Day 273

Dominic playing outside this afternoon. He had just finished writing, "I love Anna" on the driveway in chalk. Oh be still my heart.



Thanks for looking!

Day 272

No photo today.

Day 271

Another Tuesday, another doctor's appointment... our 4th in a row. And yep, next Tuesday, we have another one. Today was the endocrinologist who we have not visited with since late spring. Anna's weight has steadied which is a good sign that the Risperdal she was on was the culprit. Her prolactin and thyroid levels have also normalized so that's good too.

Anna was a very good girl for us this morning and she had another decent day at school. I love this photo I got of her in the exam room. She was being a ham which I haven't seen her do in quite a while. I also did not do hardly any processing or editing on this photo... maybe I'm getting a little better with this photography thing and using manual.

I'm glad I have this photo to look at tonight, because I got an unexpected call from her special ed teacher this afternoon. I'm still dealing and reeling from that but I will write about it soon on Elusive Tranquility.



Thanks for looking!

Day 270

We met the behavioral therapist today and we loved her. She is confident that she can help Anna and Dominic behave better in school and get along with each other better at home. I'm really glad... 'cause I need a lifeline. Anna and Dominic actually had decent days at school today, only one incident apiece. But Pickle had a hard time with homework; it took us 50 minutes to complete about 20 minutes worth of work. The BT (behavioral therapist) thinks a trial of ADHD meds for Dominic might be worth looking at. Anna and Daddy went out to run errands and she did so well until the very end. She was sent to her room when she got home.

So there wasn't much opportunity to take a photo today. Anna volunteered for one after her bath. I didn't have good light. At all. So I decided to embrace the noise and upped my ISO to 1600 and shot wide open at f/1.8. I even decided to leave the noise after converting to black and white because I liked the gritty feel to this image. Look at that, direct eye contact! And her eyes are even in focus. Love.



Thanks for looking!

Day 269

It was a beautiful day here... we got a "cold" front that dropped it into the mid-80s and all the neighborhood kids were outside. Dominic spent part of the day playing with Rocky, a sweetheart of a boy that is in kindergarten (hi Sarah!). When Ian, the adorable 3-year old came out to play with his electric Jeep, Rocky first hopped in with him, then Dominic took over. Look at their faces as they drive away from Ian! So mischievous!

This was processed with My4Hens Black and Whitish action with customizations.



Thanks for looking!

Day 268

This week's creativity challenge on my photography forum was to photograph a reflection of something and not use a mirror. I've been looking at all kinds of objects around my house and while we are out and about looking for reflections all week long. Today, Anna and I went to the duck pond where I got a nice, but boring picture of a tree and some clouds reflected in the water. But then as Anna and I were returning to the van, I saw this!



Thanks for looking!

Day 267

Anna and I went outside after dinner this evening to play soccer. Of course, Audrey, Anna's favorite doll, had to watch us play. She was all set up in her stroller and was quite comfortable while Anna and I were hot and sweaty. Using the creativity exercise I did last week called "photographer in the frame," I looked down as I was pushing Audrey's stroller back toward the house for this photo.



Thanks for looking!

Day 266

I just couldn't choose one photo today... you see, my boy has joined the Boy Scouts. He is a Tiger Cub! Tonight was Dominic's first den meeting and mommy was thrilled with the photo op. Sigh, isn't he just so stinkin' cute?!?!





Thanks for looking!

Day 265

I wasn't planning on taking a photo today, just wasn't feeling it, yknow? But there is a full-moon and it said, "Shoot me!" I put my telephoto lens on the camera (which hasn't been on since I got my 35mm prime) and kept trying settings until I got an okay shot. I set my ISO to 200, my f-stop to 8, my SS to 1/400, and went as long as I could which was 200mm. It's fuzzy around the bottom but of course I had to crop like crazy since this was but a mere dot in the sky. Anyway... this was the first time I've shot manual in the dark and it turned out. Yay!



Thanks for looking!

Day 264

I was in the mood for flowers and texture today. Luckily my neighbor has some flowers blooming in his front bushes. :)



Thanks for looking!

Day 263

You would not believe the before version of this photo. The whole family was outside this evening playing soccer and Dominic was running around with a pool noodle being a very silly boy. I caught up to him in my mom's front yard and kneeled down a bit because he wanted me to put the noodle to my ear so he could talk to me through it. Then he spun around and put it on his head like a giant antennae. There was something in his expression that captured me though... so I gave this photo a second look in Bridge, then brought it into Photoshop. I had it enlarged about 300% working on fixing a little blemish on his cheek when I saw this crop take shape. I don't know if it works technically or not, but I love it. Definitely better without the pool noodle antennae. ;)



Thanks for looking!

Day 262

This afternoon Dominic and I spent some time at my mom's house. I took his homework folder with us to get a head start on it this week. He has officially started in the TAG program so he has extra homework coming home for math this week. Here is he concentrating on an algebraic puzzle and writing out his reasoning on how he solved it.



Thanks for looking!

Day 261

Dominic has a lamp in his room that has a metal base. He discovered that his Bakugan would stick on the lamp and off he went! I was informed by Curtis that not only are his Bakugan organized by color here but also by type. This kid amazes me!



Thanks for looking!

Day 260

Serena and I were being silly and taking some photos of us together with my tripod and remote release. Anna had to get in on the action! Serena taught her how to make bunny ears. Aren't they the cutest things EVER?!?



And here I'm going to add another photo for today... Serena asked so sweetly. :)

During Serena's visit, she let Anna play with her Canon Rebel. This is a SOOC shot that Anna took of George. Wow! Go, Anna!



Thanks for looking!

Day 259

Today was an incredible day, I got to meet an online digi friend who is in town visiting with her sister. Serena is one of those rare, funny, genuine, sushiney souls that you immediately feel a kindred connection with. I was so so so excited to meet her. Since she is into photography too, we met at the State Capitol to take some photos. I'll have tons more to share after I finish downloading them, but this one really captured me. I have a love affair with lines and the lines on these carved banister railings and on the steps inside the Capitol made me swoon.



Thanks for looking!

Day 258

The kids got out of school early today so we had lots of playtime at home. Dominic was a very good boy and got his homework done right away. We did a short, successful grocery run. When we got home, I was surprised to find Anna playing independently in the dining room. She was feeding her Baby Alive and chatting quietly to herself. What a sweetheart!



Thanks for looking!

Day 257

I'm going to post a longer version of this on Elusive Tranquility but today was a visit to the Specialty Care Clinic at Dell Children's Medical Center to see a pediatric orthopedic doctor. Anna's geneticist noted "kyphoscoliosis" in the spring and referred us for an ortho visit. It was a 6-month wait to get seen. Anna has a slight curve, nothing worrisome and a bit of clonus in her right foot, also not worrisome. It was quite a long day though and she was a trouper! Here she was snacking on a graham cracker while watching Max and Ruby on my laptop. Of course Max and Ruby had to join us as well on this adventure! See him? Ruby is in Anna's hand!



Thanks for looking!

Day 256

This is not an exciting picture, eh? I took it at midnight last night saying to myself "oh crap, I forgot to take a picture today!" while reading before bed.



Thanks for looking!

Day 255

Today was a nothing special kind of day. Curtis took Dominic to get a haircut (note to self, no more Costcutters in the future *shudder*) and mom had Anna for most of the morning. It's so funny, I bought mom a used copy of Rabbids Go Home for the Wii for her birthday and have totally confiscated it. Dominic and I played all afternoon, I'm so hooked! We were outside for a short time this evening looking for toads... didn't find one but we did find a very small snake. Here Dominic was making fart noises while hanging on the basketball pole so that's why we got this very silly smile from him.



Thanks for looking!

Day 254

Today is my mom's birthday! It's been an occasion that we celebrate with a moment of remembrance since 9/11. It was such a fun day... my aunt sent mom a Wii last week and she is totally hooked on Super Mario Galaxy. Of course we had to buy her a few more games for her birthday so the entire day was spent playing Wii! Did you know that Dairy Queen offers ice cream cakes? Yup! Made out of blizzards, yum. Here you see Anna eating the Chocolate Explosion ice cream cake, it was delicious! Happy Birthday, mom!



Thanks for looking!

Day 253

Oh my gosh, last night was SO much fun. My mom spontaneously decided to keep both kids for the night, so Curtis and I went out to eat. Curtis wanted to go someplace new so he said we'd try out a place called the Water Tank in Pflugerville... well, it's now a Rio Grande Tex-Mex and is home to the award-winning margarita shown here. Holy cow, that was one huge and strong drink! We got seated near the stage and lucky for us too... they had a great band start playing shortly after we got our food. Some of their tunes included Steve Miller Band, Prince, John Cougar Mellencamp, Van Morrison, Elvis, ZZ Top, Black Crowes, and on and on. We sang out loud to every song and ended up staying a couple of hours. We even bought the band a round of cuervo shots! The rest of the evening was just as fun. ;)



Thanks for looking!

Day 252

Dominic finally had a decent day at school today (though Anna's was one of the worst yet). He was even happier when Audrey, one of our favorite neighborhood kids, came over to play this afternoon. He let Audrey and Anna play together for a while, and he and I played Wii. Then Audrey and Dominic played all sorts of convoluted games that involved Matchbox cars, a stuffed pig and cat, and racing around the house. We went outside before dinner and they carefully put each animal on a tree branch (I still don't know why, lol). I caught him here sitting on the stones in front of our house with all the animals in his lap. I'm glad he had a good day, he deserved one.



Thanks for looking!

Day 251

I took this picture of my lunch today for a creativity challenge on my photography forum. The challenge was called "Photographer in the Frame" where you take a picture that puts your viewer in your shoes. I didn't get any other photos today so I'm using this one for my P365 picture.

Oh and the salad was mixed greens, feta cheese, dried cranberries, glazed walnuts, with vinegar and oil dressing. :)



Thanks for looking!

Day 250

In the last 20 minutes before showers and bedtime, Anna and I went up to her room to play with George and Audrey. They had bottles then wanted to take a nap. Anna insisted on laying down with them and wanted me to take a picture. My sweet baby and her babies. :)



Thanks for looking!

Day 249

Oh I needed this... my favorite ice cream on the planet (well in the top three). Pure indulgence and totally worth falling off the WW wagon for a night.



Thanks for looking!