29.

It's my birthday. I'm 29. A few people have said something regarding the fact that this is my last year in my 20's... as if turning 30 was something to dread. I suppose it's normal not to want to age, but I think there is a difference between aging, and growing up. I don't particularly love the hints of wrinkles by my eyes and on my forehead. I tweeze out gray hairs from time to time, but I'm starting to give up that battle. When I rub Lucy's hand while she falls asleep, there is a remarkable difference I notice in the texture of our skin. The light from the hallway catches the wrinkles and creases on my fingers, hers are still perfectly smooth. I always noticed the way my grandma's hands look. It happens so gradually, it sneaks up on you... I thought my hands hadn't changed at all until I looked at my hand by my child's. Take that literally or symbolically, I am making a point either way.

Ironically, I feel better about myself than I ever did when I was a kid, especially when I was a teenager, or even five years ago, when I was married, trying to start a family, but had no idea what the path ahead of me might look like (and a lack of ambition to create one!). Now I'm very blessed... I am content, and confident. And sometimes I still get carded.

Henry - 18 (19) Months

I took Henry to his 18 month checkup Monday - although he is 19 months old! I better schedule earlier next time! He was weighed and measured - and he is 25 lbs. 3 oz. and 34 inches. His weight was surprisingly in the lower percentiles (40%) but his length was higher (80%). He looks kind of skinny, but he still feels heavy to me!

He wandered around the exam room while we waited for Dr. Joe, climbing up and down from the chairs, looking at books and naming things. When our pediatrician came in Henry waved up at him from the floor and yelled "hi!!!" with a big smile. What a charmer. He showed Dr. Joe his "jumping" skills too ;).

He hated having his ears checked, or basically anything having to do with the physical examination! He's so grabby and doesn't like being poked or prodded at all. Well, that's normal. He had two shots - MMR and Chicken Pox, and let out his trademark ear-piercing scream... but I'm not really one to get too upset at these appointments (I think vaccinations are awesome, personally), so when I scooped him back up and gave him a cuddle he settled down right away. With a big tear under his eye, he even smiled at me, then he looked at the nurse and gave her a big frown :(. He walked out to the car with me... I find that I don't always need to carry him on my hip. Reality check: he's getting to be a big boy. We even took away pacifiers, which is going really well!

Here Fishy Fishy!

Lucy caught her first fish this afternoon - a little bluegill, which was tossed back into the water shortly after this photo was taken. She was very excited!

More pictures here

Locks

Lucy has been able to unlock the deadbolt and the doorknob lock for a few months now, but it hasn't been a problem until recently. She has crossed the street once without one of us with her, and she has repeatedly opened the door and stepped out onto the porch before I could stop her. We have told her about cars hitting her, people taking her away, but chose not to mention the fact that if she unlocks the door while I am not aware, someone might be able to come into the house and do bad things.

Since she stopped napping a year and a half ago (I know I could "make" her... trust me, it's NOT worth the 2 hour battle for a 90 minute nap. If you have a kid like this, you might sympathize. If not, you will have to take my word for it, I am tougher than a preschooler, but I have better things to do with my time than force her to sleep). She wakes me up in the morning around 7:00 asking for breakfast, and she is up and doing silly, busy things until she falls asleep around 8:30 PM (extended because of the later daylight). In order to do anything, literally - shower, throw in a load of laundry, change Henry's diaper, anything - that might require me not to be staring at her, that means she is unattended for short periods of time throughout the day.

She decided to use a couple of those short periods of time to go outside without one of us too many times. This morning she went for it, and when I pried her hands off the doorknob, she fell face down to the floor, requiring me to drag her out of the way, in order to close the door and lock it again. I immediately went to our cabinet in the mudroom, found another Safety 1st doorknob cover, and clicked it in place over the doorknob. Lucy swatted at it with dramatized futility, and as it loosely spun around the doorknob... my blood pressure dropped 3 points. That battle is over.

Henry - 18 months

Well - I need some big parenting demerits because I have been completely neglectful of record keeping in the form of a baby book - relying on this blog as a resource for information when I get around to it. Awful! Someday, an incredible baby book for both kids, as well as beautiful family albums, will grace our shelves. That being said, here's what Henry is up to at 18 months.

• He is insistent on self-feeding, getting pretty good with a fork and spoon, hates if you try to feed him, (screams "no" and pushes your fork-wielding hand away violently).
• He no longer uses a sippy lid, and has mastered drinking from a "normal" cup or glass, does not spill and dump it all on is face. He might tip it over on purpose, just for the purpose of splashing in liquid on his tray. Drops bits of food into his drink. Grr..
• Trying to jump (he's really close) - see previous entry.
• Dances to music - seems to respond most to hard rock - and spins in a circle.
  
• CLIMBS a lot! Climbs onto chairs and tables, and into bins, baskets, and drawers.
• Opens cabinets and drawers and empties them (loves the draw with tea packets and coffee).
  
• Says lots of new words every week, we stopped keeping track, but no sentences. Uses plural "s" correctly sometimes.
• Says, "peez... peez!" ("please") whenever he sees you eating something.
  
• Still loves bathtime, stands up in the tub to get a reaction. Loves to splash!
• Good at following directions, like "put the ___ in the basket."
  
• Can identify (by patting or pointing) his tummy, feet, eyes, hands, nose, mouth, ears, head, and his "pee pee". If anyone has suggestions for a better name for it, please let me know! Thought there should be an understanding before we start potty training (we haven't yet).
• When he points to his nose he always says, "beep!"
  
• Eats sand and dirt.
• He's getting a couple molars!
• Enjoys hiding. What are you doing? "hiding". Crouches into corners and in closets.
• His physical "stats" are unknown, his appointment is at the end of this month. All I know is, he's getting heavy!

I can bet I will think of things I'm forgetting here, but this is what I came up with off the top of my head! I hope to include notes about what he is like, what he does, and what he says along with my favorite photos of him (and I hope this blog proves to be a good reference for me to document Lucy in the same way - because I have been fairly good about keeping up on it ever since she was born!). It's very easy to forget when these stages took place if you don't write it down somewhere. It seems like only a few months ago she could only take a couple unstable steps before falling over. It is insane how the time flies. I'm sure my kids' grandparents can attest to that.

Jump Around!

Henry is learning how to jump... which basically means he crouches down a little bit, and then straightens up as if he's trying to use his upper body to pull his feet off the ground. It's really cute.... and of course involves squealing (from both kids)!

Lucy showing Henry how to jump from Mindy on Vimeo.

Rain

The other day Lucy wanted to go outside in the rain. It wasn't too cold out, and she took the initiative to put on her boots and coat, she just needed a "balella" - so we went out and I snapped a few pictures of her in the driveway. This one is probably my favorite. She didn't want to come back inside!

More Photos Here

Click on the photo to see it larger. I have considered moving this blog so I can post larger photos - they seem so small compared to my other blog now.

A Tale of Two

Grandville High School, where I attended (Class of '99), my husband teaches technology education, and my mom is a secretary, had a World Record breaking Lip Dub earlier this week, and it was a huge success. Over 1400 students were involved, and it took cooperation and enthusiasm on the part of everyone to make it happen. Two cameras moved through the building simultaneously, and cross paths, coming together again at the end... the planning and creativity to make this work out amazes me, and I love the school spirit this generated! Unforgettable experience for so many kids and staff, and proof once again that the A/V teacher Terry Blevins is incredibly dedicated and passionate about his classes (he's the best teacher I never had). Great job GHS!

The Kids' Portraits

Last weekend Ron and I went out with our kids in an attempt to get some nice photos, commemorating the "milestone" age of 18 months for Henry, and 3.5 years for Lucy. I would say it was fairly successful... but a lot of work! I'll probably be taking more and more pictures of them again, as a resolution I have recently made (since I have started my business the number of photos of my own kids has dropped drastically). I definitely want to give it a valiant effort to do a real session every 6 months with them. Anyway, I put a few favorites on my MLP Blog. You can check out the post HERE.

Jonah Rocks!

This kid found his gift at a very young age. It's fun to watch him play! There are a few videos of him on YouTube... Here's one I really liked. Check out his flourish at the end of the song, he really knows what he's doing!

Ahhhhh, Fresh Air

... Maybe it's jumping the gun a little bit to think that we're into "open-window" weather, but it sure felt nice to have the slider open for an hour or two this morning.

Blogging-X!

Well last night I decided that I wanted to work out with Ron doing P90X (I have missed a couple days), and I did it, and I didn't have a hard time at all keeping up with the workout (apparently last night's workout was one of the "easy" ones). I think I could get in incredible shape if I go through most of these workouts with him. Anyone can do it, it's just a matter of how well you do it, and I am hanging with it better than I expected. I don't feel any injuries or strains, but I get my heart rate up for an hour or more and the "muscle confusion" approach is great because it keeps you from overdoing it on any one part of your body. Last night was "Kenpo-X" (they put an "X" at the end of everything), which is a high-intensity cardiovascular workout packed with lots of punching and kicking combinations to improve balance, endurance, flexibility, and coordination. I think it is considered a kind of martial art. I also think my years of dance gave me an edge, because I seemed to be able to balance and control my kicks quite well. Anyway, I am not going to beat myself up if I miss a workout here and there, but it would be great if I can stick with it. Ron wanted to do this for his health and fitness and he has not missed a workout, and I know he will continue with it. He even said that now he is looking forward to the workouts, so I think his body is beginning to adjust, wanting that activity each day. After 1 week he already has more ab definition and feels like he is standing straighter. He even bought a pull-up bar (so now he doesn't have to hang on a door header!) and a yoga mat (this program incorporates just about every type of exercise you've ever heard of)!

I still managed to get a lot done yesterday, got some album designing done, kept the house pretty picked up, and even threw in a 2 hour (!) coffee meetup with another photographer who lives close by. So, I am feeling fairly good about all that. Now... if only today can be as productive!

New and Improved

Today I updated my Mindy Leigh Photography Blog. I think it looks a lot better. My old one was all hand-made in the Blogger code, and I felt like it was seriously lacking. Then we got an email informing us that Blogger no longer supported files through FTP (?), so I knew it was time to make a change. There are still lots of adjustments I want to make... I am pondering a new logo / brand this year, and general elements like fonts and background texture will probably be switched up. I currently just modified some of the defaults to match the aqua in my existing logo. I love some of the new features this blog has, which will allow me to embed slideshows and mini galleries very easily, it includes a contact form, thumbnailed archives, and scrolling comments. Just the act of uploading images is simplified so much (I was amazed), even with storing them in our hosting server, I am literally skipping 3 or 4 steps I used to go through every time I'd upload a photo! Sigh. So nice.

The URL is the same: http://www.mindyleigh.com/blog - something I was intent on having, and Ron got everything all set up for me. Since I wanted to import everything from my old blog (photos, text, even comments), it wasn't totally simple and quick - but he figured it out :). However if you are subscribing with an RSS feed, you might need to make an update!

So, that's how much of this morning was spent...

Oh, unrelated note: we have made it through 2 sessions of P90X. Kind of crazy. No, I am not doing all of the workouts, but about 75% or so, which I am really proud of! Ron wanted to challenge himself, and he is doing great... I am going through as much of it as I possibly can, which keeps him motivated and will help me get in great shape (hopefully) by summer! It isn't as "bad" as we feared. It's tough, but the workouts move along quickly.

Have a great weekend!

Real Life Photoshop

I ran across this today and thought it was pretty clever...

borrowed from the Luxecetera Blog

Title Track

My blog is named "A Day in the Life".... kind of cliche, but I'm sticking with it. Anyway, a couple weekends ago I felt like I hadn't spent enough time taking snapshots of our own kids, and decided to document the stuff that goes on around here; a day in the life of our little family. The date happened to be the morning of SuperBowl Sunday - February 7 - and we were skipping church. It was kind of a fun little project and I hope to try it again sometime in the near future. Check it out HERE.

Cinnamon!

This was Henry's face after he fed himself his apple-cinnamon flavored Quaker Oatmeal. The web takes out some of the redness, but you can still see the area where the cinnamon apparently burned his skin. It is already back to normal (10-15 minutes later) after some cool water and baby lotion. He didn't seem bothered by it, but he looked like a clown for a little while!

One In a Billion...

Or more accurately, a billion trillion. At least. But this was one lucky little flake that landed on our window while I was waiting with my camera. It was intact (not all are), and I had about a second before it melted away forever, only to become part of the water cycle again. I had posted a few more on FB (see sidebar), but I wanted to put one here too.

So, It's 2010, What's New With Us?

Personal blogging has fallen by the wayside. I thought that over the holiday and early part of January I would have just tons of free time and be able to kick back a little bit. That has not been the case. I've been busy shooting, editing, and communicating. I click on my homepage and keep seeing a Christmas post, thinking about how I have to fill in my friends on what has been happening around here for the past few weeks!

First of all, we spent New Year's Eve with our good friends Eric and Jen. For the past few years we've been taking turns with, hosting a low-key NYE and this year was our turn to host. We played Texas Hold'em, watched Dick Clark's Rockin' New Years Eve, and ate snacks. I like that kind of party. I am not sure whether or not I want to go back to the days of overindulging on food, drinks, and staying up so late that the next day is all about "recovering" from the night before! Good thing in this case, because New Year's Day we got up and took the kids to my parents' house, so we could drive to Wisconsin...
Ron's friend Chad from high school was married on 01-02-2010 (which is a cool date, same forward as backward!) and I was the photographer! We went to the rehearsal dinner with the family and wedding party, and the wedding day was really nice. When we left the reception, the temperature on our car's digital thermometer read -4. Eek.

The following weekend Kelly and Heath came to MI to visit and celebrate Christmas.
I have to update our Smugmug galleries - I have more great pictures from that weekend :)

The other cool thing that has happened over the past couple of months is Lucy has become officially potty trained. She started using the potty chair several times a day around 18 months - I guess some people consider that potty trained, but I did not. We thought starting her early would be a good idea, and those successes reinforced that belief. In hindsight I think we started her too soon and she wasn't really ready even if she could technically do it. She is smart as a whip and we thought, 'oh she'll get this no problem!' She had fewer and fewer accidents each day and we thought we were in good shape - around age 2, I thought we were right on track and in no time we'd be done with diapers and/or accidents! Not so fast, eager Mom and Dad! When she started to get less attention than she was used to (partly because of her baby bro, and partly because of my work), she started having more and more "accidents", and not seeming to even care if she was wet or dirty! She knew how to undress, get on the toilet, wipe, flush, and do everything all by herself, and yet she seemed to be using potty training to prove to me that I couldn't make her do anything, and she was in charge. Grrr. I guess in that respect, she is right. You can't make a kid go to the bathroom on command, and you can't really know when they need to go (and harassing them 100 times a day only makes then say "NO!" even if they do need to go).

I was so discouraged, and felt that we had tried everything - rewards, bribes, punishment, other incentives, throwing away panties, encouraging with clapping, singing, dancing, hugs, kisses, high-fives, charts, promises... it really didn't matter. I read blogs, and was tempted by boot-camp-like programs that promised to potty train your kid in 3 days. Although from age 2 to age 3, when we were in the midst of the worst potty training times, I knew in my heart that she was too young to be considered for any kind of drastic program, and she'd get it eventually. I just had it in my head that I wanted it to happen right around age 2, because my sister was around age 2 and I was around 2.5, so that was what I considered "normal" (but that's not necessarily normal at all, and furthermore, so what?!). For Lucy, it was only going to happen when she decided she wanted it to. Of course, when I kind of "gave up" and backed off, and stopped trying to make it happen, she stopped digging in her heels and just became potty trained, and she gave up the battle. Now accidents are very rare (and if there is one, she's just a tiny bit damp and gets to the toilet for the rest), and life is a lot less stressful! Hooray!
We have registered her for preschool (Hudsonville), where she will go three mornings a week. I am so excited for her to get out and learn and play with other kids. She graduated from her toddler bed into a big twin sized bed with drawers underneath, and she has more space to sprawl.

Henry is saying more and more words - and is getting cuter every day. Here is what I can think of off the top of my head:

Uh-Oh
Ba (ball)
Ca (car)
[he makes car noises when playing with cars]
Mama, Dada
Oooooh
Mmmmm (if something is yummy)
Bear (sounds like baieh)
Cup
Up! Up!
Ruff (whenever he holds a stuffed animal he makes little high-pitched "ruff! ruff"!)
Bird
Santa
Hiiiii

...And he still has a super high-pitched loud scream. True story: his food ran out a night or two ago, and his scream literally made my ears ring. I'm not even kidding, and I get to sit right next to him! Adorable, right?! I would love to measure the decibels he can kick out.

Here are some more Henry tidbits, since I feel like I haven't talked about him much lately... even though he is a charming, loving, sweet little boy and growing and changing so much!

He loves to get into cabinets and pull everything out, particularly the one with big mixing bowls, or cookie sheets and trays.
He carries large pieces of chalk around (sometimes likes to chew on them),
He bangs things together, bangs toy piano,
or bangs his head on the back of his highchair for attention, so hard the high-chair scoots across the floor.
He climbs up onto the couch, ottoman, or soon-to-be-his toddler bed.
He always picks red cars out of the basket of cars.
He screams when his food is gone, loves to eat anything, drinks all his milk in one gulp.
He is starting to learn how to feed himself with a spoon (like applesauce),
He dances to anything making music (he bounces up and down bending his knees, or he twists)
He claps and looks back at you smiling when he puts something into a container,
He can stack a few blocks,
He climbs steps quickly (but can't go down safely).
Gets mad and chases after Lucy if she takes his toy, but...
if she chases after him he runs terrified.
He throws a tantrum by sitting down, then slamming himself face down on the floor sobbing, then rolls his head to the side to see if you are paying attention to how upset he is.

So, life is typical, busy, sometimes monotonous, and I think we are getting a bit of cabin fever around here. Looking forward to spring! Meanwhile, the kids keep things always entertaining.

Merry Christmas!

We had a really nice Christmas around here! Relatively stress-free and completely drama free, and it was just what the holidays should be like in my opinion - the only thing missing was getting to see my sister and her husband, who celebrated with his side this year and will be coming up to MI in a couple weeks to celebrate with us! Christmas Eve we went (as we always do) to my grandparents' house (my dad's parents) to eat and open gifts.
It was nice and the kids were both really happy and well-behaved. They were pretty exhausted by the time we left, but still did not fall asleep in the car as we had expected. We had to make a stop at Walgreens for some last-minute things (yes, 9:30 PM on Christmas Eve). We finally got home and put them to bed, and got things ready for the next morning...
Christmas morning Lucy announced that Santa came! And he ate the cookies! She woke Henry up by screaming all this information at him, and then the kids opened a few presents :).
Before too long it was time to start getting the house ready for Ron's family, who came over around noon. Because one family on his side lives in Texas, and weren't able to come to MI for the holidays this year, there were (counting our two) seven kids under 10 years old (otherwise there would have been nine), and of course lots of great food (we just did appetizers and snacks) and lots of presents under the tree.
It was really nice to have our basement finished and furnished to provide a little extra room for all the people, and another place for the kids to play and watch a couple movies. After this party was over, we basically threw some things together and were out the door to the next party - my grandparents' on my mom's side. Everyone gathers on Christmas night to open gifts and have more food, but I was already so full I didn't really feel like eating anything else! I have some videos I need to upload and add to this post. Busy busy.... Hope everyone had a great holiday!

I have many more photos posted to Smugmug. CLICK HERE to check them out!

Snow Day

As everyone knows, this morning we woke up to a winter wonderland! The phone call at 6:20 AM woke us up to inform us that Ron had a snow day, so he was home to help me take the kids outside for a little while, and they could get their first chance to play outside in the snow. I won't lie, I dressed them in super fun bright colors and grabbed my camera with hopes of capturing a few shots that would work for our Christmas card. I always wanted to do a Christmas card that actually looked wintery, without having to wait till the last minute.

While Lucy ran around and trudged through the snow, Henry was not so enthusiastic about all the cold and wet stuff we were surrounded by. We do realize that he needs proper snow pants and boots, and we can't keep thinking fall is going to last forever! He wasn't outside for very long (and normally I would dress him more for warmth and less for fashion, but really how cute is that hat and vest?!). He was happy to go back in and change into a flannel sleep-n-play and eat some pepperoni pizza. Now if that doesn't sound heavenly... ;)

I managed to take enough pictures that the Christmas card task is completed, pictures put into the cute template (we went with one through Smugmug) and ordered! Christmas cards, check! Now we just have to tackle that shopping...

I do love fall, but I think we were ready for this day to come. It was truly beautiful outside, and this morning it was lovely to see the world blanketed in white, peaceful, and the sun glowing through the hazy sky (it didn't hurt that it also happened to be the start of a 3-day weekend for Ron). And he got to clear the driveway for the first time this season... so it begins. ;) Happy winter!