My little sister introduced me to Lily Allen years ago and I've been a big fan ever since. The first song I ever heard was Nan, you're a window shopper. I thought Emily was listening to some sort of parody or something: ...And you won't leave your house unless you're wearing your thermals You've covered all in cat hair and you're stinking like Strepsils.... But nope, that's just Lily Allen :-)
Quincey stopped being cool when Cory Hart stopped making records so I'll often make him playlists or share music with him...not that I'm much better, but I have progressed past 1984 which is more than I can say for Q. (I'm at the very least solidly in 1994) But people, think twice before sending this song to your husbands! You'll spend the rest of the week stroking his.....male ego.
Yesterday I posted on my list of things I don't like but wish I did: Twitter. Today I'm taking it back and I'll tell you why.
Last night was a little chaotic around here. Quincey was out at a business dinner, and I've come down with whatever Elly and Quinn have had all week and am not feeling well. (As I write this, I'm in my bathrobe and have a big quilt over my lap..just can't get warm!) Charlie is entertaining Quinn by putting her on her lap and sliding down the stairs. Charlie finally decides she's done and Quinn crawls off to play. Within seconds she comes tumbling down the next flight of stairs. I look up to see her rolling down the stairs and Charlie screaming at the top. I automatically assume that Charlie has been roughhousing with her and is somehow responsible. I react. Poorly. I HATE when the kids get hurt. I get really upset. Once the baby was calmed down the kids told me what happened (which was simply Quinny trying to crawl down the stairs..Charlie had no part of it except to be standing there when I looked up). I apologized to Charlie for freaking out and told her I knew it wasn't her fault. Charlie chose to remain upset. She said she was leaving. "Charlie, I know you didn't do it. I already apologized. The baby is fine. Don't be so dramatic." She didn't leave. Well, not then anyway.
A little while later after putting the baby to bed, Max was at the table on the laptop, Eloise was on the floor playing with dolls, and Charlie was...where was Charlie? I searched the house. Nothing. I questioned the kids. Nothing. I ran outside and looked up and down the street. Nothing. Also, there was this terrible noise repeating over and over. It was loud and swooshy and I'd never heard anything like it. There are train tracks nearby..Has a train crashed into a car and is dragging it down the tracks? It was sooo loud. It had to be something serious. But no matter..I was looking for Charlie. Up and down the streets I looked. No Charlie. I went up to the school. No Charlie. Playground. Nothing. And my search is getting more difficult because whatever that noise is is now affecting traffic around my house as the streets are all blocked off by police. I can see now a white plume spraying up in the sky at intervals and it's what's creating the noise. I still don't know what it is, and I go home to see if Charlie has shown up. She has. She was hiding in the side yard behind the gate. I'm not mad, though, because I'm concerned about what's going on. I turn on the news to the local stations. Nothing. I turn on the radio. Nothing. I go online to the news websites. Nothing. I go to TWITTER. Twitter is all a buzz over what appears to be a GAS LEAK. They were evacuating the neighbourhood!
Max says very casually, "Soo..we're going to die then?" Charlie gasps and throws her hands up over her ears and shuts her eyes. "NO, SILLY!!" I reassured.
We continued to watch Twitter to know what was going on. Thank goodness for twitter! It's amazing to me that the city nor the news was capable of informing us what was going on and that so many people were relying on something like Twitter for information and reassurance.
So, Twitter, I apologize. You are useful, and I love you :-)
Here's a video (not mine). You can't see it very well, but you can hear THE SOUND which - not knowing what it was - was the scariest part.
I couldn't resist something springy for Quinn's 10 month shot, and since the last few of her monthly shoots have been rather casual I decided to shoot a proper portrait.
The flowerpot shot is one of our original scenes from years ago when we opened up. I've been thinking it needed an update so here it is! Next time you come in, save a few minutes of your sitting for some of these cute shots. (Adorable baby not included)
A choir of angels! I heard Quinn's baby babbling sounds on the monitor. I opened my eyes to look at the clock...6:30! She slept in til 6:30! On one hand - YAY! On the other hand - I can't believe that I consider sleeping in to be 6:30am. But still - YAY!
Maybe it was all the fresh air she got yesterday. I put her out in the yard. She figured out how to come and go through the same ripped screen that the cats use. Pretty soon I'll have her on a clothesline leash, and she'll be barking at the neighbour kids through the cracks in the fence. Good thing I've never taken the Beware of Dog sign down from previous owners. Who said motherhood was hard?? The little purpley/white mustache is from eating sidewalk chalk. It looks sooo decievingly delicious. Just ask my little sister Mary. Bored in the backseat on a road trip once we convinced her to eat a stick of coloured chalk. Now, now..none of this poor poor Mary stuff. Sweet little Mary was SEVENTEEN at the time. I love you, Mary, but that was HILARIOUS. I can still see your face and it still makes me chuckle 15 years later. :-)
Eloise just walked up to me with her pants around her ankles, a wad of toilet paper in her hands, and said, "You've GOT to see this!" Seriouslyyyyyyyyyy??? This is my life??
I had to take the kids to the dentist today. I picked them up from school and they were waiting in the office already. As we were leaving the school Charlie rolls her eyes and says, "Max was telling the secretary EVERYTHING about EVERYTHING. It was EMBARRASSING." Then at the dentist he was talking so much to the hygienist that it took her 4 tries to get his x-rays. When the dentist came in it didn't stop. Then he announces, "We have to go to Wendy's for lunch. Mom is on a big diet and has to eat salad." Now I'M embarrassed!
Gold star if you can figure out why I chose this topic today. :-) What is with this wind?? We were booked for outdoor photos at a preschool this week and the wind was a menace! We did what we do best, though, and got some gorgeous shots. Some super model fab. No wind machine necessary. :-) I can't use those for example because we haven't obtained permission from the parents yet, so I took Charlie out into the yard. Problem is, the wind is worse today. I looked it up on the weather network, and the wind is gusting at 63km/hour. That's the equivalent of sticking your head out the window of your moving car and expecting a nice portrait.
First thing I always do is check the sun and find a spot/direction where my subject is not in direct sunlight. Unfortunately, the great spot to avoid harsh sunlight was wide open to the wind gusts. To freeze the hair (or whatever you're shooting) as it's being whipped around, you'll need a fast shutter speed. If you set your camera to a fast shutter speed you need to make sure that you've compensated in other ways for reducing the amount of light you're letting in. You can do this by increasing your ISO, throwing your aperature wide open, or simply moving to a different spot that's better lit.
Next I took a different approach and sought out refuge in the doorway. Seek somewhere you're at least partially sheltered. You can also have someone position themselves as a windbreaker.
But the doorway felt like cheating so back out into the yard we went. I positioned her so the wind was blowing her hair away from her face. This had good results. The downfall was that the wind in her face kept causing her to close her eyes and blink a lot. I definitely had to snap a lot of pictures and sift through to find the ones with the most wide open eyes. There were a lot of really natural candids going on as she struggled to keep her long hair under control. (also a great shot of the most recent missing tooth. I pulled that bad boy on Thursday.)
All in all, windy day portraits are possible and can have some interesting movement and effect to them. Today was a little over the top, though. I'd opt not to do your portraits on a day as blustery as today, but if you do it's easier to just go with it rather than trying to fight it. It turned out great for being silly :-)
And some really great silly shots are always a win in my books.
It's quiet. Too quiet. What's everyone up to? I went sneaking around to check. Eeeeeeek! The new American Girl Magazine is here! I had heard this an hour prior, and when I went to find Charlie she was still flipping back and forth through it. Just a little while ago she carries the laptop to me and says, "Can you fill this out?" "What is it?" I asked reaching for the computer. "Well..not much. I just need this information." Turns out she needed my CREDIT CARD info because she was on the American Girl site trying to order everything she saw in the magazine. Ha! Nice try! :-)
And what about Eloise... It's never a good thing to lose track of Elly. You never know if you're going to find a whole canister of baby formula in the toilet (twice now) or an entire bottle of bath soap rubbed all over her body because she's "washing her face" (at least she's clean). While on the prowl today, I found her on the floor in the kitchen applying half a dozen (at minimum) Hello Kitty bandaids to phantom owwies.
I expected to find Max in the basement playing Wii, but he was in the kitchen too. Up for a hydration break, still wearing his Tae Kwon Do uniform, and then heading back to Mario Cart.
Baby Quinn was hangin with Charlie in the (messy) living room. Doin' baby stuff, crawling around, putting miscellaneous objects in her mouth. Today she found a big balled up mixture of lint/dirt/hair. She had been playing with it for awhile, and when I tried to pry it from her superhuman baby strength fingers she screamed like I was stealing her teddy bear. So we played with it together for awhile (??) and "don't-put-the-dust-bunny-in-your-mouth" became the Funnest. Game. Ever. She was squealing so much with laughter that all the other kids came to watch. I love how her laughter makes everyone in the house beam. I KNEW there was a reason I had another baby! :-)
So just a few days ago I posted about how Eloise blames everything on Charlie. She changed it up a little today. Our cat had been missing all day. Charlie went around the house looking for her. Elly suddenly pipes up, "She's in the stuffy drawer." Charlie runs upstairs and lo and behold, Mickey was locked in a drawer in Elly's room. "I di'int do it." Elly insists. "Then how did you know she was in there? And how did the drawer get closed? Mickey can't do that herself." "Umm..Quinny doed it."
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