8/29/11 - ColorFUN!

I decided to get out the paints today for a little good messy fun.  It started out innocently enough with just a little paint and water and ended with me washing paint off about 10 of Nathan's cars.  It was really fun watching Nathan's play develop from brushes to hands to car to fleet of cars. He played for almost 2 hours with those paints!

8/28/11 - Thief

Someone had been stealing a few of my ripe tomatoes lately....and today the little scoundrel was caught in the act.  You little stinker!

8/27/11 - Day Late - Dollar Short :(

Well, it happened.  I missed a day!  Here's how.

We went out to dinner in Calabassas this evening with our friend Paul and I figured I'd snap a photo with my iPhone at dinner.  During dinner, we decided to go to Get Shaved for some shaved ice after dinner.  I decided that I'd take my photo there.  When we got to Get Shaved, the line much too long and it was too long after Nathan's bedtime to wait..so I didn't get my photo then.  I somehow forgot about the photo completely.

So, here is my attempt to rectify the situation.  I took Nathan to Get Shaved the next day...8/28/11. I'm hoping that the two photos on that day...one which should have been taken on the previous day...will make up for it.  I'm so disappointed!

8/26/11 - Little Surprises

Don't you love the little surprises that go along with having a little child?  This is what I found as I was trying to put on my shoes today.  Yes...that's a zebra in my shoe. Tee hee hee.

8/25/11 - Brothers to Be

We had my 18 week ultrasound today and got to peek at Trackie.  We were thrilled to learn that I am building a little brother for Nathan!  I went right out to buy Trackie his coming home outfit and saw these cute big brother, little brother shirts.  Just had to grab them!

Brothers!  Fantastic!

8/24/11 - Block Castle

Nathan and his Daddy were playing with the blocks today and called me over to see their master piece.  Master piece indeed.  I'm just glad Nathan waited long enough for me to grab the camera before knocking it right down.

8/23/11 - Quick...SNAP!

Taken very quickly during today's head shot session as my client changed clothes. Just a pretty little weed.

8/22/11 - Pretty Sky

Snapped this really really quickly on my way to chorus.  The sky was just such a beautiful color. 

8/21/11 - $0.25 = Treasure

Rich took Nathan shopping today and gave him a quarter for one of the little quarter machines.  Nathan wanted a tiny little glow stick.  Here he is playing with it just before bedtime.  A little long shutter exposure fun.

8/20/11 - SQUIRREL!

It had been clear that some creature had been eating from the pine cone bird feeder these past few days.  This morning we saw who it was.  Boy oh boy does my kitty ever wanna git that squirrel!

8/19/11 - No Clue

I hate when I wait so long I forget what I was thinking when snapping the photo.  I have no idea why today's photo is this poor quality iPhone picture..  I can guess that it's because I almost ran out of time for a photo yet again and just snapped something quickly....but alas, we'll probably never know the true artistic intention behind this fine photograph.

Hmmmmm....

8/18/11 - Elephant Head

Nathan made this little elephant head at school today.  I just love it!  Look at the silly eyes.

8/17/11 - Pine Cone Bird Feeder

A pretty typical preschooler craft.  Combine a pine cone, peanut butter, and birdseed for a really fun and messy 30 minute distraction. 

8/16/11 - Happy 8th Anniversary to Us

Today marks 8 years since Rich and I were married.  We have many anniversary traditions, a few of which were short changed this year.

Usual Traditions:

1. We purchase gifts from the traditional or modern anniversary gift list for the proper anniversary year.
2. I always buy a new dress to wear at dinner and wear at least one piece of the jewelry I made for my wedding day.
3. We always eat dinner farther North than we had the previous year. I hope one day we will be dining in Alaska!
4. We always have the waiter take a photo of us at dinner...I always sit on the left hand side of that photo and rich is always on the right.....this is to stay consistent to the way we sat for dinner at our wedding.
5. We always go see a movie about the disillusionment of marriage. 

In the name of frugality we abstained from numbers 1 and 3 this year (bummer!).  We did however observe the rest of our traditions.  For number 2, I purchased my new oh so fancy maternity dress at Target.  For number 4, you can see our waiter's photo below.  I made the mistake one year of trying to let the waiter use my DSLR to take our photo....never again! This one was with my iPhone.  For number 5, this year's movie was "Crazy, Stupid, Love".  The film, while much tamer than our usual pick, fitted the criteria perfectly.

Today's official photo is of my wedding jewelry.  I have an allergy to nickel and an allergy to spending too much money. So when I just couldn't find any jewelry that was both silver, had pearls, and was subtle I decided I'd make my own jewelry to wear on my wedding day.  This photo is of my necklace.  I also made earrings (one of which is missing...GRRRR!) and a bracelet. 

8/15/11 - Z is for Zebra

I purchased this Zebra in Kenya for Nathan a little over a year ago.  He used to say that the zebra was his favorite animal, so when I was in Kenya and I saw a Zebra with wheels I instantly knew it would be the perfect gift for my little boy.

8/14/11 - Y is for Yippie

Kinda a stinker and a cop out for today's letter.  Oh well.  We told Nathan that we were going to do something fun today and he was so excited to hear the news that he danced all around the room.  So...Yippie it is.

8/13/11 - X is for Xenophobe

Definition of XENOPHOBE: one unduly fearful of what is foreign and especially of people of foreign origin 

I can't take credit for the idea behind today's photo.  This was entirely Rich's idea.  Without it, I would have simply gone with the oh so expected photo of a xylophone.  I enjoy Richard's apt description of my sweet Steinway as a solid xenophobe.  

8/12/11 - W is for Wet

I can't believe it has taken this long for me to use the little miracle fruit tree that Richard gave me in this project.  It was a nice little subject to hold the water droplets that I needed for today's photo of the day.

8/11/11 - V is for Vase

Very very very late, again.  I stink at this project!

So I finally thought about the word Vase and attempted, somewhat unsuccessfully, a nice artistic photograph of my very favorite vase.  I purchased this vase at a Waterford store when I was in Ireland several years ago.  It was the most expensive thing I purchased in Ireland, but I'm so glad I got it.  It's beautiful and a perfect memento of that trip.

I threw a little tea candle in the bottom of the vase and went through great difficulty to light the tea light in the hopes that I could create something really cool with it.  It didn't come out as I'd hoped, but it will do.

8/10/11 - U is for Upside Down

Wow...U was hard.  This is another late in the day photo.  I finally settled on upside down for today's "u" word and tried to think about what I could turn upside down for an interesting photo.  Then I remembered that Nathan had turned this little bowl upside down earlier in the day to hide one of his little cars under it.  Hooray!!!  A U word that actually pertains to something that legitimately happened in my day.  Jackpot!

8/9/11 - T is for Tub

Not much to say about these photos other than it was a really fun letter to fulfill.  Nathan had a blast in his little bubble bath.

The first bubble bath I ever gave Nathan when he was just over 2 yrs old, he cried and cried.  He just hated the bubbles and couldn't stand that they stuck to his skin.  Clearly he's gotten over his bubble issues.  So cute!

8/8/11 - S is for Sad

For some reason, Nathan decided that just a few months before his 4th birthday he'd start to explore the "terrible twos."  I have no idea why, but Nathan is crying at the drop of a hat these days.  Seriously, I bet if you took one of his hats and dropped it, he'd throw one heck of a hissy fit about it.  We're working really hard to try and emphasize that it is absolutely okay to cry, but it's not okay to cry for no reason...so if he's crying, he needs to use his words to express himself and try to explain what is making him so upset.  If he can't do that, he goes to a quiet place where he can cry and think about it.  When he's ready to talk he can come and sit in Mommy's lap and I will hug him and hold him as he tries to explain why he's so sad.  I'm often telling him that crying only tells me he's sad, it doesn't tell me what he's sad about and it doesn't help solve the problem.  If he wants something, he needs to use his words so that I can understand what he wants. I'm optimistic that he'll get the message sometime before his 18th birthday.

I'm not sure if this is the right thing to do or not, but I've read that since I'm the Mommy I'm automatically the expert. HAHAHA. 

In this photo Nathan is crying immediately after waking from his nap.  He came right down the stairs screaming and crying.  I did what any good mother  365 project photographer would do, I identified his emotion as one that would properly fulfill today's requirement for a photo of something starting with the letter "S" and plopped him on the office chair, grabbed my camera and snapped this photo. Then I attempted in my most Love and Logic inspired way to console my child while trying to figure out what could have possibly happened in the 10 SECONDS between waking up and walking down stairs to make him so hysterical!!  Sadly I waited too long before posting this photo and I no longer remember what Nathan was crying about.  I'm pretty sure it got resolved though.

8/7/11 - R is for Rich

I love my husband and unfortunately for him he is the most significant "R" word in my life.  I tried to be all unobtrusive about it using my 200mm lens in the upper landing, but I think he noticed.

Sorry honey, but isn't it nice to know that you're more important to me than "rice" or "rope" and even one of Nathan's beloved "race cars"?

8/6/11 - Q is for Quiet

Nathan makes a lot of noise lately.  The day is filled with the sounds he makes pretty much non-stop.  At times, this is a lovely thing...but sometimes I just long for peace.  This evening I celebrate the quiet moments.  This is a moment just before bed.  I was actually taking another Q picture (QWERTY on the keyboard) when I noticed how quiet Nathan was being.  I think in this instance "quiet" is a much more significant and valuable q word upon which I bestow today's photo.

8/5/11 - P is for Peeping

Peeping Nathan

Peeping Mommy

8/4/11 - O is for OH MY GOODNESS!

Nathan finished every bite of his dinner.  I take this as a huge sign of success.  We have been struggling for some time to get Nathan to eat more than a few bites of his dinner.  We used to use the promise of dessert to entice Nathan to try new foods...it worked great for a while but then it backfired.  About a week ago I was sitting at dinner with Nathan with some really tasty food....just the kind of food Nathan would love...and all he was concerned about was how much did he have to eat to get dessert. It finally clicked.  Maybe the reason Nathan never wants to eat is that he's saving room for dessert. So, I made a decision. No more dessert. Ever. It doesn't matter how much of your food you eat, there will be no dessert.

You can imagine the tears that announcement elicited. I told him I am not denying him of all sweets, we just aren't going to have them after dinner any more. He will have his sweets after his naptime. I talked with him how it was okay to be sad, but I wasn't going to change my mind.  It only took a few days for Nathan to start eating more and more of his food....and tonight, he ate it all!  He ate all his ravioli.  He ate all his veggies...and he didn't ask for dessert.


OH MY GOODNESS!

8/3/11 - N is for Nap

Nathan was a real stinker today.  I was so close to finally finishing up those wedding photos, so after spending an hour playing with Nathan I sat down at the computer working furiously trying to get them done.  I told Nathan he should go play so that he wouldn't be so bored while I tried to finish.  He didn't.  He sat right there next to me....talking...wiggling....distracting. 

I told Nathan that I'd get done a lot faster if he went and played by himself for a while.  He complained that he was too cold and wanted to sit behind me in the chair to get warm.  I told him he could solve his problem of being cold by either putting on warmer clothes or going downstairs and laying under a blanket.  He didn't like that answer very much...but after going through those choices several times he finally decided to go downstairs under the blanket and sob.  He cried for maybe a minute and a half....then it got very silent. Really really silent.  My little boy had fallen asleep.  It is very rare for Nathan to sleep anywhere other than his bed...I must have really tuckered him out playing with him earlier in the day. 

It occurred to me as I finished my work that "nap" is a pretty darn good N word.  So...

8/2/11 - M is for Money

Nathan was trying to give me a "magic penny" while I was making dinner earlier this evening.  I thought that it would be the perfect subject for today's photo. When it came time to take today's photo I looked high and low for that darn magic penny, but it had magically disappeared.  So, I cheated and grabbed this one from my wallet...or maybe it IS the magic penny and it had just magically reappeared in my wallet?  Hmmmmmmm....

8/1/11 - L is for Late

I totally forgot today's photo until it was very late.  So creative, I know.

I'm pretty sure this is my closest call yet.  Close...but I made it.

7/31/11 - K is for King

Sunday is family game night, so tonight we decided to try to teach Nathan to play checkers this evening.  Now, I know what you're thinking.  You're thinking I only suggested checkers because I needed a good K photo and thought I could get a picture of the King in checkers.  Well, to that I say.....you are very smart.   Turns out that Nathan is a little young still for checkers, but he still had a fun time trying to learn. 

Half way through the game I remembered Nathan had made a little crown at school earlier in the week and thought it would be fun for him to wear the crown now that he had a king in checkers.  So for my bonus photo....Nathan, King of the Sea.

7/30/11 - J is for Jagged

J was a really hard letter.  I had the most difficult time thinking of something decent. Finally, I turned to my husband who started thinking of J words.  The moment he said jagged I thought..Perfect!

7/29/11 - I is for Ice Cream

Is there any other choice for I.  I mean, really folks.  I knew the moment I started this project that I was going to do ice cream on the "I" day.

7/28/11 - H is for Hat

I couldn't decide what to take a picture of for H today, so Nathan decided for me.  He had been playing with this hat earlier and thought it would be perfect.  He was even almost cooperative modeling it for me. Yet again....Nathan saves the day.

7/27/11 - G is for Gears

Ever since Nathan was able to open and close his little hands he has obsessed with things that spin.  I thought that these gear magnets would be the perfect to for a spin focused child.  I love that they keep him fairly well occupied while I'm making dinner....though it does make it difficult to get things out of the fridge along the way.