The day after the day after

Well I thought I wasn’t a big fan of Valentine’s Day until my little one changed my mind.  She absolutely loved this holiday!  It all started on Wednesday when my mom bought her a Happy Valentine’s Day balloon.  She walked around with it everywhere.  It’s been her best friend for two days now.  She even fell asleep with it in her hand while she napped on top of me today.  I wanted to snap a picture of her with my phone but it wasn’t within reach unfortunately.  As if the balloon wasn’t enough she received some Valentine Day cards in the mail too.  One from Nana & Papa and one from Grammy.  You would have thought she just discovered gold the way she lit up opening those envelopes.  Then yesterday, in addition to a card, I gave her a little stuffed monkey (see color picture below).  She was so excited!  Wait.  I’m not done.  Later that night the hubby gave her the cutest gorilla (see black & white picture below)!  It didn’t take long before she was off on her own with her new stuffed toys clutched under one arm while the other carried around my card and Nana’s balloon.  The best part, though, was listening to her say “It’s Valentine’s Day” about a hundred times!  And with such enthusiasm each and every time!  Even today, the day after the day after Valentine’s, she is still saying it!  

In short, I am now a Valentine’s Day enthusiast and I look forward to seeing her reaction next year!

So what… (is it Wednesday already)?

• if I am still afraid of the dark at times. 
• if I rather have contractions than have nausea or a toothache.
• if I eat little neck clams but will not try an oyster.  It doesn’t make sense to me either.
• if I’m not very good at math and I sometimes have to write it out on paper. 
• that I love the look, the feel, the smell of books.  Seriously, I could pile them up and look at them for hours.  It’s a wonder, really, why I haven’t photographed any yet.
• that I believe in spirits/ghosts but haven’t ever seen any.  That is not an invitation either.  All spirits, please stay away!
• if I’m addicted to the bowling and memory game app on my droid.  Livi’s diaper change can wait.  Just kiddin’ folks!

Before & After

Even as I’m not feeling well, I’m happy to find myself showing interest in old loves.  Like processing photos.  In between the nauseous, vertigo, and exhaustion, I’ve been having a ball learning new tricks in Photoshop to really make my images pop!  I thought I’d share a few before & afters.  Dare I say I’m almost more in love with editing than I am with photography?  Nah. 

As I’m attaching this first example, I’m thinking I could have cooled the picture down a bit.  I don’t know, what do you think?  I know everyone’s monitor must be showing the image differently.  I am viewing mine on a calibrated retina screen so colors are sometimes too vibrant.  Colors can sometimes appear too rich.

It should be simple

I’ve been away from my blog for so long I feel like I could easily write a book.  A lot has been going on.  Good things.  Not so good things.  Photography and blogging were put on the back burner.  Every time I’d look at my camera collecting dust on the floor, I’d wonder if I still remembered how to take a picture.   The thought was a little depressing.  Just when I was starting to improve and feel comfortable with photographing, I had chose to put it aside.  I’d like to say I had no choice so I wouldn’t feel so guilty about it, but it wouldn’t be true.  I had to prioritize and let’s just say it fell to the bottom of the list.  Along with blogging unfortunately.  Without the two, I’ve been feeling a little lost.  Don’t get me wrong, the break has been rather nice too.  I know confusing right?  I don’t get myself sometimes.  My hiatus, though, gave me more time to confirm, yet again, that I am definitely not an extremist.  Never have been.  It may work for some people, just not me.  I wasn’t happy dedicating every spare minute I had to photography and blogging, and I wasn’t happy removing these things completely from my life either.  Yeah, I’m more of the happy medium type.

So what if…

• I don’t wash my hair everyday.  Or even every other day.
• I eat cheesecake for breakfast and don’t feel even the slightest bit guilty about it.
• I spend more on kids clothing than I do on my own.
  

You know what I’m grateful for?

This little face.

Just when I think it’s impossible to think about anything else other than how crappy I feel, this little face makes me forget about everything.  My runny nose, congestion, achiness, scratchy throat, and exhaustion seems to disappear for the split second that I’ve locked eyes with this little one.  That’s it, I’m mesmerized. 

Back to patching (another intermittent exotropia update)

Alivia had her Ophthalmologist appointment on Tuesday.  This time, however, I was able to prepare her for it.  I talked to her about it in advance hoping it would make her more comfortable with taking the eye tests.  I had always talked to her in advance before her other appointments but, this time at almost 2 and half years old, she was finally old enough to understand.  As I put my makeup on at the bathroom sink her repetitive “no mama, no doctor” soon turned to “doctor check Livi’s eyes” and “doctor make eyes better”!  I can’t believe how much she was getting it!  And just incase the talk in advance wasn’t enough, I had another trick up my sleeve.  This time, Auntie Lola would accompany us to the appointment.  I knew Livi would be happy about this.  Before I go into detail about the appointment, you may want to get caught up HERE about Livi’s intermittent exotropia also know as strabismus.