Five Months and Counting

Wow. I can't believe another month has passed all ready. Little Bee, you are growing up before my eyes. You haven't changed much as far as size and weight, but you are making your age known in subtler ways.
This month you figured out how to blow raspberries and it is your new favorite form of communication. Raspberry blowing interspersed by squeals. Nothing makes you smile easier or faster than your big sister. Your eyes follow her adoringly around the room. You also started eating real food this month! You've been watching us like a hawk whenever we eat, taking an acute interest bouncing and licking your lips. When you were offered your first bite of Rice Cereal you lunged for it and slurped it down. The first three days we fed you, you cried angrily in protest when you realized the dish was empty. We finally got the hint and started giving you more. Forget the 1-2 tsp recommended in the baby books, you're a growing girl! After two weeks you have figured out that you don't need to stuff your fingers in your mouth in order to swallow. Feeding times have gotten much less messy consequently. You are starting to hold up your arms to be picked up and grab my head to hug me back when I cuddle you. I'm sure when you lean forward and gum my jaw-line it's your way of trying to give kisses, and it makes me love you all the more! I love how you interact with me more and more every day, even though there is a shadow of sadness as I see my baby disappearing already. I love you silly girl!

Butterflies and Brown-eyed Susans

These are a few of my favorite things...Yesterday we spent the day at the Oregon Zoo in Portland. We went there shortly after Katrina was born and have been wanting to get back all summer. We finally had a completely free weekend and took advantage. Of course there were all sorts of fun moments with Emily and Katrina, but for once my post is not about them. :) I had really been wanting to check out the Winged Wonders exhibit which is only open during the summer. I had a lot of fun taking pictures of the butterflies and the flowers in the garden outside the exhibit. Brown-eyed Susans are one of my favorite flowers. The just give me a happy feeling. This was one of my favorite parts of the day. I had been wanting to play with some depth of field ideas I read about on Shooting The Kids. Here are some of my best shots. Enjoy.

Sorry, I just had to throw in the one of Katrina. Hey, it does have depth of field. Christoph doesn't like it but I think it's a cool shot.

Can't...Look...Away

I was driving to work the other day listening to NPR and a spot came on that I found amusing and at the same time very weird. I will issue a warning right now, I quote "More than a million people around the globe have been sucked in by an anime clip on the internet." This song does get stuck in your head. There. You can't say I didn't warn you. Continue at your own risk. I must admit my intrest was piqued. So, once I got home I looked it up and found the actual clip they were talking about. Oh my gosh. It really is true! It sucks you in. Maybe it was my linguering post-pregnancy brain fog. Maybe it was just that it was after 10:00pm, but I just couldn't look away. In a sick way it's almost relaxing. Apparently people are actually taping themselves going into a trance watching the thing. I also find it interesting that it is most popular in Russia. I'm not sure what that means, but I love the closing line of the article.

"This is basically a joke for someone who spends all of their time staring at a computer, made by people who spend all of their time staring at a computer. It's possible to read deeper meanings into it, but it sort of defeats the purpose because in the end it's just this hypnotic clip of animation."

I'm not sure which is sadder, people video taping themselves staring at a anime girl spinning a leek and singing, or people wasting brain cells trying to figure out deeper meanings to some random video clip. Sometimes all you can do is shake your head and laugh.

The Name Game

Have you ever tried to explain something to your kid and just felt at a loss? Sometimes it's so hard to take a abstract concept and put it into concrete terms a kid can understand. For example: This morning I was getting Katrina dressed and Emily asks me, "Mommy, what will Katrina's name be when she is as big as me?" I look at her and say, "Her name will be Katrina." It was quite obvious from the look on her face that she was not happy with that answer. "What do you want her name to be?" I asked. "I want it to be Emily, like me," she stated emphatically. I tried valiantly to explain that you get your name when you're born and you keep that name for the rest of your life. Of course as I'm telling her this, all the exceptions start running through my head, but remember I'm trying to keep things simple. After my big explanation, using real life examples of babies being born and getting named, how she was named Emily when she was born; she just looks at me and says, "But, I wanted my name to be Katrina when I was a baby!" Oh boy. I give up.

Growing Bigger Every Day

No, I'm not talking about my stomach. That fortunately has stopped growing now that Katrina is born. Now if it would just start shrinking... I'm talking about my kids (what a surprise). I recently came across an article in Parenting magazine that intrigued me and weirded me out at the same time. This lady took pictures of her daughter every year wearing the same bathing suit, showing how she was growing. It intrigued me because I've been doing something similar with my girls and it was fun to see the final results. It was suggested to me by a co-worker when I was pregnant with Emily. Basically, you take repeated pictures of your child with the same stuffed animal. The first year you take one picture every month and then yearly after that. It's been fun to see Emily start out smaller then her lamb and then this year finally pass it up.

Emily at 4 weeks

Emily at 3 years
I've started doing the same thing with Katrina. It was cool to see the pictures in Parenting and see that it really does make an impact when you look at all the pictures lined up. It seemed a little odd to me to use a bathing suit, although the one used was a tasteful item that looked like it came from the 50's. In some ways clothes would make the child's growth more dramatic. Anyway, I just thought I'd share this idea, you could probably use a variety of things to chronicle your child's growth. I'm having fun taking pictures with the lambs! We have the added fun that both lambs were presents from Grandma for their first Easter, so there is that sentimental note as well. Now I just need to make sure the lambs survive playing, moves, and life in general.

Sniff Out The Meaning

I just asked Emily if she could sneak upstairs and listen outside Katrina's door to see if she is awake. She comes over to me and says, "Is this how you sneak?" and wrinkles up her nose and sniffs. I look and her with a confused look, and so she repeats the motion and the question. Light bulb for mom, "No, that's sniffing, sneaking means very quietly without running or shouting." "Oh, ok," and off she goes. A few seconds later she comes back. "I don't hear any noise, it's very quiet." Little moments like these just give me the giggles. I wonder how many times I've told her she was sneaky and she thought I meant she smelled bad or something. :)