If you have three seconds to spare I will love you forever if you could go to this link and “digg” the post for me. It’s my final posting at pittwatch.com for the year (unless some major news happens later today) and I would love to have the year go out with a bang.
Thank you!
Hayley is a huge snow fan. She could happily stay outside in the snow until she turns blue and freezes solid. When we went out today, she was running everywhere, hiding diamonds (chunks of ice) inside snow banks to hide them from the pirates (a game I invented for her because it was one Breanna could keep up with), and building a little winter fort under a tree for the fairies.
I used to love the snow and winter too. Not so much anymore. I’d just as soon hibernate. Breanna and I share this in common. She was keen on the snow for about ten minutes.
Then she got really tired of falling down. I got tired of that too because she can’t get up very easily in her snow suit so I had to constantly trudge through the snow after her to haul her back up, and being a bit heavier than a two-year-old, I kept sinking.
At one point, she started asking, “home? Mommy, home?” which was her version of, “Jesus Christ woman, I’m cold and sick of this snow and I’d like to go inside where it’s warm and dry and I can play with my new toys and perhaps eat a cookie.” I managed to get the pirate game going for a bit which kept her happy for another ten minutes or so. Then she just had enough and I picked her up while bargaining with Hayley that she could have hot chocolate in exchange for going inside in another five minutes. That had just been settled when Breanna passed out on my shoulder, sound asleep, mouth open to the wind.
Luckily for my back, George arrived home five minutes later and took the sleeping snow bunny upstairs. More than once I’ve accidentally woken Breanna up by sneezing down the hall, but somehow he managed to remove her boots, undo her snow suit so she wouldn’t overheat, and put her down on the bed without waking her up. She slept until four, kept dozing off for another 20 minutes even though I poked her in the ribs and called her name while she noodle-necked all over the place, and still managed to fall asleep at a decent hour tonight. I think it’s safe to say that the holiday season has exhausted my little one.
The same can not be said for the five-year-old who played outside for an extra half hour until I pleaded to come in due to cold feet and hands (mine, not hers) and then immediately wanted to know what we could do now, “could I have some hot chocolate now can I paint where is my easy bake oven are my sea monkeys bigger yet where are you going?” Once they start school there’s just no rest for parents when they’re off from school is there?
One of my resolutions is to learn to do more with my camera than just picking it up, pointing it at someone, and snapping a picture. I’ve gotten better at that, but I’ve had an obsession lately with one particular thing – bokeh.
Bokeh is a word I had never even heard until about a couple of weeks ago, though I had seen it many times before. It’s the effect that you get when you set your camera so that the subject is in sharp focus but the background is blurred. It makes your subject stand out more. I could do it in Photoshop, but I wanted to learn how to do it properly with my actual camera.
That meant learning a lot of things that in the past would have come out sounding like the teachers on Charlie Brown episodes – “muh muh muh muh muh muh…” However, after spending a lot of my “free time” (whatever THAT is) on various photography sites and digital photography sites in particular, I am not getting a very basic grasp of things like Depth of Focus, apertures, ISO, and more. Just don’t ask me to explain them yet, I’m not at a level of understanding where I can adequately explain.
But I do know that if I ever want to graduate to a DSLR (and oh, how I want to!), I’d better be able to understand what I’m doing because I really feel it would be an incredible waste to get something like a Nikon D-series camera or a Canon Rebel only to keep it on the Auto setting all the time.
And I think I’m finally getting somewhere. This isn’t as striking a difference as I’d eventually like, but the background is definitely blurred while the mini lava lamp (found in my stocking from my parents, and man I love that more than anyone over age 13 probably should) is in focus.
Anyone with good sites to recommend for learning more about how to really use a camera rather than just pointing and shooting? I’d love to check them out!
I am seriously loving Digicamhelp. I’m trying to learn to take better photos instead of just the basic point and shoot stuff. This site explains really well about ISO, apertures, DOF, and more. Awesome.
Hayley got many great things for Christmas, but there are two gifts that she got from my sister-in-law that I personally want to play with. One is a gift that is technically for Hayley, but being that it’s a toaster, it’s obviously for all of us to use since we’re not going to put two on the counter – and it’s good timing since our regular toaster sucked enough that I cursed it at least once a week.
One slot puts a Winnie the Pooh face on your toast while the other makes a Tigger. I love Tigger! And I love the little bee on the side instead of a regular lever. Apparently it plays some sort of music since the instructions warn to not break the mechanism by making sure you don’t keep continuously pushing the lever down and then pressing the cancel button to keep the music going non-stop. I set it up on the counter after Hayley went to bed so she can try it out tomorrow. It’s so cute!
And this. Oh, the Easy Bake Oven. I keep telling myself it’s not for me.
When I was little, we occasionally got the Easy Bake mixes and had some of the little mini pans but we just baked them in the oven. I never had the real thing. This one seems a bit different because I seem to remember the old ones actually opening in the front whereas this one looks more like a microwave in design and you slide the pans into the oven from the side. Still, I’m looking forward to making the cake or cookies watching Hayley make the cake or the cookies that came with it.
Also, yesterday we set up the water with the purifier in the little Sea Monkey aquarium and today we added the eggs. I think they’ve hatched because there are little black dots moving around which is apparently what they look like after hatching. Hopefully they’ll grow quickly so we can actually see them. More things that I wanted in my youth, taunting me from the back of every Archie comic book!
Ah, to be a kid again!
Dude, I’m exhausted. Christmas spans several days here and I’m ready to sleep for a week now. It started on the 24th with all the activities we did, plus the pajama presents, continued on the 25th, and only ended last night when we visited my parents.
Christmas morning dawned early, but I was tired not because of the hour, but rather because I’m still seven years old apparently – I kept waking up every hour to see if it was time to get up yet. LOSER. We got started by about 6:30 which isn’t too bad considering how excited Hayley was. She shocked me by falling asleep before 9 pm on the 24th so she was raring to go first thing in the morning. Breanna, on the other hand, is more of a sleep fan and was unimpressed to be woken up before she was ready, even in the face of an impressively huge present like this.
That is my favorite picture of the entire holiday because it cracks me up.
The gifts were all a huge hit. Santa brought each of the a little pop up indoor tent, something Hayley had asked for. Hayley got a Dora Backpack chair from Breanna, and Breanna got a Diego Rescue Pack chair from Hayley – I love them because at the end of the day they fold back up into little packs and can be tucked away!
Our gifts from us were what had me so excited. We got Hayley a digital camera (a Fisher Price camera that can take a beating from kids), which was a shock to her and she loved it, then took 180 pictures in one day. Don’t know where she gets THAT from, ahem. We also got her the V-Smile game system which plugs into the TV and has educational games (we got her a Little Mermaid game to go with it), and a stuffed Orca to replace the one she lost. Breanna got a train table, a stuffed monkey, a little penguin, and a Little People house. They also both got a Moon Sand kit from us to share.
Hayley got us gifts too, surprising us with things she took from her own room. She gave Breanna a notepad, George got a heart shaped jewel, and I got a bracelet. She even wrapped them herself, it was very cute.
I think I’m almost as excited about Christmas tomorrow as my kids are. Breanna doesn’t fully grasp it yet but she knows who Santa is and she knows what presents are so I know tomorrow she will explode in joy when she sees everything under the tree. As for Hayley, she’s definitely old enough to know exactly what’s going on and she was one giant nerve of excitement all day long.
We tracked Santa on Google Earth which is even cooler than on the NORAD site because it’s in 3D with lots of panning and zooming. Honestly, I could have sat and watched it even longer than I did had I not needed to do other things.
After I put Breanna down for a nap, I headed out to get the stocking stuff and some wrapping paper. I was expecting the worst but it wasn’t bad at all. By the time I walked all the way there, got everything, and walked back, just under an hour had passed, so that was pretty efficient since I was expecting the whole round trip to take much longer than that.
I wrapped some gifts while locked in the bedroom, then I made “magic reindeer food” with the girls at the table. Once we were ready to go outside, I bundled them up in snowsuits and figured we’d sprinkle the food around the front and then play in the snow for awhile to help tire them out (I had woken Hayley up at 7:30 but that’s no guarantee of a quick bedtime even on a regular night, let alone the night Santa’s coming by). We lasted about three minutes because in the short time since I had come home, it had gotten ridiculously windy and we were too cold. Breanna couldn’t even catch her breath, so we quickly spread out the food and then came back upstairs. Had I known, I wouldn’t have bothered with the hassle of snowsuits!
We also baked cookies for Santa, watched several holiday specials, and listened to lots of non-Christmas music (I’ll put some appropriate music on in the morning though). After supper we did bath time and then I put the kids in bathrobes so they could open their traditional Christmas Eve gift of pajamas. Breanna love to open presents so she took the task very seriously and was overjoyed when she saw what she got. She yelled, “OHH! PAJAMAS!” Then she held them up, saw they had a sheep print, and said, “sheep, bee-yoo-tiful!” Hayley was very pleased to see hers were covered in snowmen making snow angels.
Much to my utter shock bedtime was smooth. I read two Christmas stories to them (which was a challenge since I have a very impressive cough and can barely speak), then we set out cookies with chocolate milk for Santa and an apple for the reindeer, brushed teeth, and they both went to bed. Breanna was out within about ten minutes because she didn’t have a very long nap, and Hayley, my girl who can fight sleep like it’s going to hurt her, well she was passed out before 9 pm. I don’t think that’s happened since she was two!
George and I got the rest of the gifts wrapped – we had to wait because some of the bigger boxes were in his parents’ garage – and I prepared the stockings. Now we’re just watching a movie (well, mostly he is, I’m not in a big movie mood tonight) and soon I think we’ll get some sleep ourselves because who knows how early tomorrow morning will start. I do draw the line at any activity before 6 am though! I’m putting the baby gate up in the hall to block any overeager little feet from wandering into the living room before we’re ready.
As for my own excitement, I am positively giddy and can’t wait. I love everything we got for the girls and just about everything from us will be an unexpected surprise. I hope both kids sleep through the night, but I also hope I can get some sleep myself!
Merry Christmas!
Today George and I took the kids to see Santa. The first year for Hayley was when she was only three months old; she sat on his lap, sucking on her fist and gazing ahead. The second year, just over the age of one, I have a picture of myself holding Hayley beside Santa (not even on him) while she screamed. Since then, she’s eager to see him, shy when she actually gets there, and she’s full of reverence for him when she sits there for her picture – it reminds me of when people get star-struck around celebrities.
When Breanna first went, she was a whopping one month old. She slept on the way, slept while I removed her snowsuit, slept while Santa held her, and barely woke up while I re-dressed her, then went BACK to sleep while we shopped. The second year, at just over a year old, I have a picture of her sitting on Santa’s lap, screaming with her arms out to be taken away from the giant man in red.
This year, Breanna has been talking about Santa a lot because of seeing Christmas specials (especially her Caillou Christmas movie) and seemed interested in going to see him. When I told her this morning that we’d go today, she kept saying, “see Santa! Santa! Presents! See Santa, picture. CHEESE!”
Honestly, I expected that once she got there, she’d balk at going up to him. I thought I would have to send Hayley up first and try to encourage Breanna that way. Instead, Hayley hung back, not because she was afraid, but because of that shyness. It was Breanna who pulled her hand out of mine and went walking up the steps and she walked straight up to him, arms held out to be picked up. It was awesome. Hayley joined her, sitting on his other knee, and I ended up with a great picture.
I tried taking more than one picture in an effort to get Breanna to give me a big smile (the place we go to see Santa has no photographer, but what’s great about it is that there’s never a line-up. Also, the Santas always look great and authentic.), but she wouldn’t take her hands out of her mouth, which is what she usually does when she’s a little giddy, so I love that. And I love how she’s leaning her head on his shoulder. I also love Hayley’s smile which is just about to crack into a huge, “holy CRAP it’s Santa!” expression.
After we did the pictures, we did a bit of shopping, ate lunch while listening to a god-awful live band, and came back home. Breanna was so ecstatic about the Santa experience that I printed her up her own copy of the picture so she could carry it around the rest of the day, and Hayley is freaking out with excitement that tomorrow is Christmas eve. I have one more stop to do tomorrow for last minute things (stocking stuffers and more gift wrap) and then I’ll be ready to be excited too!
(Edited to add: Here is a link to the 17-second video clip I took of the music. I was trying to be discreet so you can’t actually see them but you can hear it. Gah.)
One year ago yesterday, two of my “aunts” (cousins, really) took my grandmother out. They left the nursing home and went out for lunch. Then they gave her an early Christmas present. My grandmother’s room in the home had a bed, a little table and chair, a dresser, and a television, but nowhere really comfortable for sitting up to watch television. They gave her a nice glider rocking chair. That evening my mother called her like she did every night, right before bed time, and my grandmother was ecstatic. She was very lucid, she spoke about her day out, and she was sitting in her new chair while watching the hockey game – she never missed a Canadiens game unless she had no choice.
She was so very happy.
One year ago today, the very next day after her wonderful day, my mother called to tell me that my grandmother had died of a sudden heart attack.
I miss her so much and something about having it happen right around Christmas makes it worse. I feel so grateful to have had her in my life for so long – she was 92 years old. She knew Hayley very well and thought there was no one quite like her in the world. Hayley couldn’t wrap her mouth around “great-grandmother” when she was learning to talk so she called my grandmother by her first name, Aggie. We still refer to her as Aggie here. She also got to meet Breanna a few times and loved her.
Hayley took the death so hard that I sat up one night, neglecting other duties to sew an “Aggie doll”. Hayley had asked for one and I could not think of any store that would sell something that would work so I made it myself, my first real sewing project. As time went on, the pain eased, but sometimes I still go in to turn off her reading light after she falls asleep to find that she’s holding the Aggie doll tight in her arms.
Maybe I need an Aggie doll for myself.
Sept. 2006 at her 92nd birthday party in the nursing home, the last time I saw her.
Care to peek at a few more pictures?
I meant to post this sooner but it took me forever to dump my recent pictures for some reason. The day after the snow day, I took my camera with me when I took Hayley to school. The buses were all late and no one else was waiting around the school yard yet, probably due to the fact that although some streets had been cleared, side streets were still a disaster and no one had bothered much with driveways or sidewalks. We stood in the empty schoolyard which was just about the only thing that had actually been partially cleared yet. But they left enough huge piles of snow to make any kid ecstatic.
Can you imagine being a young kid and walking into your schoolyard to find that? Hayley was ecstatic. She couldn’t help herself and ended up throwing herself to the ground to make a snow angel, and then she started playing while we waited for the bell to ring. I was freezing but it was fun to watch how happy she was.
She told me that at recess and lunch time recess they had the best time out in the snow. Kids were playing all kinds of games and were probably not thrilled to come back inside. Ah, youth.
She’s also had a lot of fun with her tea set (and between the one we got for Breanna’s birthday and this new one, we have enormous tea parties now!) and has played with it every day since buying it. She also won’t even get into bed at night without her new doll. Maybe she’s finally found a special doll after five years of being mostly ambivalent.
The tea pot that stores everything is huge.
But you have to see it next to her to get the perspective on how huge it truly is.
I’m still impressed with her choices for toys all by herself. Such a good little shopper!
Tomorrow is the last day of class before the holiday break. They’re having a pajama party and all the kids will wear pajamas all day long. She is so excited that I thought she wouldn’t sleep at all – instead she fell asleep within ten minutes after staying up 20 minutes later than bedtime so we could watch the old Rudolph special. It’s so nice to sit with my own two kids and watch Christmas specials that meant so much to me as a kid too.
I can’t believe Christmas is just around the corner!