Jake and the Bluebonnets

Its something of a tradition here in Texas to plop your children/pets in a field of Bluebonnets and take photos. Who Am I to question a tradition such as this? Children running a muck in a field of wild flowers? Sign me up.

Meet Jake.

He thought the bluebonnets were a lot of fun. He ran around and played.

Every time I see this photo I get the song from Sesame Street stuck in my head; “Im a little airplane now”.

How cute is he?

His mom tried to get him to hold still and sit in the flowers. But it just wasn’t going to happen. The instant she sat him down he was on his way back up.

He had some playing to do!

But speaking of his mama, she is currently expecting a little girl. So I managed to convince her to sit in the flowers for at least one shot of her.

She is a gorgeous mama to be, and her daughter will be beautiful.

She tried to get Jake to sit with her…but nope. It wasn’t going to happen. The boy was on the move.

But after all that play, he wore himself out. And finally wanted his mama.

Look for many more blue bonnet photos this week. I took so many photos of various kids that I had to break it up into multiple posts

Story of bath time

The other week Lincoln had a bit of a rash, so he got a day time bath. Our bathroom has two giant windows and fabulous light during the day, so I figured it would be a good time to take some bath photos.

Here is what Lincoln thought of his daytime bath:

Ooohhh, Oooohhh, Im in the bath tub. Okay act cool, maybe  I will get more tub time.

That’s it, act cool. Maybe she wont notice my hand still waving around excitedly. I will just use it to splash.

I know, I will read a book, that’s a normal bath time activity…

mmmmm…. this book is pretty tasty. I wonder if the other toys are as tasty?

Nom, nom, nom… the other toys are just as tasty!

Weeee! Time to get out…. hmmm…. I wonder how the towel tastes?

Oh look, toes!

 

Next week look for bluebonnet photos!

1st birthday invites

Its been awhile since I have posted design work. Mostly because I know nobody really wants to look at boring powerpoint presentations. But I have had the chance to design a couple of invitations recently, which I love to do.

A friend of mine’s son turned 1 a couple of days ago, and she wanted some fun invitations for his birthday. They were going with a Mickey Mouse theme, but didn’t want it to be too over the top Disney.

I came up with a subtle Disney design, that was still bright and fun. The colors are red and yellow which are the colors of Mickey’s clothes (red pants with yellow buttons). I used a small silhouette of Mickey’s head with his iconic ears and the Disney font for his name to make the Mickey theme noticeable.  The result was simple yet fun.

Happy birthday Lucas!

More Nutts

I still haven’t finished editing photos from my trip to California yet. But I am slowly making my way through them. No trip to California is complete without seeing the Nuttmans. They came down for a late afternoon playdate, and we headed over to the park.

I’ve said it before, and I will say it again, I love those baby blues!

The fabulous Miss O is pretty cute as well. Normally she is like Fiona and impossible to take a photo of, but this time I caught her quietly playing with her brother.

Grant is such a sweetie, He plays so nicely with his big sister. I can only hope my two will be as nice and polite as the Nuttmans when they are older.

Slide hair! The Nuttmans had a lot of fun running around the playground.

Hitting the sippy cup on the walk back to the house.

It is far too long between visits back to CA for social reasons, Im glad that when Im back intown for work I can occassionally squeeze in short visits with my friends. And I am grateful that most of my friends know just how hectic my schedule normally is when I am working and put up with driving 30 minutes to go to the park for an hour.

Lincoln’s Elephant

Awhile ago I set Lincoln in his chair and gave him his elephant to play with. He loves his elephant. It is the only toy that sits in the corner of his crib (pediatrician said it was fine) and many nights he pulls it to him and holds its trunk or feet.

He thinks his elephant is funny.

Part of me really hopes this doesn’t turn in to a baby and pink situation, where the elephant has to go everywhere with us.

But for now he has a snuggly pal that is unbelievably soft.

Maybe I should see if I can find a backup one… just in case.

This is a face we rarely see. Lincoln is normally a very happy baby. The only time he really fusses is when he is tired and/or hungry. I know most people want to see only the happy baby photos, but I’m glad I caught the rare boo boo face in action. Im sure as he gets older this face will make  more of an appearance, but until then I will enjoy the rare glimpse (enjoy; meaning I snuggle the sad face away, and who wouldn’t love to snuggle Lincoln?)

Playing Pirates, arrrr matey!

Our neighbors had (note that I said had… because some how it found its way to our house) a toy pirate ship. Fiona LOVES the thing. She has spent many hours playing pirates.

The boat opens up to reveal captain quarters, it also has a pirate, a bird that talks, a canon that fires things, a hammock and treasure map. All thats adds up to hours of “arrrr matey!”

Someday when Fiona tires of it, the pirate ship will make its way back to our neighbors house… at least until Lincoln discovers it.

Until then there will be many adventures and treasure hunts. I like how every map has become a treasure map, oh to be two and the world full of adventure.

Lincoln may not be into Pirates yet, but he will be someday. Meanwhile he is happy to play with his hands and feet.

He is growing far too fast. Before I know it he will be playing pirates with his sister.

7 months

Once again another month has sped by and Lincoln you are now 7 months old.You are still a fabulously happy baby, most people who meet you remark on that. You smile and babble at anyone willing to listen, and are attempting to mimic us. If someone waves at you, you raise your arm back at them.

You are a champ at sitting, no tripod for you! You sit and play with all your toys, and you would rather sit then do anything else. Even when you play with and suck on your toes you do it from a seated position (you look funny when you do a forward bend and suck on your toes though!)

You still don’t roll over much. I know you can do it, Ive seen you. You just don’t bother. And why bother rolling when you can sit or stand? Most of your strength seems to be in your legs. You discovered standing and you love to stand and play your piano and dance along to it.

Another first for you this month was the swings. You love the swings, and you love them even more when your sister pushes you.

You adore your sister and smile whenever you see her. You think she is hilarious when she rawrs at you, or plays peek-a-boo with you. My favorite time of the day is when I am cleaning up after a meal and your sister is entertaining you and all I hear is “Rawr!” followed by shrieks of laughter.

Speaking of meals… you got to try lots of new foods this month and have even started feeding yourself. You were so excited the other day when I handed you a piece of my waffle. I often give you toast or puffs to keep you occupied while I make your dinner. And today at a restaurant I gave you peas off my plate (and then wondered how you got to be big enough for me to share my food with you).

Mama had to travel to Orlando for work this month, and both you and your sister got to go too. You are a fabulous traveler and rarely make a peep on the plane. Mostly you sleep (which is what you do every chance you get whether you are on a plane or not). You had a great time playing at the pool for a week and got to go swimming for the first time.

Unfortunately we discovered that the chlorine dried out your skin and you have eczema. Luckily it is easy to treat, but we will have to watch it during the summer.

Your sleeping better at night, and are cutting down your middle of the night snack. And your eating a huge range of foods and like everything…at least you happily eat everything. You are a happy baby and I adore you. Happy 7 months kiddo.

Easter 2012

Holidays are more fun with kids. I get excited about passing along traditions from my childhood, and experiencing them again as a parent. We aren’t religious, so Easter for us has always been about celebrating the arrival of spring. We painted eggs as kids and my Nanna and grandpa would do an egg hunt in their backyard. With everything going on this year we didn’t dye eggs but I did sneak outside to hide eggs  for an egg hunt.

Fiona loved going outside to hunt the eggs. There was lots of excited “I found one!!”

Next year should be even more fun with both kids hunting the eggs. But this year Fiona enjoyed being the lone hunter.

Although for some reason her farm had to go with her, and she put the eggs in her box instead of her basket. That is until she filled the box. Then she wandered around the yard with a farm, a box and a basket full of eggs.

Lincoln sat happily on his blanket in the grass and went through his basket. The Easter bunny brought him a book, a spring rubber duck, and some teethers. And no, the necklace he is wearing is not his, its Fiona’s. But she insisted on sharing.

The best thing about the eggs is that they held goodies. Although the Easter bunny is far more health conscious then when I was a kid. The eggs held mostly gold fish, yogurt covered raisins,  and a lucky few held all natural fruit gummy snacks.

Lincoln, well he kept on hanging out and played with his toys.

The Easter bunny left a pin wheel for Fiona. She loved blowing it to make it spin. She also got a little pink jeep that raced her match box car down the driveway (the jeep won), the necklace she made her brother wear, and a rubber ducky.

She eventually took her necklace back and happily wore it.

Meanwhile Lincoln tried to see how many toys he could fit in his mouth at one time.

Fiona wasn’t feeling well most of the day. She was running a fever, so we spent most of the afternoon snuggled up on the couch watching Hop. Turns out she has pink eye. Poor thing.

Peacocks, and kids

I don’t know if you have seen peacocks, or rather heard peacocks but they are loud. We heard them long before we saw them. The first one we saw was wandering around the parking lot, and it was just a bird with really long feathers. We headed into the park and saw one of the birds fanning his feathers, the kids were really excited when he did that!

“Look mama!” Fiona talked non stop for days about the peacocks, how they have big feathers and big mouths that make a big noise.

We met a friend there and her adorable son. Supposedly he is not much of a hand holder, but he insisted on holding Fiona’s hand. Look at that expression on his face!

The kids were adorable holding hands walking around the preserve. And no Fiona is not older, she is just taller.

The park also has koi ponds that the kids spent a lot of time peering into and looking for fish.

Lincoln had fun too. I plopped him down in the grass and let him play for awhile. One of the peacocks thought Lincoln was interesting and wandered over to take a closer look.

Don’t worry, Lincoln was not defenseless against the peacock, he found a leaf that could possibly be used to poke the peacock… you know if Lincoln had coordination for that kind of thing

The kids found a tree and had a lot of fun playing around on it.

The kids had so much fun playing together. There was lots of giggling and running.

In a couple of months the peacocks tail feathers will start falling out (they grow new ones every year) so we will probably head back to see if Fiona can find a feather .

Visting the Peacocks

On Valentines day Mark and I took Lincoln to Mayfield Park to see the peacocks while Fiona was in school. We walked the trails, looked at the koi ponds and watched the peacocks. After seeing the peacocks I knew I would be bringing Fiona back for a playdate with some friends.

A couple weeks ago that is what I did. The kids and I met some friends at the park. I took an obscene amount of photos of both the peacocks and the kids, so I will do two different posts otherwise you will be scrolling forever.

This beautiful guy met us at the gate. Isn’t he handsome? Actually I think this might be the one who blocked my way into the preserve and I had to sit in the driveway for 5 minutes before he moved and I could pull into the parking lot.

Another peacock was fanning his feathers in attempt to charm the ladies (unfortunately as you can see he recently got into a fight with a wild animal and his neck feathers aren’t looking too good. Not sure if his tail feathers were going to make up for it).

But he tried desperately to charm those ladies and strutted around with those feathers up. I don’t know about the peahens, but I was charmed.

Until he turned around that is….

They are not nearly as pretty from behind.

The peacocks have free roam of the park and are used to humans pestering them for photos.