Something Different

Right before Evie was born I purchased a breakout session from Clickin Moms called "Shooting Through the Shadows" about photography in low-light situations.  I had thumbed through it a couple times, but being super-pregnant I didn't have enough energy to attempt anything from it.

At dinner tonight we told Sam that Uncle Randy was in town and staying at Granny Nell's, and that we would go out to visit him tomorrow.  He hasn't seen Randy since right before his first birthday and asked Brian who Randy looks like.  I told him I would show him some photos on the blog of Randy holding him during his last visit.

I decided this was a good time to try the "alternative light sources" technique from my breakout materials, my alternative source being the light coming from my laptop.  I set it up on our bed, asked Sam to lay on his tummy and look at the pictures of Randy, and then turned out all the lights.

It was fun shooting this way and much easier than I thought it was going to be.  I'd like to say that Sam found this new type of photo shoot exciting, too, but alas, he did not.  But that's okay.

I

can't wait to try out some of the other suggestions in the breakout.  Winter's a great season to practice low-light, no-light photography!

A Rare Sight

Sam hasn't napped regularly in almost two years.  He's a good nighttime sleeper, he just dropped his nap pretty early on.  As soon as I found out I was pregnant with Evie, we reinstated naptime, but renamed it "rest time". I had the typical first trimester (and third trimester) fatigue and needed some time to lay down and take a nap, and it's still a part of our daily routine. The only rest time rule is Sam has to stay in his room.  Every day I remind him he can play, read, or sleep, and every day he informs me, "I will not sleep during rest time".  And he doesn't.

But yesterday was different.  He told me he was going to lay down on his bed and he did.  He pulled the covers over his head and fell asleep.  I got nervous with him being asleep under a heavy duvet, so I went in and pulled the covers back.  He was drenched in sweat.  He looked at me, then closed his eyes and went back to sleep.  It was awesome.

While he slept, I laid Evie on our bed and organized my drawers and closet (woo-hoo! exciting!).  The light was pretty enough at one point that I decided to stop cleaning for a little photo shoot with my baby girl.  Not long after we started I got up from the window seat to change lenses and caught this view of her in my dresser mirror.  I decided, for some reason, that this was the image of her I wanted.  I think I just liked how tiny she looked in our room and on our bed.  It was kind of fun trying to capture an image within a reflection.  So much for that whole "sleep when the kids sleep" idea - I was busy during naptime!

As for Sam's nap - he woke up two hours later refreshed and in a great mood, but I paid for all that peace and quiet later, as his head didn't hit the pillow again until 10:00 that night.  Arghh.

The Weather Outside Was Frightful

Which is why I took all of these photos from inside, looking through the kitchen window.  There was no way "Mark" and I were going out in that yucky mess!  Looks like they had fun, though!  Thanks to Gram, for letting me post photos of her in her at-the-last-minute, thrown-together snow clothes.  You look fabulous!  And thanks for letting my kid pelt you in the face with cold, wet snow.  He enjoyed himself immensely.

Big Brother

Sam's done really well adjusting to baby Evie.  No signs of jealousy yet, and he loves to hug on her (and kiss her head when he thinks I'm not looking).  He dances for her and shows her the stuffed bunny he gave her in the hospital, trying to make her laugh.  He's a good helper, fetching anything I need, and waits patiently if he happens to need help with something while I'm feeding her.  Last Tuesday, on our way to introduce Evie to his teacher, he said to me, "It's fun to bring a baby to school!"  She gets lots of pats and snuggles outside his classroom door before he leaves for the day.  He seems very proud of her.  Having said all that, "three" has been a very difficult year and I consider Sam a pretty challenging preschooler.  But as far as learning to live with a new baby in the house, so far, so good, and we're grateful for that!

Sam's New Room

Just a few quick snaps of Sam's new room...  This room has been several things in the last six years; our office, Brian's art studio, and my sewing room.  It's finally found its place as Sam's room and we think it's pretty cute.  Sam loves it, too.  It's bright and cheery and little-boyish.   It also looks out on the covered patio which is neat.  Sam asked me when we first started working on it if we could paint it purple, his favorite color.  Brian and I obviously nixed that idea, but as a compromise I planted some purple pansies on the patio so that he had at least a little purple in his view.  We cleaned his room yesterday and there was a slight break in the clouds this morning - I figured today was my last chance to get some photos before it gets messy again.  And it

will

get messy again!

Mama made:

houndstooth bunny

houndstooth pillow

fabric letters

photo gallery wall

Daddy did:

cornice - what a project!!

painted the room, the art table, the little shelf

Etsy finds:

USA and world maps

hedgehog print (from nursery)

Miscellaneous goodies:

bedding - Land of Nod

big-boy dresser and bookcase - Ikea

Stop by and visit anytime.  Sam

loves

to show off his room!

Practice

All of a sudden today, Sam told me Hop-Hop needed a diaper.  He grabbed one from the pack-n-play, swooped Hop-Hop up off his bed and went running.  I grabbed my camera...

Then, of course, she needed to be swaddled, so I ran and got a swaddling blanket from Evie's room.  He did a pretty good job on his own, but asked for help making it tighter.

Once she was settled, we took a few snaps from the window seat.

Happy Hop-Hop girl...

Under Construction

There have been a lot of things under construction around here:  the baby in my belly, her nursery and our family blog.  The nursery is finished, but much like the baby, the blog is not quite done.   I was bored with the look of our old blog and wanted something new, something a little cleaner and less cluttered.  I switched to a one-column template that will show off our children's smiling faces a little more than before.  I've had fun working on it, even learned a weensy-bit more about HTML, but there's still lots to do that I'm not sure I have the time or material for right now.

The header's better than before, but looks incomplete to me for some reason.  The quantity and quality of my images have been lacking lately, so the slideshow is in a "good-enough-for-now" state (a hot summer, cumbersome belly, and crabby three-year-old have made for less practice time than I'm used to).   It seemed weird to have only photos of Sam in there, too, so I added nursery photos, soon to be replaced by a few photos of Miss Evie herself.  Some image sizes (and fonts) are a little wonky right now.  I'm still working on the best method to size and upload our photos.  I need to find a way to complete my editing workflow in a reasonable amount of time, since time (and energy) are going to be lacking here soon.  It's a work-in-progress!

Having said that, I love our new look - crisp, clean and bright.  Hope you like visiting our new nest, too!

What's in a Name?

Who would have thought?

I mean really.

Who would have thought that naming our second baby would be made so difficult a process by our first baby?  What three year old has such strong opinions about something like this?  Well, apparently this one.

The details are a little fuzzy now as to how it all began, but it had something to do with Brian and I mentioning we would have to pick a name and Sam suggesting "Betsy".  Betsy was his first little love at mother's day out a couple of years ago.  According to his teacher, he was always trying to hold her hand while they played and pat her back during circle time.  We weren't surprised when he suggested Betsy as a name and at first everybody thought it was hilarious and sweet.  That didn't last long.

Eventually Brian and I narrowed down our name choices from a list of about ten to two:  Evelyn and Lillian.  We knew we wanted her middle name to be Mae (my Grandma T's middle name and one of our original first-name choices as well), but we weren't positive which way to go for her first name.  We wanted a classic name, normal and not trendy, common but not overused, one that would work well for her as an adult.  Brian and I would talk about it and Sam would always interject with Betsy.  Betsy.  Betsy.  Betsy.  And each time he would get angrier and angrier. We explained that Mommies and Daddies name babies but that he could call her what he wanted for now.  He decided he would call her "all three names:  Evelyn Lillian Betsy".  We said that was fine.

Big mistake.

At first only he referred to her using this weird little combo of names.  Then he started insisting that Brian and I, all grandparents, the cashier at Janie and Jack - even Joe Schmoe on the street - call her by all three names.  And when we wouldn't, he'd get ugly.  One of several Sam-quirks that made this a particularly difficult summer...

I'm not sure how it finally slowed down (notice I didn't say it had stopped).  I think some threats and time-outs were involved and possibly a heart-to-heart talk with Gram at a Chick-Fil-A, but we finally reached a loose compromise.  Daddy and I and all family and friends would call baby sister Evelyn or Evie and he could call her all three of her real names "Evelyn Mae Straka", which he is still doing faithfully to this day.  For example, if I ask him to put something in "Evie's room" for me, he will say, "Sure Mom, I will put that in Evelyn Mae Straka's room for you".

Whatever!

Not sure how long he can keep it up, but I wouldn't be surprised if it goes on for a while.  He's known to possess a bit of a strong will...

**A couple of interesting links about the history and meanings of the name Evelyn:

Appellation Mountain

Nameberry

Halloween

A couple quick snaps on the porch before Dress Up Day at preschool, where Sam gets to choose to be either a Bible Hero or an animal from Noah's ark. He chose to recycle his elephant costume from last year which was fine with me!

We had a great time Halloween morning with our Lens Baby friends at our second annual Halloween Carnival. We brought a fishing game and Sam loved playing ring toss, pumpkin bowling and crawling through the spiderweb maze. Look closely and you'll see that behind this smile is a mouth full of pumpkin cookies.  I love how he placed his tail on the pumpkin just so.

Caught a double fish which means two prizes!  Yea!

I've never seen someone get so excited about ring toss.  Ha!

Thanks Lens Baby friends for another fun playdate.  The next time we see you I'll be snapping pics of two little Strakas!  Whoa!

Trick-or-Treat

Halloween night was kind of low-key this year.  The last two Halloweens we had grandparents out for chili and trick-or-treating but with me looking (and feeling) like I was smuggling a giant pumpkin under my shirt and Sam wearing the same costume as last year, we decided to keep it just the three of us.

He had asked to be the moon again - so glad I saved it from last year - and that was fine with me.  We ate a quick spaghetti dinner, snapped a few pics then Brian and Sam started down the street for candy.  Sam did a  really good job this year.  He warmed up really quickly to the whole "trick-or-treat" thing and even said thank you when leaving a house.  The Belly Bump and I stayed behind and passed out candy to the neighborhood kids.

Once the boys came back, Sam and I went for a quick stroll on the street behind us.  I wanted to see how big he looked saying "trick-or-treat".  Several neighbors threw extra candy in Sam's pumpkin because Mommy looked so miserable waddling up and down the sidewalk.  Sympathy candy - I'll take it!

Wonder what the kiddos will dress as next year?  A Halloween to look forward to, for sure!

Bike Ride

Sam enjoyed a little bike ride with "Popths" tonite. Thanks to our special friends for the bike. I think it will get lots of use. Thanks also to Pops for helping Sam ride around - and around - the block. He's sleeping soundly tonight. And pardon the body chop - Sam was coming straight for me and Mama doesn't move too fast these days!

Big Orange Pumpkin Farm

It has been two years since we visited the farm. The last time we went Sam was just a toddler and, if I remember correctly, quite a handful.  We went again with friends this year, and while the top photo was taken immediately post-tantrum, he was a good boy overall and had lots of fun. We played in the pumpkin patch, enjoyed a pumpkin-bread snack on the hayride (thank you Ms. Andrea), chased each other in the hay-maze over and over, and picked a pumpkin from the field to take home. The hayride was the big hit, hands-down. It was a windy day, hence the crazy hair, but pretty weather considering how warm it could have been.

Mommy ended up feeding the longhorns and the goats.  Sam said he was a little bit too scared. :) 

They are rather intimidating, lunging through the bars of the fence

with our buds on the hayride - they all looked so cute

this photo looked pretty whoppyjod in-camera, but I cropped it and cleaned it up pretty good

let's just say it was a mighty bumpy hayride, especially at a bunch-of-months pregnant

poking at a grasshopper

bunch of monkeys climbing the fence

the perfect pumpkin

happy boy!

Calendar Day

Calendar day is proving to be an exciting day.

Sam is constantly asking questions about when we're doing certain activities.  "When will we see Gram and Pops next? When are we going to Miss Jean's?" 

"Is it the day after this day?" he always says.

Gram found a great calendar this summer and thought it might help him understand how many days will pass until a certain event.  It also served as a "congrats on your new room" present.  Grandparents can always find a reason for presents, it seems...

We've changed it twice already, once for September, once for October, and both times he enjoyed finding the tiles to mark special days.  I think we have a year tile for as far out as 2015 so we'll get lots of use out of this calendar in the years to come!

Sick Day

Baby Boy stayed home sick from school recently.

He had a fever, stuffy nose, and cough. He was miserable, but I actually enjoyed it quite a bit. He wasn't crabby, argumentative, or sassy - just snuggly and clingy for Mom. He insisted I not leave his side, even for a second, so other than quick trips to the kitchen for food and medicine, we sat parked in Mommy and Daddy's bed, sleeping and watching Oswald DVDs on the portable DVD player we bought for our KC trip. I was a smidge bummed when he started feeling better again and wanted be up and about, but I'm sure Daddy was glad that he didn't have to try and get another decent night's sleep on Sam's twin-sized bed.

Private Pool

The big kids have gone back to school leaving the pool empty most days.  And on this particular day it was completely empty almost the whole time we were there.  As soon as we pulled up and I saw that no one else was there, we scooted back home to grab the camera for some end-of-summer pics.  It was fun taking some photos of Sam swimming without having to worry about kids splashing and getting in our shots!

Preschool

Preschool started today. Not mother's-day-out, but official preschool. We snapped a few pics on the front porch before we left, a challenge as usual, this time due to both the dreary weather and a very excited three year old.

Sam had a great first day.  He has three new classroom teachers and the same ROMP and Chapel teachers as last year.  This year he gets to go to music and computers, and Tuesdays are show-n-tell days!  I'll be curious to know how well he "tells" about his special item each week. 

He knows four kids from the two previous year's classes but has a lot of names yet to learn.  They played a name game where Ms. Heather sang a song and called out one person's name while the kids sat in a circle.  That person was supposed to come to the center of the circle and dance.  Sam said only he and one other friend danced when their names were called because the other kids were "too shy".  He showed me, in the middle of the store, what his dance looked like.  It was a pretty cool move - something he calls "the corkscrew".   

Ms. Heather told me when I picked him up that Sam was so precious and sweet that she just wanted to squeeze him.  I was totally surprised based on the fact that he's been driving us crazy at home and I think I blurted out "You're kidding?" instead of saying something nice like, "Aw, thank you!"  Oops.

Because he had such a great day we made a detour on our way home and stopped for ice cream.  We were going to try a new frozen yogurt place but I noticed just as we pulled into the parking spot that it was closed.  I started to panic, then spotted a B&R right across the street.  The real stuff.  Even better!

Sam ate a whole kids' cone, which looked just as big as my regular cone, and loved every bite, right down to the ice cream "soup" he slurped up from what dripped in his cup.  He didn't push his scoop off his cone with his tongue either - a first!

Daddy and I are hoping a good first day is a good sign for the rest of the year!

Map Study

Sam loves geography.

He's shown a great interest in street names, states, countries and where he and all his family members live.  We even ordered two big maps for his new room - one US and one world map. 

He knows that Papa and Grandma live in California by the beach and that Daddy's "brovers" live in California, too.  He knows he lives and goes to school in Texas.  Gram and Pops live in Texas, too, but he insists that Granny does not because she lives "in Briarmead" (her street).   Sometimes he gets a little confused.

By the end of our trip this summer he knew all about Kansas and Oklahoma and if you ask him about it (though I recommend you don't) he will gladly tell you how upset he is that his cousin Claire mistakenly told  him we did not drive through Oklahoma to get to her house in Kansas, because

he

knows we 

most certainly

 did.  She'll never live that one down.

On the way to Gram and Pops house yesterday, Sam heard someone say "North Texas" on a radio commerical.  That let loose a whole new crop of questions which were a little hard to answer while driving.  So we pulled out his US map placemat as soon as we got to Gram and Pops' and he and Pops sat down on the couch and figured it all out.  They also talked about lots of other states and Pops pointed out all the places he'd been to.  When Gram walked in the room, Sam shouted excitedly while twirling his hand all over the map, "Gram!  Pops has beed to ALL these places!!"  Yep.  Pops certainly has "beed" to a lot of places.

Vocal Trash

Raise your hand if this day did not turn out as you had expected. Yeah, me too. 

 Every summer, Willow Bend Mall puts on free shows for kids on Thursdays.  They bring in all sorts of entertainment and Gram was very excited to take Sam this summer.  The first one they went to by themselves and saw Emmy Award Winner "David Chicken".  (Yes, Gram.  You read that right.  He actually won an Emmy.)  David Chicken sings, dances and plays a guitar while donning a chicken hat and cape.  Sam had a fabulous time dancing, won lots of prizes and is still talking about it today. 

The following Thursday Sam and Gram invited me to go with them to see a band called "Vocal Trash" - think "STOMP" for kids with a reduce-reuse-recycle message.  Gram did a great job of getting us to the mall, feeding us, and finding the perfect spot for the best view of the band.  This was not an easy feat.  It took lots of checking on the gathering crowd, assessing when we needed to make our move from the food court to the stage area, and keeping Sam from having a meltdown due to the long wait.  The whole operation is kept very well organized by these sweet college-age girls who were hired for the unfortunate job of crowd control.  There are even signs everywhere that say this:

We thought that these signs were awesome, as they ensure all kids will be able to see.  And yet one family - the family right in front of us - had a little trouble dealing with this minor restriction.  During the pre-show this family did a lot of up-and-down, had constant squeezing-in of additional family members, filling the bench with oodles of kids and moms when it can only hold about four, and were just rowdy in general.  Gram and I just kept looking at each other and rolling our eyes, thinking surely they would calm down when Vocal Trash started banging on their trash-can drums because, you know,

there were these signs and everything

.  WRONG.  Along comes a new family member - The Dad - a very tall, very large man, who proceeds to plant his standing-self right in front of Sam.  And as you can imagine, Gram was having NONE of that.  Nobody stands in front of her Sam.  She approached him politely but firmly, and using her calm yet direct teacher voice, asked him to sit down because her three year old grandson was right behind him.  Long story short, he was rude and illogical, yelled at her, called her names and wouldn't budge.  Then he looked at his wife and used the universal sign for "crazy" while pointing back at Gram.  I witnessed it all, though only through the corner of one eye as I was wincing out of fear of what this might escalate to. 

At the request of moms on either side of us, Gram very calmly tattled on him to the show organizers and the situation resolved itself in time for the show.  We were relieved - crisis was averted, Sam had a great view, and we were ready for some fun. 

And as much as Sam loves dancing and banging on drums, which at home consists of coffee cans and crochet hooks, we thought he would totally dig this performance for sure.  WRONG AGAIN.  He was a little freaked out by the noise and the banging on metal trashcans, Culligan-sized water jugs, and washboards.  Gram and I enjoyed it because they did a wide range of covers, from current dance songs all the way back to The Beatles.  They even did Footloose, which made the whole debacle worth it to Gram.  All the while Sam was whining, crying, and on the verge of total meltdown.   After all of Gram's work, all he wanted to do was go home to Gram's house.  We made him stick it out and then headed home, all of us with a cotton-in-our-ears feeling, me looking behind us every few steps to make sure Mean Dad didn't follow us to the parking lot. 

There were a few bright spots, though.  I got something special at Janie and Jack for Baby Girl Straka to wear next summer - more on that later.  And, we got some photos of each of us with Sam, so that we never forget this

special, special 

day! 

keeping Sam entertained while waiting

Sam and Gram, post-show

And *TWO* photos of Sam, Mommy, and The Bump

photos courtesy of Gram (her first time using the Mark-Daddy)

I'm including both because I like how we're both making the same face in each picture,

making us look alike even more.

Last, but not least, some Vocal Trash!

Fun Friday

Sam recently earned a special day out with Mom and got to choose what we did for fun. He chose pizza at J&J's in Downtown Denton (a dirty hole-in-the-wall college-town pizza joint that we love) and a visit to "their library", also known as the Denton Public Library. We don't have a library card there because Frisco's library is so much better and free to all TX residents, but we recently discovered Denton has computers for kids with cool touch-screens, little mice for little hands, and fun panda headphones. Sam's never used our home computer, not even sure he knows he could, and I think I'll keep it that way for a while. But it's fun to watch him on the library computers. He likes the Sesame Street software with alphabet games, shape quizzes, and a "drawing" activity. He had a hard time with the mouse the first time we went, but he's getting better at it. He always seems to be concentrating really hard on what's on the screen. I have a feeling the next time he earns another fun day out with Mom he'll pick the same thing again. Our favorite date!

Blue Eyes

     Blue, blue eyes!