Corinne's Second Month

July 3, 2015 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).

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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!

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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.

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Heather's Dance Recital

June 27, 2015 10:15 pm

Heather has been in a toddler dance class for the past year.  They had their recital today.  Heather thought it was the most amazing thing ever.  I think she burned through 3 days worth of energy reserves during and after it.

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The studio strictly forbids anyone recording video during the performance (they're more than happy to sell you a DVD for $40 though).  So I only have photos.  Their pricing only really irks me because they charge admission for the recital at $16 per person.  At a rough estimate they brought in around $10,000 at the recital (held at the high school), seems like they could afford to provide the video at a reasonable price (considering everyone has to pay for their own costume, makeup, shoes, and to be in the class in the first place).

They had a picture day a few weeks ago and we bought a print from that so we'd have at least one high quality picture of Heather in her costume:

Heather Dance Costume (s)

At the recital the lighting was challenging.  To compensate for low light, I used a wide aperture (and thus shallow depth of field, making focus difficult) and still needed to apply a rather aggressive noise-reduction algorithm.  And then my task was complicated by the guy in front of me who, just as Heather's class came on stage, pulled his cellphone out to take pictures.  We were sitting in the third row, so our heads were actually below the level of the stage, which is why the dancers are cut off at the shin in every picture.  So the pictures aren't amazing, but I think they get the gist across.

They gave each dancer a little medal after the performance.  No matter what we say, Heather is convinced this means she "won" and was the best dancer.  She is incredibly competitive.  We have no idea where she gets it from.  If anything, we go out of our way to downplay any competitive aspect of the activities she participates in.

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After the recital I asked her where she wanted to go for dinner to celebrate.  She chose Chick-fil-a.  We left at about 3pm and she fell asleep on the way there and on the way back and then went to bed at about 6:15pm (hence why we left for dinner around 3pm).  Going to bed she was complaining that her stomach hurt and her head hurt.  I think she's just beyond exhausted; hopefully she's feeling better in the morning.

As we were leaving the theater, Heather got tripped and fell pretty hard.  She was crying and one of the studio's employees (possibly the owner) gave her a fancy cookie from their concession stand to try and cheer her up (you can see the cookie in the last picture below).

Enjoy the photos:

Railtown and Mercer Caverns

12:09 pm

The next day after Columbia, Mom and Dad were headed up to Idaho.  We went and visited Railtown 1897 State Historic Park and then Mercer Caverns.

IMGP3247asWe arrived just in time to catch the 12:00 train.  It was hot.  If you can, you want to sit on one of the cars with open sides; the breeze keeps it much cooler than the cars with just open windows.

IMGP3225asAt the halfway point the train stops and the engine decouples and then hooks back up on the other side to take us back.

IMGP3255asWhile that was happening all the kids were piled up at the end of the train watching.  I was standing at halfway back in the car to make room.  Then I hear Heather screaming for me.

As I work my way up to her I discover that she'd gotten her head stuck in the gate at the back of the car.  Before I can get to her a woman helped her get her head out.  Heather then turned to her, thinking it was me, and really lost it.  At that point I was only a step away though, so I picked her up and carried her off to try and calm down.

After she calmed down we went back to the end of the car to look out again.  The crowd had dispersed by this time so it was mostly just us and another little boy.  For unknown reasons Heather pushed the boy so I grabbed her arms to discuss why that was not acceptable during which she kicked him [sigh].  So I picked her up again and carried her off screaming.  That part was less than great.

It could have been more relaxing.  I would recommend against visiting when it's over 100 F out.

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We got back in the van, bought some cold water, and headed off towards Mercer.  At least underground it would be cooler.

On our way there we crossed this bridge.  This sort of highlights California's water problem.  You can see where the water level is supposed to be and used to be.  The little pull-off here has a plaque commemorating this location as the location of one of the first ferry crossings for this water.  At the moment you'd have to work your way pretty far down the cliff to cross the water.

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We stopped for lunch in Murphys, which we discovered is apparently a somewhat hoity-toity little town that was having some sort of festival so it was packed.  After contemplating driving back the opposite direction to find some less crowded food, we eventually decided to be adventurous and just go with it.  So we found a parking lot and loaded up the strollers.

We had been heading for the Murphys Grille, but then stumbled upon Peppermint Stick (which didn't sound like a restaurant when we saw it on the GPS receiver).  But they had food and ice-cream which, again, it being over 100 F sounded like a good idea.  We enjoyed some really tasty and plentiful burgers and shakes.

After lunch it was time to delve into the earth where it was blessedly 55 F.  We were concerned we might get chilly in shorts and t-shirts, but let me assure you, the tour is only long enough for the cool air to feel nice.  Heather did end up wearing her jacket, but we ended up just carrying our other jackets the whole time.

I didn't take the camera into the cavern as I was concerned I might end up needing to carry Heather, so I only have pictures from my phone, but the lack of light was mostly too difficult to get any pictures worth looking at.  But I did get this one near the entrance:

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On the cavern tour Heather was a perfect little angel.  The heat seems to really affect her ability to concentrate and maintain her self-control.

After the cavern tour it was time to pile back in the van and head home.