I haven't posted in a few days:
1. because I have been cleaning up my house
2. I have been making a tutorial for a coconut bra / grass skirt lei which means I have not only been making those things, but also taking pictures of each step. Tedious!
I posted an open invitation on Facebook a few days ago for a free 4th of July/Luau photo shoot. I wanted practiced putting together a "set", as well as the normal lighting/color/composition practice. I had 3 people take me up on it. I did one shoot Saturday, my friend Tiffany and her adorable son Kingston.
those eyes!
Here are some with "as shot" juxtaposed with the finals
I thought their skin tone was good, but the foliage background was a little washed out. I overlayed the original image with a duplicate, set the duplicate to multiply, adjusted the opacity and mask/erased Tiffany and her son. It gave the green the depth it needed.
Here are a few "as shot" photos I loved.
This one is my absolute favorite
Learning Process
So, I had a good time, but this was supposed to be practice, and practice it was! I wasn't really happy with my 4th of July setup, I only got 2 pictures out of it and I wasn't in love with either of them. I needed to move the chair/table around a little bit more. I moved it for light but I think I should have been more creative with the composition. I had pictures of Kingston holding an American flag as well as the ice cream cone, but he wanted to stick the bottom of the flag pole in his mouth (holding the flag upside down) and he clearly knows where ice cream is supposed to go!
My other major issue was that a lot of photos were garbage because of some sort of motion blur or were slightly out of focus. A lot more than I'd like to admit...like.. most of them. here is an example of one I almost cried when I realized it was out of focus
I like Tiffanys face better in this version.
I am very happy with the photos with the mimosa tree behind them. I only wish that it was still in bloom, it has such pretty pink puffs! Mimosa trees have a pretty color, an interesting leaf pattern, and they make a more uniform background.
I joined Stroller Strong moms back in March. They were just finishing a fitness challenge around the time I started. Participants did weigh ins and assessments, they even gave prizes to the top 3 improved. Pretty neat idea, and I was bummed I had missed it. A few weeks ago I made a suggestion to Kelli that we do something similar, except monthly (and keep the results private). My assessment was Tuesday. I did 2 min of step-ups, 1 min of push ups, planking for as long as I could hold it, 100m dash, and an 800m run.
Now, let me tell you, back in highschool and college:
My 100m time was 13.7
I never ran an 800 timed, but my 400 was 60sec, I imagine my 800 would have been 2:30 or 3min (that's not fast, I was never good for more than 400m)
People didn't plank when I was in school, at least not normally. In college we did "benches" which were planks without the arm support. someone sat on your legs and you suspended yourself off the edge of a bench, even that was only twice a week, on weight days. We did crunches.
We also did stadiums, not step ups. And as for push-ups - I have no idea my numbers. In highschool, I was the amazing wonder kid who lead the pack, but in college I was more in the middle. It's hard to compete with those strong specialized sprinters!
Anyway, the point of all that tangent was that I used to be very athletic and it was something I was proud of. Tuesday was a wakeup call.
54 seconds of planks... 121 step ups, 18 push-ups, my 100m time was 18 seconds, and my 800m was 5m39s. Are you kidding me? What was worse is that I woke up the next day and was so incredibly sore!
My ankle is finally better, so now is the time, I'm going to SSM at Forsythe park in addition to Gregory. I'm stressing about the gas, but I inflated my FJ tires last night. I had a very low tire, but even the "full ones" were 23-27 psi. The max pressure is 44psi so I inflated to 37. I will ask Andrew if he thinks 40 would be better since we only do road driving. Hopefully my mileage will improve. I will still cycle on the off days, and lift my weights at home. Since I have nowhere to go but up, I want to go WAY up. Wish me luck!
You know that phenomena where you go to Walmart thinking you're just going for a travel air compressor and an exercise ball... and walk out with 4th of July themed kids headband, pink flamingos and red/white/blue brownie bites?
Not only pink flamingos, but a pineapple sippy cup, toddler sized Adirondack chair and table, 4 little american flags and a heart full of dreams about a 4th of July/Summertime photo session with 80.
This is more like what I got.
I wish I had a little kitchy white ceramic poodle! And I forgot his sunglasses inside!
To be fair, he was really tired, and the chair is too big for him. And I'm standing about 5 feet away (more if I could)
Now, 80 didn't cooperate, so whatever, but I am really happy with the colors in these. They turned out true, on camera! I didn't edit or adjust these at all ( I would have given a little more saturation to the red though)! I needed to move the left flamingo out of the sun, I knew that when I took the first picture, but I took it *while holding 80* so I couldn't. When I set this up tomorrow (or whenever), I'm going to do it earlier in the day (I took these around 1pm) so there is more shade on the front lawn and also I am going to hack that ugly bush back (it's dead) since I kind of like the angle of the top image better than the bottom two. I would also like to hit up the dollar store to get:
a. a colorful straw to poke out of the pineapple
b. a drink umbrella since the pineapple comes apart in the center.
c. a little flowerpot with a fake flower in it? for behind the chair to the right?
I also have a plate and red white and blue brownie bites to set on the table, and American flags and ribbons to place, but I wanted this set to be more Summer and less 4th of July (back yard I think). It ended up being less 'Fun in the Sun' and more 'time for my midday nap'.
I am cooking up a plan: to see if there are any other moms out there who would like a couple photos of their babies looking Summerful, in exchange for them handling my guy for a few minutes so I can take a few pictures of him without him bloodying his nose on the front porch. I may not go through with it, I'm pretty nervous photographing other people since I'm so critical. What is good enough for me is never good enough to put my name on for others.
Stretches were good! She modified one of the stretches slightly, while sitting she wants him to stretch to the left and right foot.
She was happy with his legs while on his tummy. Before they have been straight and tight. Today they were bent and well under him, improvement! He only reached for the butterfly toy, not the piano or the alphabet ball (the ones she wants him reaching for, the butterfly is just a pacifier). His protection reflex was better too.
He did cry through 95% of the session though... Better than the 98% of last time!
After PT, 80 and I hit up the Savannah Once Upon a Child. They were having a 50% off sale for marked items (there were tons) so we got quite a haul! I was looking for bodysuits and shorts to spice up his wardrobe which is heavily dominated by rompers. I like rompers, no, I love them, but its all he has and it bores me.
I also found the only boys 4th of July outfit for a million miles. I also found a little brown "Daddy suit" which means -- Photo session soon! I am thinking it needs to be at the beach!
Little firecracker! Yes! 2 more rompers.. sigh
When I walked up, there was a red Schwinn double jogging stroller by the door, with some lady prodding at it. When I was paying, there was another lady prodding at it. It made me antsy, anyone who has dealt with OUC knows strollers don't stay long. I asked the price, $100 (its a $320 stroller at babies r us) so I snagged it. I haven't used it, but rolling it from the store to my car and my car to the house, its incredibly light on its wheels and highly maneuverable. I like it already, too bad it has to sit in a closet till at least next year! :/
Dane the bear got strapped in, 80 is a little small to strap without neck pads.
Hey, I didn't know it had this! I don't really run in the rain but this will be great during Savannah's sand gnat outbreaks. I'm more and more excited about this stroller, it has cup holders on both sides, and the rain shield, but no tray (even as an add on) but I don't really like the idea of my kids constantly snacking to keep them quiet so its not a major issue.
Here are some of the clothes he got:
Sully onesie? Onesie with a tie?! Put it in the bag!
I chose this processor over other such as the Baby Bullet, Baby Brezza, or the Nuk Freshfoods processor based on reviews. The bullet tends to shred its own plastic, and I can't remember if its the Nuk or the Brezza but one of them, a reviewer tried to contact them about the chemical makeup of the coating on the inside of the steam tank because some had flaked off in the child's food. And they were not able to answer her because they couldn't retrieve the information from their factory in china. That is a huge red flag for me, shouldn't they know what is being used by their factory?! Shouldn't they give the factory the design, specs, and material list and the Chinese factory make it?? Scary!
Anyway. I digress. Cuisinart is a great brand, tried and true and I like their food processor. It's also a bottle warmer but I have not had any luck getting that to adequately warm my bottles. I have since switched to using the Playtex drop ins, and I rewarm those in Keurig water so I never use the bottle warming feature anymore.
So onto the storage. I bought this ice cube tray at my local TJ Maxx. The amazon price is the same, I paid 7.99.
ice cube tray, the two cubes are pears and apples
I was attracted by the bottom of the tray, which is silicone (It's all BPA free). I don't have to crack the ice cubes or twist the tray, just flip over and pop the bottom. I've frozen avocado, banana, carrots, apples and pears and never had an issue with sticking, they come right out! Plus the little ice cubes are a perfect serving size for 80, who is really just sampling food right now. As he gets older I can add more cubes. I pop them in the microwave in increments of 10 seconds to warm them up. This set of 2 ice cubes took 30 seconds total, but normally I can get good room temp results in 15 seconds.
When I store my ice cubes I put them in leftover hillshire farms deli meat containers, sorted by vegetables or fruit, very simple and stackable.
The last time I gave 80 pears, he liked them but he wasn't exactly in the mood. Today they went over much better! He also seemed to enjoy the apples. Here he is sitting in the Fisher Price high chair his Aunt Kim gave him.
As a companion to this post I have made a video of the stretches 80 does every day.
Do you like the beach blanket he's on? I got it from Bed Bath & Beyond. It is *not* totally waterproof, I found out (it rained last night and the ground is soggy). But it's pretty and it only soaked through where I put my knee, not where 80 was laying.
First off, I weighed 150 when I got pregnant, and 190 when I had 80 back in November. I lost 20 of those pounds without doing any work, it was nice but I plateaued at 170. Before I joined SSM in March, I had started a pretty strict 1800 calorie diet (1200 with 500 added for breastfeeding) I was walking before SSM, and then when I started SSM I started running on my off days. Here I am in my rolly glory. It's not bad, at 6' tall I'm still within my normal BMI, but let's face it, it's a far cry from my ideal. My goal weight is 150, and my icing weight would be 140.
Ok, I am mentally wrestling with myself to even post these pictures, but here goes.
Fast forward a bit, I turned my ankle in April, and dropped the runs between workouts. I also severely cut back what I was doing at SSM since a lot of the exercises required jumping and twisting.
So the result is that after 2 and half months I'm the same weight. Though I think I'm wearing it a little tighter. I blame a combo of age and breastfeeding. I've since added cycling between SSM classes, but have only been doing that for 2 weeks, and it's only for ~3.5 miles around my neighborhood. Hardly a stressful workout though I am pulling 80 in his bike trailer!
I have been using MapMyFitness app on my android phone to track my route, it tells me my average speeds and elevation, and it obviously maps my route via live GPS. I am not too thrilled with its analysis feature though, it has consistently told me that I am, at times, travelling 500mph. I chose it because you can switch between a variety of workouts and it tracks them all, cycling, running, walking, hiking, even swimming. My second reason for choosing it was that my cell phone is due for upgrade mid July and I fully intend to replace my POS android phone with an iphone, so I wanted a program that was cross platform.
I took photography as a sophomore and junior in high school, it was a wonderful class. We used the old black and white canons, learned about metering, exposure, fstops etc. We developed our film in darkrooms and processed our photographs in trays of chemicals and hung them from wires... Oh the nostalgia. It awakened a love of photography in me. Truthfully I like almost everything artistic so enjoying photography wasn't a huge surprise. I took photography again in college, 3 classes in fact. I still have the film camera I bought for that class. For some reason, all the things I'd learned in high school seemed to escape me. Truthfully, I'm not sure what I was thinking or doing those first 2 years of college. I'm not entirely sure that I wasn't being remotely controlled by aliens, I was such a different person then.
I digress--
Melony Farrar of Sweet Wink rekindled my interest in photography. I worked with her for 2 years doing hair and makeup for her business. There was a plan for me to branch into Savannah, expanding Sweet Wink, but that did not end up working out (yet). I bought a Nikon D90, and started tinkering with it. I had never used a digital SLR before, having only used black and white film. Basically, while I had some previous experience I was starting over. Color and white balance has been a major issue.
What I ended up with was a expansive collection of well composed photographs that were crap. There were a few Photoshop-salvageable images but the quality was so variable, it was embarrassing.
my secret love of bird photography.. if I had a few spare Ks laying around I would love to get my hands on a telephoto lens.
my pretty ex-puppy, Sumo
Bacon
My sisters house
and then sometimes you end up with a picture of a polar bear sodomizing your firstborn son. Go ahead and laugh at the color *sigh*
Since then I have cracked open my D90 book, I wish I could say I have read it cover to cover, it's a work in progress. I *made* a greycard for myself and it's made an enormous difference. I can only imagine what a real one would do, lol. I've also figured out the white balance settings for my photographs, so as long as the lighting temperature isn't wonky (like trying to take a photograph in my coral pink parlor, see above) I can get pretty consistent results. A true trial by error.
When 80 was still in the NICU, I did a lot of research on chronological development. I found Pathways.org through their youtube channel. They have a whole host of developmental videos but for the interest of this subject I'm referring to this one
It compares Marty, a typical 4 month old (there are also 2 month and 6 month with the same 2 babies) and Owen an atypical (developmentally delayed) child, doing the same exercises. I used this video as a basis for this video of 80 who was 5 months adjusted at the time.
If you sat through both videos then congratulations! The first one is long, and the second one is boring! Anyway, you can see that even at 5 months 80 is not quite up to par with a normal 4 month old. The good news is that he is not totally deficient in any areas, he is at worst (in my motherly opinion) 50%. He is now enrolled in physical therapy and we are working with him, double time!
We started the month out with 80 hospitalized, running through the last few days of his antibiotics run. My dad drove down on the 3rd, 80 was released on the 4th, and my parents flew to Denmark on the 7th. They were gone for not quite 2 weeks. During that time, 80 and I ran/walked another 5k. This time it was for Girls on the Run, a local program that encourages young girls to get out and exercise, stay fit, make good life choices, and build self esteem. I felt like I did pretty well, but I ended up running it in 42 minutes or something ridiculous. So... needs improvement. It was a fun run though,
2 of the other troop wives, Jessika and Kati
I always end up carrying him at some point.
When my parents came home, it was almost 80s 6 month birthday! To celebrate we packed up and went to Hilton Head, we parked at Coligny beach and made our way past the EXCELLENT facilities and beach access to the beach and water. We were not dressed for the beach, nor had we any plans of swimming or sunbathing, but I couldn't resist the opportunity to dip 80s toes in the Atlantic for the first time!
Sadly, mom and dad had to go home a few days later. I'd had mom with me for almost a month and it was wonderful but she has this whole life in St Louis she has to go back to or whatever. We had been invited to the beach the same day they left so 80 and I went to Tybee for the first time. We met up with Kelli and Jessika who are troop wives who are also in SSM.
napping in the beach wagon
80, Lani and Tristin: beach babies!!!
Neither of us ended up sun burnt, but I did get a parking ticket.. late by 10 minutes! Such a bummer. We also went down with a handful of other SSM moms to St Simons island in GA, to Neptune Park which is just a public pool. It was a beautiful day and 80 had a good time sleeping on me while we sat along the wall of the zero entry part of the pool. I don't think I'll be making the hour and a half hour drive back down there just for the pool any time soon, but hanging out with other SSM moms in a setting where I wasn't sweating or out of breath was a treat.
At the beginning of the month, I ran/walked the Savannah Komen race for the cure 5k. It felt good and I was glad I did, though I dropped my phone, shattering the screen, and there was no race clock so I don't know what my time was. The two other ladies in this picture are from Stroller Strong Moms, they're two of the strongest athletes in the classes so they probably could have run a 10k in the time it took me to run my 5k but whatever :)
80 turned 3 months adjusted! I celebrated by making this board, and taking this picture!
My mom and I had planned a trip to visit my Granny again in Alabama on the 17th. I was supposed to pick my mom up at the airport in Jacksonville FL, then we'd drive on to AL. I was feeding 80 in the car in the airport cell lot when I looked down and noticed that his hair was wet. I looked and the same place he had the white spot back in February was open and leaking. I called the neurosurgeon, picked my mom up from the airport, and we drove right back to Savannah. We took him to the neurosurgeons office, then were admitted to Memorial PICU. He had the shunt removed, a PICC line placed in his chest, and started a round of antibiotics the next day.
Because he has hydrocephalus, they couldn't just take the shunt out, they had to put a temporary drain in place. You can see it here as the yellow tube stitched to his scalp.
It reaches down into the ventricle and when the pressure builds it empties via gravity and pressure into a measurement beaker. They measure how much is emptied over an hour, or several hours, keep track of it. If he doesn't put out very much, they will reconsider replacing the shunt.
80 backslid on his development. He stopped cooing, and developed a torticollis. He has always appeared to have crossed eyes, but in the hospital he developed a very evident Strabismus.
It was determined that he should not see an ophthalmologist until his torticollis had been resolved. He saw a in hospital physical therapist instead. She gave us a laundry list of stretches for his arms, neck, and back, with a few leg and trunk stretches thrown in for good measure.
I mentioned before that 80 backslid a bit developmentally, well that is not entirely true. He did learn a new trick, he found his hands for the first time! It was nice to see him doing something new during his time at the hospital. He was all smiles and lovey the whole time he was there, but it is depressing for me!
The most important development during 80s 3 week hospital stay was that his temporary tubing slid up and out of the ventricle it was supposed to be draining, and into the plural space. It started draining the wrong fluids, and caused a minor hemorrhage. The short story is that Dr Thompson decided he wasn't comfortable replacing the shunt. The temporary tubing was removed, his head plugged, and everything stitched up. A week or so days later he was out of the hospital, getting CT and MRI scans to monitor the progression of his hydrocephalus.. of which there has been none! Again, I'm writing this in June and he still has no shunt. It's amazing! He was discharged on the 4th of May.
Back to me: My mother was in town for all of this, so I took the opportunity to have her go to the hospital in the mornings while I went to SSM to work out. One of the days, while running the trail, I turned my ankle. I thought I had broken it initially, I could put no weight on it and my toes were numb, but it seemed to feel better very quickly and I was able to put weight on it and finish the workout. I have turned my ankle like this before and it had never been an issue so I, thinking I was still 20 years old, thought that I was fine. I had forgotten that I was almost 30 and can't just walk alway anymore. The next day, when I took my shoes off after coming home from the hospital, I was greeted with my very own cankle!
Even now in June it's still very sensitive, but I have finally been able to work out without a brace so it is getting better.
The final chapter of the whirlwind of April was that we had all the carpet pulled out of the living/parlor/hallway/closets, and the linoleum pulled out from the entryway/dining/kitchen. Replaced it all with wood-look tiles. This was supposed to be a huge thing that I was so excited about, and now it's barely an afterthought! Sheesh.
before (well before, you can see we still had Sumo and the parlor was still unpainted)
