Category Archives: Buddy

The ups, downs, ins and outs of life with this crazy little man!

Theme Thursday ~ Imagination

Posted on by

The more I’ve played with PS, the more confidence I’ve gained.  While I still have so much to learn, it’s exciting to play and to get a feel for my likes and dislikes.  Before I started playing, I thought I would play up the frames, the colors, the texts…but I find that not to be so.

This is the first “project” I’ve done, and there’s certainly a few things I might’ve changed, but I wanted to wrap it up.  I love it for today’s theme, because not only did putting this together take some creative imagination on my part (even though it’s not altogether exciting), but it also begs the question about the workings of Calder’s imagination in these shots. 

Collage

These were taken two weeks ago while the guys were splitting firewood.  He wandered around for at least 30 minutes!  He went from aimless wandering to marching on a mission – oh how I’d love to know what he was thinking as he climbed around fallen limbs, tumbled into the damp leaves (which he didn’t love), and proudly wore papa’s hat!

For other imaginative work, swing by Stacy’s.

Museum Fun

Posted on by

Last week we headed to Impression 5 to check out their cool exhibits and the new First Impression room designed specifically for toddlers!  It was an action-packed day that involved a quick 20 minutes on the treadmill, meeting Aunt Julie for coffee, spending 2 fabulous hours at the museum, and finally meeting up with Grandma and Grandpa for lunch.

Ladies, I hope you had as much fun as I did watching our little monkeys climb, crawl, explore and play their way through the day.  And considering the excitement and the late lunch, things were incident free!  I’ve played with a few of the pictures I snapped and have included them below for your viewing pleasure!  Enjoy!

Museum 4

Lovin’ the dimples!

Museum 2

I think he would have swum in the bubbles if I’d have let him!

Museum 5

Little Mama!

Museum 7

One of the several toys that ended up in the “to be cleaned” bucket during our visit!

Museum 10

Museum 13

Museum 12

Once he found the fish he was all set!

Museum 6

Museum 3

Museum 8

“Look at the splash I can make!”

Museum 9

Museum 1

Fun feature to keep kids busy in the lobby…that is if my kid didn’t try to steal two of the marbles!

Museum 11

I absolutely L-O-V-E this shot!  When he makes me so crazy, I want to remember the sweet look on his adorable face at this moment!  It takes my breath away!

While Seneca was there, she and Great Aunt Julie got lots of time to snuggle.  I really wanted this to be a day for Calder – to let him run around, be loud, climb in, on and through everything he wanted…and have my full attention.  It was so very well worth every second!

————

On a completely unrelated note…I have a question for any and all of my readers.  When I put lots of shots in a post such as today’s, is it easier/better to have my two cents written above the shot or below it?  Trivial, I know, but I can’t ever decide which way to go.  Your help is appreciated! 🙂

Halloween Fun

Posted on by

A few weeks ago, I wasn’t sure we would be participating in anything related to Halloween.  But Calder seems to have overcome his fears, and in fact was sharing his milk and Kleenex with Sam earlier today.  The fact that it was in the mid-60s and a Friday night, and we were thrilled that we’d be able to join in some of the festivities at our church’s Trunk-or-Treat program tonight.

It’s hard to believe how much Calder has changed since last year…
Halloween Cutie

Knowing that we had his pumpkin costume, we planned to have Miss Seneca wear that.  After considering a few possibilities, we opted for non-traditional for our Little Man.  By himself, it seems a little weird.  But put him next to his sister and the “pieces” come together. 

Halloween 2

Our little “pumpkin pi(e)” trick-or-treaters!  Yes….we really are that dorky!  But hey, I figure it’s best to get a few of the obligatory “I can’t believe my parents did this to me” moments over and done with!  It doesn’t look like either were too severely damaged by the experience.

Halloween 1

He didn’t particularly love the actual getting of the candy – he would pull back his arm and try to snuggle in.  But once he realized he got to keep it — and EAT it — he was a little more interested!

Halloween 4

Little Snow White here, knows the ropes and seems to be have a grand time!

Halloween 5

Say “Sugar!”

Halloween 3

Who’s that diva?! 🙂

Halloween 7

This shot is one of my favorites!  Even though it was just approaching 8pm (aka bedtime) the excitement of the night, plus the influx of sugar, made Dad’s antics to try for a decent picture that much funnier!  I’m quickly learning how kids are reminders to stop and enjoy the simple things in life!

Here’s wishing each of you a safe and happy Halloween!

If I could, I would

Posted on by

create a time machine.  It would be a multifunctional piece of engineering goodness.  Not only would it allow me to go back in time (perhaps one of the unwritten rules of blogging, so my apologies if I have committed the utmost blogging crime!), but it would also manufacture time.

Sounds great, huh? 

Yeah, it would collect all those little bits of time that don’t really allow for anything productive to take place, and store them all together into a big batch of time.  It’s sorta like the defragment feature on your computer.

Sadly, or ironically, it would take too much time to create this fancy-schmancy do-job, so I guess I’ll just take the few minutes I have here and give a quick update.  Anyway…I’m still here.  We’ve been having lots of fun and I hope to post some pictures soon.  And I do have to commit the timestamp treachery again because I really want to post my hubby’s birthday wishes on his actual birthday….which was last Thursday! 😦  I’m sure he appreciates the time I’ve spent with him much more than time I’d have spent finishing my writing about him!

On the fitness front, I did weigh in this week, and was very pleased with my 4.2lb loss!  I’ve gotten out running about 3 times this week, which isn’t saying much because I can’t go very far just yet.  But I did register for the Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving Day, so now I’ve got me some motivation.

And just an FYI, not that I anticipate my absence will cause major trauma in the lives of many, but I know that in a few short weeks I will be quite fickle in my posts.  Between preparing for our presentation in San Antonio at the National Writing Project annual meeting, and getting things around for heading back into the classroom, I’m sure my plate will be heaping.  Which means, if I am here…it’s probably because I’m putting off completing something else and would rather share pictures and write about the fun stuff going on in my life! 🙂

I’ll leave you with a little shot of one of our recent outings.  There’s a new indoor playground at one of the local churches.  Calder had a great time and we’re hoping to get back there again before too long!

Playground

Since I don’t have much today, head over to Stacy’s to see what others have created this week!

Needing to recharge

Posted on by

Recharge

All the plans have been made, the time has been set aside this weekend to engage in earnest conversation with some grown-up girlfriends.  The 2nd annual epic women’s retreat is underway and will give me the boost I need to continue my journey.

It funny too, because I hadn’t noticed the weird icky-ness (regurgitated pretzel perhaps?) on this poor Weeble girl, until I saw this picture.  Gross as it may be, I think it’s quite a fitting metaphor for this weekend.  Sometimes, rejuvenation requires transparency.  True honesty and openness can often reveal less-than-desirable qualities in our emotional, physical, or spiritual appearance.  Once I release some of my emotional baggage this weekend, you bet I’ll be digging out poor Pigtails here and giving her a much-deserved bath!