Buddies

There's something so endearing about the way preschoolers play together. These two have been buddies since they were babies, and I love seeing how their play changes as they get older.  I can't help but wonder what secret message they are communicating in the second picture!

Color and water

I have a little boy who would spend the entire day watering various things with the garden hose if he could, and a little girl who looks good in every color of the rainbow...even all at the same time. So of course, I take pictures.

Light and movement

I've been playing around a bit with light, trying to find interesting ways to use the somewhat challenging natural light in my house. There are only so many times I can convince the kids to hang out in the front corner of the living room, between 10:00 – 10:25 AM, and look up while I climb up on the bench to take pictures. That may get me the best light in the house, but it’s not exactly natural-looking. Nor does it capture the unique moments that make up our days.

As far as movement goes, my Little Miss is the one who is playing around with that. Lately she's been more interested in moving up, so every time I turn around, I find her reaching for something or pulling herself to her knees and trying to get her feet under her. And then I very gently and lovingly push her back onto her bottom, because I am not ready for full mobility.

A large part of why I’m not ready for full mobility is that my son is normally a blur of action. I really love that I managed to catch him in a moment of no movement, watching for the garbage truck through the window in the play room with his beloved Blue near at hand.

Favorite things

My two favorite things doing their two favorite things:  talking on the phone and cruising around the house.

Mama’s Boy

Although I spend every day with my children, I haven't had any "alone" time with my boy since Miss S was born. So today I planned a special morning to spend with my little guy, doing the things that he loves:

 

 

 

 

Here we are all packed up and heading out the door.

First stop:  His first ride on a city bus!

Next up:  Fun and rides at Seattle Center.  He went on the cars three times.

Now it’s off to the monorail!  He listened to the musicians play three songs before he finally noticed the monorail right behind them.

And then we eat our lunch by the train tracks on the waterfront (if you look carefully, you can see the train going by in the background).

After lunch, we watched the cruise ships on the waterfront while we waited for Dad to come pick us up.

It was a busy and fun-filled morning, and I really enjoyed being able to focus completely on my sweet boy.  We’ll need to do this more often!

first day

My sweet boy’s first day of preschool

brotherly love

This is another spontaneous shot.  I’m so glad I had my camera handy!

siblings

singing

The easiest way for me to get a picture of him is to wait until he’s strapped into his high chair.  However, our dining room is painted a deep terracotta, hung with amber-toned Craftsman light fixtures, and filled with cherry furniture.  All of these rich tones mean that the light (as scarce as it is) is very orange.  So in order to avoid making him look like an Oompa-Loompa, I converted this picture to an antique sepia finish.

close-up

I had to do a fair amount of post-processing on this one because it was blurry, thanks to the high rate of approach of my darling 2.5 year old subject.

yogurt

beads

This one makes me laugh.  He was SO excited to play with the beads.

haircut

planning his next move

snowball

hard at work

silhouette

captured moment

I was making lunch when I heard Z saying, “Hiiiiiiii Mei-mei!”  I poked my head into the play room to see what was going on and witnessed this little exchange.  I grabbed my camera but didn’t have enough time to adjust the ISO or other settings, and this is the only picture I was able to capture before Z got up.

distracted

I may have been smiling at the camera, but Z and Mei-mei were more interested in one another.

father/son