Day 6

We'll just continue on as if I hadn't taken a rather liberal break shall we? So once my son started crawling he has just grown in leaps and bounds! He is now into pulling himself up onto EVERYTHING and the other day I even caught him stand up and let go! It startled me and I ended up grabbing him before anything could happen.  This last week we've been working on our sleeping habits and it's been hit or miss.  Yesterday he only woke up ONCE the whole night! Tonight I type this as I can hear him making noise down the hall (second time so far and he's only been in bed 3 hours...).
Another new discovery for my son has been his tongue! For the past couple days he's just been sticking it out to the side and it's so darn adorable! My son already makes the best faces and they just keep getting cuter!

Day.... Umm... who's counting?

Well obviously I've been a bit behind in my postings (surprise!), haha.  I swear I've not forgotten about this endeavor though! I have some images that I've taken and need to edit and post.  In the meantime I've been busy trying to work on a few other projects, one of which includes two different scrapbooks (one digital and one paper).  Whew, that is a lot of work! I have over a hundred photos to add to my paper book and just ordered another hundred last week! My poor son is going to be flash blind by the time he's a year old!
Anyways, for my dedicated followers (which is much appreciated) I can safely say that check back in tomorrow and I'll have some new Camera Candy for you to enjoy!

Day 4 (and 5)

Well having a 7 month old (and life in general I suppose) is bound to trip you up every now and again so I'm having to combine day 4 and 5 since I didn't post yesterday.  Also, I'm going to cheat and still only post one image, you'll live.
Yesterday little man decided that crawling was cool.  He's been working towards this since the beginning of November and I was certain he'd be crawling by Thanksgiving, but alas, he proved me wrong. Instead he found other ways of getting around and eventually he'd end up where he wanted to be, however inefficient it was.
I know of the new challenges that crawling brings and I've already prepared most of the house but I'm super excited! The more mobility he learns the more fun playtime becomes!

Day 3

Since today was another beautiful sunny winter day here in California my son and I decided to head to the local zoo. Ok, I decided but he didn't protest... The zoo is really more of an animal sanctuary but they have quite the eclectic collection.  We saw Tigers, Bears, Deer, Peacocks, Wolves, many various birds, raccoons, a skunk, feral cats, and my sons favorite; dog/wolf hybrids.  Each exhibit has a tag letting the visitor know the animal's particular back story.  I can't wait for my son to be old enough to actually know what the animals are and to care about the stories.  For now he enjoyed watching the animals pace or run around their enclosures.  The image today is from the zoo.  As my son and I watched the hybrid dog/wolf pair run around their pens (it was feeding time and they were super excited) we were being watched from above by an exceptionally large peacock. The peacocks apparently have free range of the zoo and most choose to spend their time walking around the grounds looking for bits of food but this guy was in the tree being very dominant of the area.  I hadn't noticed him until I heard a loud 'splat' a few feet from me which only then prompted me to look up... I waited for a few minutes before leaving the area that we were in and that guy was just going to hang out up in the tree the whole time, as if daring me to tempt fate by walking underneath him (and from the amount that was already on the ground I was determined not to spend the rest of my afternoon washing up).  Finally his stubbornness won out and I had to walk my son and I back through the exhibits we'd already seen just to avoid any chances.

Day 2

My son is now seven months old and in the last few months he's decided that he doesn't want to be a pretty fantastic sleeper anymore.  This has come to show some serious threat of instability to my sleep, patience, and all around sunny disposition. As part of my New Year Resolution I checked out a book on child sleep behaviors and set to work at the task of correcting this less than favorable 'phase'.  What I've discovered is that I have somehow fallen into bad habit of feeding my son whenever he cries at night (seemed easier at the time- oh how quickly addictions are formed...) and so we've been keeping to a tighter feeding schedule.  Last night was amazing! Went to bed at 7, ate at 8, up again for feeding at midnight, one more feeding at 530, and then up for the morning at 8! It's been forever since I've had a solid 3 hours of straight sleep so 5 hours was heaven!!! Today was a fantastic day! I felt wonderful and my son was in such great spirits I don't think he cried ONCE today!
I created today's image in respect for the amazing day he and I shared and also for the the morning naps we usually take together! He's such a cuddler that I can't help but nap with him in the mornings with the blanket I've had since I was a kid!  This morning our heater decided to short out so our cuddle blanket was even more appreciated and I couldn't help but snap this pic of my son sleeping on the sofa underneath it.
Being a mother is turning out to be even more amazing than I could ever have imagined!

Already one day late...

Apparently the year 2011 is the year of 365 projects. If you're unfamiliar with the concept they are photography projects where you take an image everyday for a year.  Most 365 projects I've seen are portraits of the photographer, and I've seen some amazing projects done before.  I don't find myself to be that exciting.  I do, however, need a new creative outlet for my photography (and my sanity) and therefore I'll join my friends in their attempts at 365 projects and see what I come up with.  My goals besides an outlet, is to strengthen my photography and learn to better master my photoshopping skills.  I haven't yet learned how to properly speak through my images. I'm good at faking it for academic purposes but not for my own.  I figure this is also a good time to start seeing how my son is now 7 months old and a little bit better at entertaining himself, allowing mommy to get something done that doesn't involve work, school, or baby.
Today's image is going to be a panoramic I created from a walk I took with my boyfriend and our son.  The amazing amount of rain and snowfall we've had up in the Sierra's has created a very high level of water in the lakes and rivers and we decided to take a walk to take a look.  There were quite a few happy fisherman out at the dam when we went and I caught one of the fly fisherman in my images.  I also didn't line them up exactly.  I liked the ruggedness that my handheld panning created.