Top 10 Photos of 2009
December 31, 2009 By
I was scratching my head trying to figure out a good post to close out the year 2009. I could say all of the usual stuff like, ‘I can’t believe the year has gone by so fast,’ or ‘my resolutions for 2010 are,’ and on and on but I don’t want to bore you with stuff like that, so I am going to post my Top 10 Photos of 2009. Thanks Tonggumomma for the great idea!
1) We were taking photos for the first day of 2009. Catherine is such a techie that she couldn’t handle being so close to the camera without touching it and trying to play with it. She looked like such a professional photographer with her hand placement and the way she looked through the viewfinder. I just love this photo. It really captures who she is.
2) Flowers in Oakland, CA. I didn’t do any photo-editing to this photo and I just love how it turned out without adding any masks, or actions. I think the colors are so vibrant.
3) This was taken at the Fallen Firefighters Memorial in Austin, TX. I am a sucker for honor guards and photos of them. While it annoys me a bit to have that photographer slightly blocking the color guard in this photo, I like it because it also captures the desire of individuals to record the heritage and culture of a public service.
4) This was from Catherine’s 2 year old photo shoot. I was a bit worried that she wouldn’t cooperate since she doesn’t like to have her picture taken but we somehow managed to get some great shots of her. I really think the lollipops helped!
5) The bluebonnets were breathtaking this year. Catherine and I went out to a field with a friend of mine and did an impromptu photo shoot. I have so many favorites from this shoot but I thought this one captured that day so well! I can’t believe how little she looks in this photo.
6) We decided to visit John at work one day. One of the perks of his job is that we can sit on the driveway of the fire station and watch the airplanes take off and land right in front of you. Catherine loves to wave at the planes as they take-off. John took this photo and while the lighting is blown out, I really love the affect.
7) July 4th parade.
Catherine is fan of dogs both big and small. We took her to the Houston Dog Show to see all of the canines and boy did she have a blast. I have never seen her sit so still for so long!
9) We did a backyard photo-shoot with Catherine wearing two dresses that I wore as a child. This was one of my favorites because the popsicle happened to match the dress so perfectly. I really adore the look on her face.
10) The essence of summer…water, water, water!
I have so many other favorites but I am limiting it to the 10. I can’t wait to see what 2010 holds as far as photography goes. I am looking forward to capturing new memories and new experiences!
You Know That Saying?
December 4, 2009 By
So, we were pretty excited here in Houston when we found out about four days ago that it would be snowing here in Houston. Snow in and around the Gulf of Mexico is like some sort of miracle. The whole phrase, ‘when hell freezes over’ really means something to us when it gets below 60 degrees. When they forecast snow, we start wondering if we should find a way to rework that phrase. None-the-less, when I woke up this morning I was excited like it was Christmas morning. I was excited for myself because I miss my, ‘I live close to Tahoe’ days and I was excited for Catherine because she has never seen snow fall. She has only seen a bit of snow that was built up on a slide when we made a trip out to Nebraska earlier this year. I couldn’t wait to see what her reaction would be. John was not too excited because he had to work and would miss out on all of the fun. Of course, with Houston shutting everything down because of a little bit of snow, including the airports, I think John was getting his hopes up that something exciting would happen.
After breakfast as we headed into the living room, I saw big, huge, fluffy flakes coming down pretty heavily. The forecast wasn’t predicting snow until the afternoon so I about tripped all over the animals and Catherine trying to get ourselves dressed and out the door to play with the stuff. I left Catherine in her footed pajamas, shoved her into some sweats, threw a jacket on her, dropped her into her too big Barbie boots, and shoved some of her socks onto her hands (who needs gloves in Houston except for me?) and we made a run for the door. She looked a little shabby and so did I, but at least she looks cute being shabby. Luckily for the sake of future photos and video I dressed her up a bit for our next excursions in the snow. Anyhow, she didn’t know what to do at first but Chief remembered snow from 7 or 8 years ago and made a beeline for the falling fluff. She was running and biting at it, acting like a puppy and not the 13 year old dog that she is. I think that all of her horsing around put Catherine at ease because she started creeping out of the house and investigating what the foreign stuff was all about. She quickly got the hang of it and started trying to bite at it like Chief, touching it with her sock hands, and saying she wanted to eat it off the grass (what??). She thoroughly enjoyed herself and DID NOT want to go back inside. However, after about 15 minutes I made a motion that we head back inside and majority wins (I was counting poor Shadow who would have none of it and the two cats who don’t like the cold or wet). You see, I have acclimated to the hellish, hot weather down here and anything below an ambient 75 degrees makes me shiver uncontrollably. My parents who still live in the San Fran. Bay Area are a bit embarrassed about this change in me (just kidding…okay not really). Luckily for Catherine we managed to throw on coats and boots like it was a fire department bunker gear timing drill at least 4 times to make a mad dash for the snow outside. She loved every bit of it…and so did I.
Meanwhile, over at the airport, this was the scene that John looked at all day:
De-icing a plane in Houston?? Those poor people in the buckets. They were either excited about finally getting to operate the de-icing gear or they thought it was a pretty lame day because it was darn cold outside.
30 Months
November 6, 2009 By
Our dear, sweet, smiley daughter turned 30 months old yesterday. She’s 2 1/2 and very much the typical toddler. She is 35 inches tall and weighs 30 pounds, although I swear she weighs more than that! Here are some of the things she is doing:
- She is obsessed with Chinese lion/dragons and pretends that she is one by beating on a drum. My parents entertain her on Skype by dangling a Chinese dragon that they bought in Chinatown.
- There are three girls from her pre-preschool class that she loves to ‘talk’ about. She even knows who their mothers are when we see them in the parking lot (sans child). She is incredibly smart with remembering names and faces. I know this will come in handy some day.
- She knows me and John’s real names. And sometimes she will call us by that.
- She can count to 10 by herself and almost to 20 if we help her a little.
- She knows most of the words to several favorite childhood nursery songs. Her favorite is ‘Baa baa black sleep’ and no, that’s not a typo. That’s how she says it.
- She sings the ABC’s.
- She is starting to venture out and play with other kids when we are in a group setting (which makes me very, very happy).
- But she still has her clingy moments.
- She can be very bossy. And her defiance can be breathtaking at times.
- Her tantrums have eased quite a bit but sometimes if she doesn’t get her way or if she gets frustrated she starts to cry. I would rather her cry than throw a fit.
- She still has serious sibling rivalry issues with Chief, Shadow, and Deuce.
- She can play with tupperware and plastic bottles with caps in the bathtub for hours.
- She no longer has an interest in her baby dolls but she seems to like puzzles and blocks more now.
- She now thinks it’s okay to write with her crayons on anything other than paper.
- She wants to go to school and by Friday she is asking to go (she goes on Monday & Wednesday).
- Her favorite books are the Biscuit the dog series.
- She drags books up to us and says, ‘Read to me!’
- She has some books memorized. Her memory astounds me sometimes.
- She has a funny sense of humor which is starting to really emerge.
- She covers her ears anytime a plane or helicopter goes over. The Blue Angels were here over the weekend and they were super loud. So now, even if she hears the faint buzz of a plane going by she covers her ears.
- When she sees someone she knows and likes, she will run up to them with one arm in the air. It’s funny to watch!
- When one of us comes home, she will run up to the door and squeal like our dog Shadow does.
- If we hurt ourselves or make a funny noise, she will say, ‘Are you okay?’ or ‘What happened?’ with a look of concern. She will then kiss the ‘owie’ and say, ‘Mommy feels much better now.’
- She now runs all over the house screaming our names non-stop. I have to tell her stop sometimes because it drives me a bit crazy. It’s ironic to say that because when we were waiting for her, I couldn’t wait to hear those words and now, well…sometimes I have to tell her to stop using my name in vain.
) - If I’m in the bathroom and have the door closed, she will stick her face to the ground and say, ‘I see your toes!’ and then proceeds to stick her hands or toes under the door.
- When we put her to bed, she says ‘Ni Hao, Zia Gian, Night Night’ like it’s one long salutation.
- Her favorite foods are macaroni and cheese, soup, Nutella sandwiches, shrimp, and corn. Anything other than that and we have to bribe her to eat with jello and popsicles. Or we have to say, ‘Baby dragons love to eat baby carrots!’ Although that doesn’t always work.
- The Love and Logic discipline strategies don’t work quite yet but 1-2-3 Magic does!
- When she gets bored, for instance at a restaurant, or if she is in time out, she will say that she has to go to the potty even though she really doesn’t. It about drives me nuts. We are starting to catch on and will take her once but after that we tell her she has to wait. If she is in time-out she doesn’t get to go until her time-out is over and by that time she has decided she doesn’t need to go after all.
- She can sit and watch you-Tube videos of dragon dancers or of her new baby cousin for hours if we let her.
- Since we don’t let her watch Yo-Gabba Gabba any longer (she got waaaaaaaaaaay to obsessed with it), her new favorite show is the Wonder Pets. She can even sing the song for you.
I was looking at her tonight as I was singing her her nighttime songs and I couldn’t help but feel a bit sad that her birth parents are missing out on such a brilliant, funny, personable child. I wish there was some way that I could just tell them all about her. I hope that one day we can.
At 2 1/2, she never ceases to amaze me. She also wears me out pretty quickly but she her smiles and spontaneous hugs make up for all of the craziness. We just love her and now we are pretty sure that she loves us. It’s a good feeling.
