April Photo A Day Challenge

Instragram is a photo app available for most smart phones, which I don't have. BUT, they've been doing this photo a day challenge that I have seen several people blog about. It looked kinda fun, so I thought why not try it for a month.  What I liked about the idea is you don't have to take perfect pictures to do it. You just take pictures of stuff. Nothin' fancy. In a perfect world I will keep up with it and do it every month, but honestly that's probably not going to happen.  Here is my April 2012 in pictures . . .I only missed one day.





1 your reflection -

I'm not sure what I did with the camera to get the color like this. he loves to look at himself in the mirror.

2 colour -

my life involves lots of primary colors these days.

3 mail -

that day was only a This Old House magazine (our favorite magazines for a number of reasons, one being that we won a new HVAC system for our house) and a letter from the Humane Society of the US. About 6 months ago I gave a $25 dollar donation. Since then we receive at least one letter a week asking for more money, as well as "gifts" for our support, including a metal keychain, bumper stickers, magnets (car and refrigerator), 3 calendars (large and pocket sized), and enough return address labels to get me through until the Apocalypse. So nice to know my donation is being utilized appropriately.   

4 someone who makes you happy.

are you surprised?

5 tiny -

wee little flower/weed coming up in the grassy part of the back yard.

6 lunch

ham and cheese on wheat with a little honey dijon mustard, a fuji apple, and sunchips

7 shadow

hard to see but there's a shadow of a reisling grapevine I planted at my brother's vineyard.

8 inside your wallet

okay, i'm cheating a little on this one. this is my wallet/purse. you can't really see inside of it, so here's the back of it. I bought it at a little hippie shop in oak ridge that no longer exists. i was probably 16 or 17 at the time. I hadn't used it in years, but started carrying it right after i had ian - i couldn't stand carrying a diaper bag and a purse, too. it's just big enough for a few cards, cell phone, cash, and an id. it's just about ready to bite the dust, as you can see. the stitching on the back is falling apart (partly from use, partly from ian chewing on it). my mom has sewn the strap back on a few times, too. the embroidery on the front still looks really good. i'll be sad when t's no longer usable.

9 younger you

my favorite photo from our wedding. the end of may we will be married nine years.

10 cold

frozen pureed blueberries (frozen in an ice cube tray). we didn't do a whole lot of home made baby food, but we make and freeze our own blueberry, apple, and pear puree to mix with oatmeal for ian's breakfast.

11 where you ate breakfast

this morning, the kitchen table.

12 stairs

stairs up to the back porch

13 something you found

rocks i found at my parent's house. used to line the flowerbed seen in this post.

14 how you feel today

we had a little impromptu party at our house this day. when i took this photo i was feeling happy and content.

15 sunset - the day i forgot to take a picture :(

16 flower

our christmas cactus bloomed in april. this bloom is complete with a phoebe hair attached to the bottom. she's shedding a lot right now.

17 something you don't like

along with spring comes poison ivy. we're slowly getting rid of it, but what remains is really healthy

18 hair

couldn't resist this one. you can do some really fun styling with his hair when it is wet.

19 orange

one orange impatien in a pot full of white. 

20 something you drew

i struggled with this one as i don't draw much. found a cardiovascular physiology diagram from my first year of vet school (shudder). not a fun class.

21 bottle

say what you will about cheap bear, sometimes nothing hits the spot like a southpaw.

22 the last thing you bought

edging for the yard, which we took back - decided we didn't want to put plastic in the yard.

23 vegetable

it's gettin' to be cucumber weather. yum.

24 something you're grateful for

i have a lot of things that i am grateful for ,but this day i was feeling especially grateful for my home

25 looking down

I had just put shoes on ian. he was trying to figure out how to take them off. 

26 black and white

except for blue eyes and a brown nose, phoebe's mostly black and white.

27 somewhere you went

dinner.

28 1pm

leaving the local Mommy 2 Mommy lunch. tuckered out.

29 circle

the top of a rabies vaccine bottle. i gave vaccines at one of the rabies clinics this year.

30 something that makes you sad

this is a cartoon a friend drew for us of our little kitty begbie, who disappeared right after i found out i was pregnant. i love the drawing, but it makes me sad, too.

What's Bloomin'? Edition 9

Bearded Iris - Iris germanica. I'm excited to report that most of our irises have actually bloomed this year. We planted them 4 years ago and didn't see any blooms until last year, and even then it was only two. I was ready to dig them all up and move them, but this year we were rewarded with an abundance of blooms. The white and yellow came from J's mom, and the white blooms are actually so big we have to stake them up, otherwise they lay on the ground. The pinks are from my mom, who got them from her sister-in-law who has since passed away. This woman, my aunt, lived in Arizona and used to raise Irises. It's neat to think that what she grew has been passed along to different family members.

Strawberry Begonia - Saxifraga stolonifera. I first saw this plant at J's parent's house. It makes such a nice ground cover, the leaves are bicolored and kind of furry looking. We planted this one last year, so this is the first year it has bloomed, and the flowers although tiny are really, really neat looking. Now that we know it does well in the soil here we have planted more. The leaf is used in Japanese cooking.

Blood Iris - Iris sanguinia. There were several clumps of this around the yard when we moved here. We didn't see them bloom until the second year because they had been repeatedly mowed over for a number of years. I always thought they were called Japanese Irises until just recently. The butterflies and hummingbirds like them.

Snowball bush - Unfortunately I didn't get a good picture of this until the blooms were on their way out, but it sure was pretty this spring. The snowballs were much smaller this year for some reason, which is a good thing. In years past the blooms have been so large they have broken branches, especially after a heavy rain. You can't see it but we do have bungee cords in the center to help support the branches.  I have no idea which type of snowball bush this is as there are over 300 different kinds. I always thought it was an Annabelle, but in recent image searches the leaves on it don't look like that of an Annabelle.

11 Months

Dear Ian,

This is your last month as a baby, sweet boy. Then you'll be considered a toddler (this makes my head spin a little).

So, so many new developments this month. Too many to count, really. Where to begin?

You can crawl fast. You still army/zombie crawl everywhere - you'll start out up on your knees, rocking back and forth, but then plop onto your belly before taking off. Reminds me of a cat doing the "butt wiggle" before pouncing (like this).

You can now maneuver yourself from the belly up to a sitting position, and this has been a HUGE relief for me as I don't have to constantly do this for you (that made you kinda mad). But oh my, that means you'll be walking soon. Gulp.

Well, thankfully, you are interested in your toys again. For a while you only had eyes for the fridge vent, the speaker wire, and the VCR. Well, let me rephrase. You haven't forgotten about those 3 things - you've just learned to play with your toys until you think we're not watching. Then you bust your bum to try and get to them faster than us. Okay, the truth is the tupperware drawer is now more entertaining than the fridge vent (come on, drawers rock!). The speaker wire got taped down (blerg!). And the VCR? It went away (it apparently hasn't been plugged in since we moved here - but one day it will be considered a novelty, right?). Now you're after the Playstation on the next shelf up. Smart boy!

But seriously, toys are lots of fun. We keep them in several baskets, and every morning in a matter of 10 minutes our living room looks like this.

Let me tell you, wooden blocks are NOT very forgiving. Ouch.

You point at everything, but your favorite thing to point at is wind chimes. Because you know we'll go ring them. When you hear them chime, your face lights up and you look at us like you've discovered a new planet or something.

Food. You love to eat - some days you eat so much I don't know where you put it all. You're eating 3 meals a day. Usually oatmeal mixed with fruit for breakfast. Yogurt or cheese and fruit for lunch. And for dinner we're trying to give you what we're eating if it can be cut up into small enough pieces. Things you really seem to like - lasagna, black beans, kiwi, and your favorite - strawberries (good thing they're in season!).

They're my favorite fruit, too. You like strawberries so much we have to hide them until the end of the meal. Otherwise you will refuse your other food.

You had your first encounter with Easter eggs this month, it made for some really cute pictures. Hopefully next year you'll be able to hunt those eggs.

We had family photos taken, too. I love, love, love them. You are a very photogenic little man, if I do say so myself.

I'm still afraid to say this out loud, but sleeping is much better. Most nights you go down at 8 pm without too much of a fight, and sleep until somewhere between 4:30-6:30 am. You wake up to nurse, then sleep until 7:30 or so. Naps are still a work in progress, but most days I can get you to take two 30 minute naps, the late morning nap is even sometimes in the crib! Once a week or so you get a wild hair and take a 2 hour afternoon nap(you are in the best mood after those long naps).

You definitely know who your mama and dada are, we get beautiful smiles when we get home from work. You don't seem to have separation anxiety yet, but if I'm sitting in the floor playing with you, you often will reach back and place one hand on my leg, look back at me and smile as if to say, 'Just making sure you're still there, Mama,' before resuming your play. That sometimes gives me a lump in my throat.

I hope you know I'm enjoying every second of this.

Oh, I love you so.

Play Yard

This Spring has been amazing. It's been so nice being able to do a little gardening this year.

I mentioned a while back that taking Ian outside was becoming a challenge because he just wants to pull up the grass and eat dirt. So, I did a little research and invested in a "play yard," which in all honesty is just a series of baby gates you link together to form a small area to contain him.

We're calling it "baby in a cage."

I know, that's not the politically correct term, but whatever.

We put a sheet down, put the cage on top, add a basket full of toys inside, and plop the baby in.

How does Ian feel about this?

Well, the first time I put him in it he lasted about 5 minutes before I think he decided he was in prison. I was a little distraught thinking I had just threw fifty bucks down the drain.

However, he seems to tolerate it pretty well now. He'll play for about 30 minutes at a time.  Yes, it takes 10 minutes to get this whole thing set up and taken down, but hey, I get 30 minutes to weed or plant or whatever.

He looks cute sitting in there playing. I figure we can use it to block off the Christmas tree next year.

Baby Fat

I have been blessed with a chubby baby.

However, as J and I perused through his photos last week, it became quite apparent that Ian is elongating. Every day he looks less like an infant and more like a little boy.

I mean, geez, this picture was from October.

And now that he's crawling, I suspect that his fat rolls are going to disappear.

This of course means that I need to take lots of pictures of his chub before it is no more.

Chubby arms and knuckle dimples

Chubby cheeks and double chin.

Generous calves and fat feet

Thunder thighs

I love it.