May Miscellany

July 3, 2015 11:06 pm

Kyle and his girls:12-IMG_20150501_185406as 13-IMG_20150501_185827as

Heather was so tired she laid down on the couch and fell asleep in the middle of the afternoon. This has never happened before or since. In fact, later that day, she didn't believe it had happened until Kyle showed her photographic proof. (For the life of me, though, I can't remember WHY she was so tired! Some adventure with Daddy, I believe.)14-IMGP2990as

Heather spent an afternoon with our friends the Badgers. She got her nails painted for the first time!15-IMGP2994as

All dressed up in her recital costume for picture day:17-IMGP3025as 18-IMGP3029as

Awww, sisters!19-IMG_20150519_161631as

Heather and I got to do some sidewalk chalking one afternoon, and it was super fun. I drew a face, and she proceeded to add the digestive system ('cuz she's awesome like that). This is the only art I got a picture of, though:20-IMG_20150520_162048as

21-IMG_20150525_150026as

The girls and I went for a walk downtown, and Heather somehow ended up in the fountain. She thoroughly enjoyed herself, though, and has fond memories of our adventure on "the First Street."IMG_20150526_153737as IMG_20150526_153742as

Corinne's Second Month

10:30 pm

I've been telling myself that it's not catastrophic that I'm so far behind in blogging because I have all these pictures, right? The posts may be late, but they'll still happen, so no biggie. But what I haven't been doing is making any other sort of notes about what Corinne is like, and she's already changed so much! Let's see what I can remember. These pics are from April 18 - May 17, when she turned 2 months old.1-IMG_20150424_172506asThis child does NOT like to be cold. It's just such a contrast to when Heather was a baby, and her issue was being easily overheated. Corinne is the opposite: she gets cold easily, and she hates it. Fortunately, even though it's summer now, we have clothes for winter (from when Heather was her age), so it works out.

She's still sleeping pretty much wherever:2-IMG_20150425_212141as

I laid Corinne down on Heather's bed one morning while I was getting Heather ready for the day, and we both thought she looked pretty silly. So we pulled the blanket up and everything, to complete the look.3-IMG_20150426_170040as

Sucking on her thumb. Not the norm, but it made a cute picture:4-IMG_20150426_220901as 5-IMGP2984as 6-IMGP2989as

She started batting at toys:7-IMG_20150501_121856as 8-IMG_20150501_124305as 9-IMG_20150501_185805as

And she started to spend a bit more time awake and alert. I love this picture!10-IMG_20150507_181958as

Heather completely adores her little sister. Which is not to say that their interactions are always easy, but the love is there. We do a lot of talking about how you have to be very gentle with babies and let them sleep when they're sleeping...that sort of thing. Heather really likes to help in any way she can, and can't wait for Corinne to become more of a playmate.16-IMG_20150507_111221as

Hee hee. More silly baby, when she was 2 months exactly:11-IMG_20150517_130133as 12-IMG_20150517_130137asOh, I can give you some stats. Corinne had her 2-month checkup on May 18. She weighed 10 lbs 6 oz (24th%) and was 22.4" long (27th%). The previous week, I had started noticing some trouble with her feedings: very short, very fussy feedings, mainly. Her doctor suspected reflux, which I had considered, but I didn't realize babies could develop it at 2 months of age; I thought they were born with it or didn't get it. She also started being really fussy after eating, especially if you tried to lay her down, and she got the hiccups a million times a day. She has never done much spitting up at all, but you could hear the stuff coming up into the back of her throat, and then going back down again. And Corinne has always been such a happy, calm baby that these fussy periods were really out of character.

[Since I'm writing this from the future, I can tell you what comes next: I go without dairy for 2 weeks to rule out a dairy sensitivity/allergy, but that doesn't help. (I never realized how much cheese I eat! Goodness, that was hard!) So then we start her on Zantac, to reduce the acidity of her stomach contents. That helps a lot (slightly longer, calmer feedings, and she even starts sleeping through the night!), but she is still fussy after eating, so we add Prevacid. Corinne hates this medication like nothing else on this green earth, but it's really made a difference! I can tell that eating is much more comfortable for her, as is laying flat on her back. So now, at 3.5 months old, I'd say we've got this reflux thing pretty much under control. Hooray!]

Aside from the reflux issue, Corinne is a super chill baby. (And even with that, she's not too bad. It's not one of those nightmare cases you hear horror stories about.) She cries when something is bothering her, and it's not usually too hard to figure out what it is. In general, she goes to sleep easily and just doesn't cause too much of a fuss. We love her!

April Stuff (a.k.a. Johnsons in Livermore)

9:42 pm

Waaaaaay back in April, some of my family came out for Corinne's blessing. My parents came for a week, and my brother Christopher and his son Miles were here for that weekend. I came across some nice pictures, so here they are!

Heather and Miles, up at the Redwood Valley Railway:1-IMG_20150418_180400as

We had a picnic dinner at a local park one evening. As I recall, it was windy and chilly, but the kids had a blast on the playground.2-IMGP2836aas 3-IMGP2852aas 4-IMGP2860aas 5-IMGP2864aas 6-IMGP2866aas 7-IMGP2873aas

After Christopher and Miles left, but while my parents were still in town, we went to Muir Woods. It was pretty fantastic. Unfortunately, none of the pictures with my parents came out very well, but they were there!8-IMGP2908as 09-IMGP2911as 10-IMGP2969as

And to round out our coverage of April, Kyle and Heather made this:11-IMG_20150424_180717as(I think Kyle did most of the work, but it's pretty clear who his muse was.)

Let There Be Light!

July 2, 2015 10:46 pm

I saw a deal on Slickdeals yesterday for this entry-level studio lighting kit from Cowboy Studio.  For $45 it comes with 3 light stands, 2 white umbrellas, 3 light & umbrella holders, and 3, 45-watt CFL daylight bulbs (~225-watt incandescent equivalent).  I certainly wasn't expecting professional quality components, but they're better than what I had for staging a picture (which was nothing but my off-camera flash).

IMG_20150702_221159s

First, I'm quite pleased with Amazon.  I placed the order Wednesday afternoon with 2-day shipping, and it arrived Thursday morning.  Can't argue with that.

Second, I'm quite pleased with the products.  Definitely worth $45.  Many of the components are plastic, rather than metal, but I even so they seem pretty sturdy.  For hobbyist use they seem like they'll be fine.

Heather, as usual, was super excited to find out what was in the box that arrived this morning, so I told her she could help me test out the equipment after work.

So here are a few test shots.  The only lighting used was from the kit.  I'll probably get a shoe mount to hook up my flash with one of the umbrellas at some point so I can get more power and a faster shutter speed; or maybe just some brighter / more-directional lights.

The setup for these photos was 2 lights behind an umbrella in-front of her to the left at about eye-level and the 3rd light & umbrella below, behind, and to her right.

Really decent soft lighting!

IMGP3401as

The first picture is Heather's natural face when I ask her to look at something. Not sure why she looks so sad. Afterwards Jess came in and got Heather laughing. Since she's moving around so much the images aren't as crisp, but that's where the flash would help. She also stood up, so the lights on the left were now below eye-level, so her eyes ended up shadowed in this next picture since her head is tilted back.

IMGP3407as

IMGP3410as