worn out) by your sisters. But even with the best of intentions, I have yet to get your life insurance set up (you can just bum off your sister when it's time for you to go to college, k?) and um...well.. I don't give you a bath half as often as your sisters. But you don't stink, usually. Other than that, you've all been treated equally.

But with the earrings.... sigh. Mostly, I've just turned in to a big ol' bucket of smoosh and don't want to make you cry. Your older sisters cried less than a few minutes but still, I feel differently about now than I did then. Back then, beauty is pain was my motto. ☺ But now I feel like I might as well be binding your feet or some other cruel custom. Even yesterday, in the grocery store, a lady was pushing her wailing newborn around, not seeming to mind his screams. A few more minutes of it and I was about to go put his binky in for her. With more children, come grayy hairs, cavities, bigger feet, saggy all sorts of parts, and a backbone made of jello when it comes to crying babies.

But after looking at these pictures and foreseeing an irritated teenager in my future, I stiffened my jello spine and took you to the mall today. The lady working there didn't win my confidence. I still was going to go ahead and do it. I started to fill out the form, while you goo-ed and ga-ed from the stroller, no doubt looking forward to pretty silver studs in your ears. Or maybe not...

But then the lady said she was the only one working at the moment and so we wouldn't be able to do both ears at the same time. So I wadded up the form, snatched my credit card back, grabbed the stroller and ran out of the mall.

So that's why your ears aren't pierced. Don't hate me.

Love,
 

Photography

For a few years now, I've considered buying a DSLR camera. After a few months of really wanting to learn photography and browsing through countless pictures of other bloggers and/or photographers, I decided I needed to put the idea out of my head. For a two reasons:

DSLR are a bit expensive.

Every other mommy blogger in the world was doing it, and I'm just ornery enough to not want to do what is popular at the moment. I want to be different like every one else. (☺).  So instead of a fancy spancy camera, I got a photo editing program and tried to fake it, with limited success. But still, I have cute kids and therefore had cute pictures.

But after a couple years went by and I found myself frequently thinking Gee that would be a beautiful photo if some with the right equipment and knowledge were here to take it as I went about life, I talked to my husband about it and he was very supportive of the idea. So with an agreement that I'd save/earn some of the cost, he'd be my sponsor for the rest. ☺ I'm always asking him to be my sponsor. It's a nice way of saying Fork over some cash, man!

So.... I got a camera. Canon Rebel T3. Not the biggest fanciest but I'm more than pleased with it.

And now, to learn how in the world to take good pictures with it! I wasn't sure if I'd share this journey on my blog, because I know many of my friends take fantastic pictures and mine won't compare. But I'm honestly having fun learning and look forward to improving. If anyone has constructive criticism, I'd gladly take it; no worries about hurting my feelings. Just as I felt about my point and shoot, the subjects (primarily my girls) are the saving grace for any photo I take! ☺

Since getting the camera on Tuesday, I've taken a million horrible pictures of things like salt and pepper shakers, earrings, my kids, a lamp, etc. I am also squeezing in some reading about exposure and focus. But I'll share the least awful ones thus far, featuring my girls and my brand new nephew (doesn't he look adorable, especially for being only one day old?!):











Love,