Saturday, April 19, 2014

Eggstravagana (My First Photo-essay)

Dear Baby Waider + Little Brother Too, 

Excuse the cheesy title for this particular blog. I just feel like it fits and I like seasonal words combined with other words to make even better words. On with my first photo-essay. Mom is compulsive about pictures. This is no lie and impossible to hide anymore. I spend hours reading about how to be the best momtographer (another made up word that is awesome) I can possibly be. Recently I've been reading about creating a photo-essay. According to wikipedia it is "a set or series of photographs that are intended to tell a story or evoke a series of emotions in the viewer." I was excited to experiment with the idea of this and dying Easter eggs seemed like an eggcellent opportunity to try it out. I envisioned lining up the perfect little glasses with the little color tabs that would create brilliant pictures as they reflected off of the table. I conned the family into cleaning up the house so that it didn't look like we were dying eggs in a swap shop. I thought for sure I would capture Baby Waider's stubby little fingers clutching the chintzy metal egg dropper, and Little Brother reaching for an egg with excitement in his eyes. As per usual my tiny subjects did not perform as I expected, my skills are not exactly what I want them to be, but I did capture what will be my photo-essay. 


Baby Waider begins dying eggs. This is what will be one of 10 pinkish-orangish eggs.



"See, Mama, it my blue egg!"

"No, Dad, MY blue egg." 


I guess I did sort of get my chintzy egg dropper photo. 


"Look, it's my 100th pinkish-orangish egg!"

More pink dye. 

Photo op with dad who says, and I quote, "This isn't about the kids. It's about us getting to finally get to be good at the things we used to do as kids." 


"Yay for my chintzy egg dropper!"



Photo op with mom and dad playing with focal points!


Now mom is in focus!




Not sure why Benny is so sad about his first Easter! Dad even made him his own egg!



There's a happy Benny. 



"It has been discovered that I have no more eggs to dye..."

"...and the ones that are dyed are all the same color..."

"...that is actually a pale version of the very onsie I am wearing!"


Then I asked if it would help if we took a picture with the eggs and we could send it to Grandpa Marker. She decided she could do that. 


Still has some tears rolling down the cheeks. 

Notice how they are all the same-ish color. 

The egg dying master...

I may not have captured what I hoped to capture, but this photo-essay definitely captured the moment (the whole 5 minutes) we took to break dye eggs. I am actually a little disappointed that I failed to capture the fact that we started with 24 eggs and ended up with 17, then 16, and now possibly 14ish??? Not sure if some of those are cracked beyond repair. Baby Waider would pick them up and THROW them into the dye. This would splash the dye all over and crack the egg. The eggs that survived this treatment were often dropped on the floor as they were being transferred to dry. Dad was trying to prevent this mass of egg dropping, but it did not prove to be successful. They kept falling and then the all too familiar, "UH-OH, DAD! I dropped it." This morning when Baby Waider woke up I could hear her talking on the monitor. She was saying, "No! Easter Bunny! Don't drop the eggs. My dad don't want you to drop the eggs, but my mom will make more." All in all everyone is pretty fired up about the Easter Bunny arriving tonight. We even had a chance to meet the big bunny himself today! Immediately when Baby Waider was put by the bunny she gave him a big hug and yelled, "Hi,Easter Bunny!" She posed for pictures and was all in all pretty pumped. She was pretty psyched that the Easter Bunny gave her a bouncy ball on a piece of elastic, or as Baby Waider called it, "A basketball on a string." She had the BEST time playing with it on the street corner. She could possibly be a street performer. We probably should have put out a cup to collect some $$ for her efforts. 


Hugging the Easter Bunny. I could have cropped this picture to get the box out. But why? 




Love Baby Waider's huge smile! 


Happy Hoppy Easter!

Baby Waider and her budding street performer career.



Love this beautiful weather and being with my adorable little family!

Love, 

Mama








Friday, April 18, 2014

10 Things

Dear Baby Waider + Little Brother Too,


10 Things That Have Happened Around Here:

1. Little Brother has learned to sit up, roll over, and sort of swim around the floor. He does not like that he cannot move that quickly, but for now we are okay with him being MOSTLY stationary. I have a feeling that he will not stop moving once he can move. 



2. Baby Waider is a talking maniac! Talking in complete sentences, answering questions in complete sentences, and asking questions has her teacher parents super impressed with her abilities. Not only do you have an amazing vocabulary, but you also have a great sense of humor and are a total crack up. 


Here you are holding a tiny dinosaur at Dinosaur Park and saying, "See dinosaur, this is the city."

Cracking up with the dinosaur. 


LOVE THAT SMILE!!

3. Pretty much every morning we get out of the house is a miracle. Actually, I am very impressed with our morning routine. Everyone is up at 6:00 (aside from mom and dad who are up much, much earlier) and we are out the door at 6:35. Pretty much out the door at 6:35. I get Baby Waider up at 6:00, dress her, negotiate the outfit of the day, negotiate hairdo, and pass her to dad who feeds her at 6:10. She eats breakfast, which is oatmeal and applesauce and a fresh fruit while she talks to the dog and cats, and laughs at herself until 6:30 when she has to be coaxed into her coat. Little Brother is up at 6:10 (unless he's up earlier, which can be anytime from 4:30-6:00). Little Brother is super cooperative getting dressed. He has no opinions and does not need a hairdo. After that he eats wheat cereal and is promptly loaded into the carseat (hopefully with his paci). Dad starts the cars and we are on our way!

4. Nights are magical around here. We have so much fun (most evenings). We come home and play mostly inside because it has been SO COLD. After we play we do dinner, bath, stories, and bed. We read lots and lots of stories.  Seems mundane, but it is fabulous. I've never been happier to be doing mundane things. Oh and we do lots of laughing and dance parties! Little brother just watches and looks longly at us. You can almost see that he is thinking about a time when he can join in all the fun. Recently we've started watching Bubble Guppies and Team Umi Zumi. TV saves us on those crazy crabby two year old nights. 

5. The best thing about spring is the fact that we might have some nice days sprinkled in between the horribly windy, cold, and snowy days. Since we've had so many horribly cold days when it is warm we maximize our outdoor time. We've already been to Reptile Gardens, Dinosaur Park, fishing, and to Vicky Powers Park a handful of times. Last week Baby Waider was outside playing and said "Mom! I love the backyard. It's so cool." It is cool. You have  a power wheel bug, a cozy coup, a playhouse, sandbox, a swingset, and a slide set. It will be nice if we can ever go outside and play more than one day in a row. Looks like this weekend that could be a reality!


6. Babies! Babies everywhere! You both got two new cousins. Baby Kitt and Baby Franklin are just a few weeks apart. They don't do much yet, but I'm certain you will all have a blast soon.



7. Sometimes Little Brother sleeps through the night and it is awesome. Sometimes he doesn't and it is not that awesome, but either way he is so happy when he wakes up!

8. By far the favorite activity in this house is Little Brother in a walker and Baby Waider pushing him around. Recently Baby Waider will go into her room, shut the door, and leave a puzzled Little Brother outside the door. Then with a huge grin on her face Baby Waider returns and says, "OH HI BENNY!!!!" Then Benny has the hugest grin and laughs and laughs. 

9.   "My Cat!" That is what you call Boo, Baby Waider. You chase her, hug her, love her, and terrify her. 

10. Snow day. We had another snow day. Which is annoying because the weather has been awful. We decided to watch Frozen that day. It ended up that dad watched Frozen, alone because Baby Waider and I don't watch kid movies, much to dad's dismay. He's been waiting for someone to watch them with. I guess he'll just have to keep waiting until Little Brother can watch them with him. ;) 

Until the next blog that will hopefully be written soon we will continue having fun!

Love, 

Mama