Hello, Lover!!!

There are few material things in life that can make or break my happy mood. My camera is one of those few. I live with a camera attached to me almost all the time, and have since I was little and my grandma bought me my first camera for Christmas. It took 110 film, which is going to be nothing more than a relic in some photography magazine by the time my kids are old enough to ask about it. Grandma would save her stamps from the store all year, and at Thanksgiving she'd ask us each to go through a catalog to choose what we wanted. When I was maybe 10, I chose this little guy:

And I must have gone through hundreds of these little rolls of film in the several years I had this camera before it stopped working:

My parents knew I loved recording life in photographs, so they eventually upgraded me to a 35mm film camera they bought used and refurbished. I learned that camera inside and out, and used it up until something with the shutter broke and I couldn't justify the expense to fix it. It was something like this, a Konica:

After that came digitals of varying degrees of awesome, though making the leap from real film to digital just about broke my soul. I just was opposed to letting go of the actual medium of creation provided by film. And if there's one thing I still really miss about shooting in film, it's the day you take your roll in to be developed and wait anxiously to see the pictures, tearing into the envelope as soon as you get to your car and viewing them over and over. With digital, there's instant gratification, which is fun, but it's kind of like a nice date without the flirting to lead up to it.

Either way, I've been shooting with my Nikon DSLR for over 3 years now, so I guess it was to be expected that at some point it would need some serious repairs. One day, it froze up on me while I took pictures of my kids in the park. I panicked, then hit Google for advice. The advice all pointed to one at-home remedy, but when it didn't work I knew I needed a professional. So off it went to get fixed, and here we are almost exactly 3 months later and I just got my baby back.

I swear, I almost cried with relief when I put the memory card back in and shot my first picture in 3 months. Pictures mean the world to me. I am a visual person, and a single photograph can make a moment come to life for me. I can look at a picture of an old friend and hear her laughter by looking at her smiling, head thrown back. I can look at a picture of newborn Luca sleeping beside me on the couch while I worked and feel the quiet calm that had eased over our house as we settled into our new life as 3. I can look at a picture of my wedding day, and remember seeing my husband at the front of that aisle and remember the smell of my bouquet like it was yesterday. I can look at a picture of me, sweaty with red cheeks and rings of mascara below my eyes, clutching a newborn Rohan to my body and crying tears of pure triumph and joy, and remember how it felt to know we'd done that together.

Pictures are my story-keepers, so I welcome my long-lost lover back with open arms. Now, we're ready to get back to the work of capturing my sweet, sweet life.



Two of Hearts.

February 1, 2010: Him and Her.

Every once in awhile, I lift the kids up to sit on my hip, one at a time, for pictures. It's a good way to keep them captive, and also enables me to position them in a good window spot that casts light on their face and darkens the background. Because...let us be honest...half the pictures I take of my kids aren't for public consumption because of the frenzy of toys or laundry or dog butts or whatever in the background.

The hard part about this is that I'm shooting blind. I hold the camera in front of me against the window, with the viewfinder facing away, aim and snap several shots. Usually I manage at least 2 or 3 good pictures, some by chance and some by determination.

This series cracked me up because it clearly showed the difference between my kids. I'm unsure if it's an age thing, a personality thing, or something else...but they react so differently to picture time.

When I pull out the camera for Rohan, he IS ON. He smiles. He grabs at it with those big hands. He laughs. He does silly faces and scrunches his nose and does this little hop in my arms.

Luca, on the other hand, can be persuaded to smile (sort of) for a small window of time in which I manically try to take as many pictures as possible. Remember how I'm doing it with my arm extended out and the viewfinder...well...not finding my view? In this case, I am extra lucky to get a cute picture or three. And if I dare to take more than a few, she starts to hide her face and say, "All done, Mama. I'm all done. No more pictures, Mama."

Rain Day

Yesterday Arizona had what some say was a record-breaking storm. More rain than we've seen in a single day in the past 17 years. Snow in places not used to snow. Winds up to 65 mph, and word of a tornado sighting in Cave Creek.

We took a rain day at work because my boss didn't want us all driving in through the traffic and weather and possibly getting stuck here if the parking lot flooded. I didn't know how bad the day would be, so I opted to keep the kids home with me and work while they played independently and napped. And I documented our day in pictures.


7:40 a.m. Sitting on the floor eating 'cakecakes'.


7:42 a.m. Begging for cakecakes.


9:14 a.m. Catching raindrops.


9:36 a.m. Rainy days don't get her down. She plays in the rain while I sip coffee and work on my laptop.


10:02 a.m. "Mama, my hands are cracking from the cold." Time for dry clothes!


10:40 a.m. Curling up on the couch with a good book while listening to the rain sure has a different meaning as a Mom.


11:20 a.m. Up from the morning nap. Love those apple cheeks.


12:15 p.m. Love this smile.


12:32 p.m. Lunch!


12:54 p.m. Attack of the giraffe!


12:57 p.m. Attack of the Romo!


3:46 p.m. Luca wakes from her nap, uses the potty, then promptly lies on the couch with a blankie 'to rest'. She is her mother's child.


3:55 p.m. Never miss an opportunity for snuggles.


4:55 p.m. Checking the video monitor to see if Rohan's awake yet.


4:56 p.m. Piggy gets in on the couch snuggling action.


5:05 p.m. Wind.


5:18 p.m. "It needs to rain so I can catch the sky!"


5:40 p.m. I'm awake, Mama! Come get me!


5:43 p.m. "I can rock my brother in this chair, Mama!"


8:25 p.m. Storytime on the couch with Daddy.


8:26 p.m. Rocking into dreamland.

Lookout Weekend. Here We Come.

Or.....not.

This weekend consisted of a baby shower for my brother's wife, and 2 fevers (1 for Luca, then 1 for Darrick). I'm pretty much staring down the barrel and waiting for my fever to appear.

We did find some time today while Darrick was napping (for...like...FIVE hours...) to do some crafts. Luca got this craft kit from Santa, and she loves the glitter glue pens.











I particularly like how she used them to fill in Dora's shoes, eyes, mouth, and hands.

Good Night, Good Night, Sleep Tight

The Bunnies



Are In



Their Beds.



Good night, good night, sleep tight.


January 13, 2010: Sleeping babies, sweet dreams. She started calling him 'My Bunny' a few days ago. I don't know where that came from, but I love it just the same.

7, 8, 9.

I do have actual STUFF to blog about, but this week has been pretty busy so I haven't had the downtime to do so. But for now, more pictures:


January 7, 2010: I am convinced the world would be a better place if we could all dress like toddlers dress.






January 8, 2010: Luca 'cooked' me a hot dog for dinner.










January 9, 2010: Rohan meets the giraffe, and I meet his toes on the floor. Delicious, sweet toes.