Business & busy-ness!

Yep, business and busy-ness. :)  I've been busy with photoshoots lately. I just finished up another great one yesterday with a fun family and three older kids (not older older, but not toddlers either).

This weekend was a lot of fun. We went to the parade on Saturday, or I should say, I gave my hubby a nice break from the kids from 10:30 am - 3:00 pm (big parade) and the kids had a lot of fun. Elise was a little scared of the noise at first and I don't think she remembered the parade from last year because the first thing she said when we got to our spot (by my mom; family) was, "Mom, time to go home." The two minutes later it was, "I want to take a nap" so I put her in the back of the double stroller and reclined it and she looked like she was going to fall asleep but kept peeking through sleepy eyes with an unsure look on her face. A little bit later, I looked over and she had peed her pants, and she always tells me when she has to go so I think the noise was scaring her. Good thing I brought extra clothes, but of course, then the stroller was all wet back there. It was hot!! For the end of September, this is what us Northerners would call "an Indian summer". We all had jeans on and had them rolled up to our knees because the sun was beating directly on us. Jameson seemed to fare well at the parade and didn't mind the noise. Andrew very much enjoyed dancing in the street and running to get candy. He had several meltdowns when he either didn't get any and other kids did, or if they handed candy out to his cousin and not him. I tried to re-direct him and tell him the parade wasn't over yet and that seemed to do the trick.

We went down to the fest Saturday night after settling the kids for bed at my mom's. So we were only out about 2.5 hours. I had 3 Mike's Hard Lemonades within a half hour so I was feeling good and dancing (I don't like to dance unless I'm buzzed because I'm a dork). I then cut myself off (3 is and has always been my limit). DH had fun as well and we partied with my aunts and uncles. There was a good band playing: all 80s and 90s hits.

Yesterday was nice. We went to the grandparents' house and Grandpa made brats and hamburgers -- very good. I like a good juicy brat with kraut.Yum! Then I had that photoshoot at 4:15 and it went swimmingly well. I stopped on the way home to take some pictures of the area bluffs because the fall colors are at their peak. We went with the kids to Subway because we didn't feel like making anything and that outing went relatively well. LOL, I always feel like my kids are so NOISY compared to other kids but I think I just don't like drawing attention to ourselves, nor does DH. They do say some funny things that sometimes turn heads for a chuckle.

Last night I was so pooped after a long weekend! I edited some photos and went to bed early for me (11:30).

And now here we are on another Monday morning, the first day of October. It's so hard to believe!

Joining the Y!

I had an enlightened discussion with the husband last night about my inability to get physical activity in. Every time I do want to go anywhere, my five-year-old begins to sob if he cannot go with. This is the case whether I'm going off on a shoot, to the store, or yes, to workout. I end up taking him with because I can't bear to see him sad -- except I CANNOT bring him to shoots, as those clients are paying for my quality, undivided time.

I brought up the idea of joining "The Y" (YMCA, apparently they just go by "The Y" in this time and age), because I had heard that they have an income-based membership, where you will pay less based on your income for household size. Now, as you all know, we have one person working (me) and 3 kids, so that makes us a party of five. For a party of five and with our income, we would be looking at 70 or 80% off the monthly membership of $65. That is a darn good deal!

The center we would be going to is really new -- it opened up just a few years ago. It has an indoor track (this is HUGE!! I used to walk in college at the indoor track located at the University and have lamented in the past how in the winter, I'm basically stuck. I have to either go out in the ice and snow and freeze my buns off with 3 kids in tow -- not an easy feat -- or go to the lame ass mall and it's tiny and smells like greasy food. Neither of those are appealing). They have a nice pool and the kids LOVE to swim so we will have a place to take them to burn off some energy and have fun. I also am wanting to get back into swimming, as I grew up as a "summer swim team" girl, and seriously -- swimming laps is the best exercise out there. DH also likes to swim. The center also has a [free] childcare center so that we can have the option of dropping them off there should we both want to workout at the same time. Another thought my bestie at work brought up is that if DH so desires, he could actually go to The Y while I'm at work and workout, if he needs a break from the kids (some days, he really does).

I am so happy! First I have to get my appliaction in to financial assistance there, but it's all filled out and ready to go.

Now, I have to find a swimsuit that is suitable for lap swimming as my bikinis will not really cut it (swimming laps will cause the bottoms to fall off -- also something I really don't want to do. I had a really neat Nike 2 piece made for competitive swimming when I was younger so I'm going to look for something sporty like that). I'll get DH a Speedo (kidding!). :)

Andrew's first day at pre-school (year 2)

Wow!! I am so happy right now. Yesterday, I called his teacher, "Mrs. W.", to get an update on his first day. She said, "I was just about to email you. He was amazing! He got to be the leader because he had been through it all before, and he did very well. Last year, he didn't want to do things in front of people, and today, despite the fact that there were all new faces in the classroom, he did everything! I had him go get his backpack out of his locker at the end of the day, then set it down, then I asked him to go get his mail out of his box, and he did that too. He was a different kid! He asked for a sticker at the end of the day [last year, we had this whole system where if he complied with all of the areas, he would get a sticker or a stamp on each of the tasks], and I told him that I didn't think we needed to do that this year."

Wow.

I am so glad I held him and had him do a second year of pre-k, because he will hopefully be ready for kindergarten next year. I hope I'm not counting my chickens before they're hatched (to use the old cliche), but I am really hopeful.

The only thing we need to figure out is the bus schedule. The original time they gave me for him to be picked up is 10:53. Class for him doesn't start until noon. As soon as I told Mrs. W, she said, "oh, that's not going to work. No kid should have to sit on the bus for an hour, and Andrew's day will be over before it even begins." I agree. Plus, we live a mere hop, skip, and a jump away from school (but are on the bus route because of the busy road that leads to the school). If we had a second vehicle for Daddy, that wouldn't be a huge deal and he technically could bike him to school for now, but that would involve either shoving 3 kids in a bike trailer meant for two, or connecting the tagalong to the trailer so he has a Daddy choo-choo ride. I don't know. Mrs. W. said not to panic and just to give it a few weeks and hopefully they will figure out a different time. She said there's always the insanity of the buses at the beginning of a school year.

I will keep you all posted on his school progress. He still has his evaluation scheduled for 10/24 (this is the sensory assessment).

My big boy!

Mr. Jameson's 1 year well check

This is for my own records in case I need to go back and check, so feel free to ignore this post if baby stats bore you. ;)

Weight: 20 lbs, 14 oz (20th percentile)
Length: 28.5" long (9th percentile) -- compared to Andrew at a year, and holy shiznit, Andrew was 2 inches longer
Head is in the 50th percentile at  46.6 cm (WTF, what is a cm anyway? LOL).

Basically, a top heavy baby (like Baby Tumbles Surprise, remember that thing? LOL, I used to baby-sit for a girl who had one) who smiles all the time, who is very calm, and who growls on command (I "taught" him this while nursing. I would growl and he eventually growled back).

He has a few words: "Mama", "Dada", and "Nom" (that's for food, which he started around 10 months. He didn't want the purees at all so we started with raspberries and he now eats all kinds of food: chicken, broccoli, fruit, etc. -- he sees food and he gos, "Nom!" and wants to try everything.

Still nursing (no surprise with me for those of you who have been following me long enough), along with his sister, who is 2.5.

His nickname is "James", which is not pronounced as it reads but more like "Jaymis" or "Jamus". :) I love him. ♥

Word verification . . . bye-bye!

Those things are impossible, even for me, so yeah... I turned it off. I only had word verification on for commenting because a few years back, I was getting all this spam in Chinese. LOL.

So feel free to comment on posts once again!

Oh Lordy...

I am STRESSED. I have so much shit to get ready for the party tomorrow (both boys) and I really don't have much experience in this since we don't tend to have big galas for much of anything. At least it's not at my house, because that is a royal disaster. Holy wow, I'm so behind on my housekeeping it's not even funny. Or maybe it is. IDK, it just seems to get the best of me when I have no freaking time, or the time I do have, I'm so exhausted that I plant my ass on the couch and go online. Seriously, my house is a fucking disaster. Shit cluttered all over the counter in the kitchen because everytime DH goes to look for something in one of the drawers, he just takes everything out (we have 7 junk drawers -- SEVEN! I kid you not -- filled with computer stuff he'll never use again but hasn't taken the time to dispose of, various chargers [why so many?! What are they all for?], pencils, coins, rubber bands, papers, maps, old phones, screws, paperclips, installation CDs, binocculars, etc. etc.  It's very frustrating. Our bathroom sits unfinished, after he ripped the tile out of there maybe 7 months ago, intending to put down new tile + some hardwood (tile by the tub/toilet in case of water), paint that needs to go on the walls in there. Clothes freaking everywhere because my oldest changes his outfit 4 times a day and my middle is always stripping down to bare naked. The diapers I had hanging on the line yesterday got rained on last night because stupid me didn't check the forecast. Thundertorms came through at 5 am and at the time I was nursing Jameson and by the time he was done, it had already started raining. So those get an extra day outside today but I also have to wash another load and get that out there. I have four loads of regular clothing to fold and put away. I have paperwork to complete for Andrew's assessment and paperwork to complete for his school.

No time!!! Kids, love them, but hard to complete any task, so we put everything off.

Anyway, I have all this stuff to buy for the party (styrofoam plates, plastic 'silverware', chips, dips, vegetables, beans; balloons) and then tomorrow I have to go pick up the buns (we're having BBQs/Sloppy Joes; whatever you want to call them. Meat already purchased). I'd like to decorate the park shelter a bit beforehand; party starts at 4:00 but I guess there are people there at the shelter before us until 2:00. Nobody freaking RSVPs so we'll just plan on having enough for more than we think.

I have had appointments for the kids and myself lately, left and right, and so I feel like I'm always running.

My self-esteem has been down in the dumps lately for whatever reason -- I tend to just get in these moods where the stress overwhelms and I just feel moody. I haven't exercised in a month or more.

So time to focus on things. We'll get through the party, I'll get some great pictures, and life will move on. In a few weeks, Andrew starts back up with school (pre-k again for those who missed the memo), then it will be several relaxing months before the holiday season.

Breathe in, breathe out . . .

Don't get me wrong. I love my life. But I also get stressed sometimes feeling stretched too thin.

Random acts of kindness

The husband spent several hours yesterday looking at wide angle lenses for my camera (I have a full frame, the Canon 5D Mark II, and right now, the only lenses I have are the "nifty fifty" 50 mm f/1.8 -- does the trick, a Tamron 28-75 f/2.8 which I've been using a lot lately, and an old Tamron 75-300 that I never use). I don't know whether I really need a wide angle, as I primarily shoot portrait, but it would be great for landscapes and large groups of people. I envision taking my kids up on the bluff and getting a really awesome wide angle shot. Not that they'd sit for it, but maybe I could get pics of them all running in different directions with the contrast of a menacing sky or a sunset.

Anyway, I thought it was sweet that the hubby was reading reviews of different lenses (he loves to research before he buys). He informed me last night that he learned a lot about the difference between full frame cameras and crop sensors and how certain lenses would not work for my camera, etc. He has always supported my hobby turned 2nd job: photography, but I think he will be more open minded the more he actually knows about it. He may grumble a little when a shoot takes longer than my allotted hour time slot, but he's also with three kids all day long, cooking for then, cleaning up after them, and listening to the shrill scream of our middle child. I totally get why it'd be hard to spend most of a day without venturing out.

He does enjoy looking at my pictures as I'm editing them and will tell me which ones he likes best and why. He will say, "wow!" often and he is educated enough on photography to know when stuff is amateur or if it's really good. I like to bounce ideas off him during the editing process and see which one speaks to him, as sometimes it's different than my favorite one.

As for the lens, I'm in no rush right now. A really nice one would also be really expensive, and I don't know enough yet about the off brands (Tamron really doesn't have a wide angle, Sigma; Tokina) to make a purchase.

On this day . . .

On this day, one year ago, my Jameson was born in the water (you can read that birth story here). It was my 2nd waterbirth, but third time going through labor. I still remember most of the highlights of the day and I hope to continue to remember it, but for now, I will just share some pictures. (Don't mind the fact that these were taken with a point-and-shoot and/or my cell phone.)



Grandma (my mom)

 Happy birthday, Jameson Goat! We love you so much.