Dreaming.In.Reality

SO yeah, I was gone than more than just a bit! HAR! Not that any of you missed me blogging much except for Bobi. She missed me. She told me so, however since it’s been like weeks since she told me that, she’s probably transferred her affections to someone else -sad-

There has been lots going on here in Ottawaland, mostly baby centered but a lot of just fun little life things. I read my book, it was good. It took ALL DAY for it to arrive by post, I could have gone to the store, bought it and read it 4 times over by the time it finally showed up. I only got to read a few chapters before having to entertain for dinner, the Sunday was spent at a birthday party for a friend’s little boy, and then Loosh was kind enough on the Monday to have a 3.5 hour nap so I got to plow through the rest of the book. Since then, I’ve read little snippets here and there to get things more clear in my head. I enjoyed it, but there were lots of unanswered questions from the course of the series. JKR has since answered most of those in post-DH interviews, but it’s not the same. The ending was a bit trite, but I guess it’s ok because Harry got what he wanted most.

Lesseeeeee, photo stuff. NOt a WHOLE lot going on with that, but I got a new lens. 85mm f1.8 prime. It’s a really sexy lens, the photos from it are just fantastic! The next year of the photo club is gearing up. There was a lot of drama at the end of last season and quite frankly I’m glad I missed it by being busy with the baby. I did a friend’s maternity photos last Saturday and then again on Tuesday. Saturday’s photos there were a few keepers, but we shot them outside so when the sun came out we were battling harsh shadows. Tuesday’s were better and inside with the studio lighting. I think I need a few lens hoods, though with them being so pricey, I think that I’ll do some crafting with black craft foam and make my own. I had a fantastic offer on Tuesday while out and about. The local Toys R Us is redoing the store to include a proper Babies R Us and they’re having a grand reopening at the end of September and want local businesses related to babies there. Well, the one lady and I were talking about photography (I was looking for wood alphabet blocks to use in the maternity photos) and she said I most likely could join the babyfest and OMG think of the contacts. So we tracked down the store manager, however photographers weren’t approved by Head Office so that was a no go. But in turn, the manager wants me to bring in some business cards because she has people asking her all the time for maternity and baby photographers. So boo about the no photographers but YAY about someone becoming a biz contact :) In other photography news related to the business side of it all, I have offered to some of my mommies a free photo session in exchange for using the images in my portfolio. I need more baby photos and some other images. So probably some family type shots etc. Basically they get a CD of images from me that they can print at will however much they want and I get to use the images online, in print and in competition.

Baby news.. there is much to be shared. Where to start! Let’s start with he’s growing up way too fast and it’s breaking both Kev and I’s hearts. He is no longer looking like a little baby and more like a little boy. So very very grown up even in his silliest of hair moments. The past month he has been speeding towards toddlerhood at a lightening pace and it’s hard to keep up with it all. He can crawl at the speed of light, his vocabulary is exploding, his furniture cruising skills are amazing, and last night while visiting a friend, he took 6-7 unassisted steps all on his own -sniffles- Her daughter and him were playing in the hall and she started to chase him, he had been holding onto a box of diapers from Costco and he just got excited, let go and hauled ass into the living room. We of course got excited, freaked out and it made him stop and sit -lol- Oh and the talking. He’s been yammering quite a bit for the past few weeks, but the past week he’s really been trying to get the words out. He’s brought out quite a few in just the past few days. To date we have the following:

Mommom
Daddy
Uh-Oh
Up
Down
Tree
Gorby
PJ
Hi/Hello

Supiciously sounding like words we have possibly
Shoe
Lucien
dog/doug
pretty

We’re still in Gymboree for him. I’m going to try out the Level 3 class on Monday to see how it goes. He’s pretty uninterested in the circle time these days because he’s so on the move. We’ll stay where we are for the summer and then in the fall with the schedule change we’ll start L3. I hope our class instructor is the girl we normally have for L2, she’s really good with the kids, and she can sing. For me in a class that is usually 98% singing, you’d think one of the job prerequisites would be that you can carry a tune. Well, our normal girl was on vacation and the girl that replaced her can’t carry a tune in a bucket. I’m terrified she’ll be our teacher this fall because there is only 1 day a week that has classes after 12 for L3. I cannot listen to her try and sing for 45 minutes. It’s painful. If I want to listen to offkey notes I’ll come home and have L play with his VTech barn.

Other news…I’m putting the feelers out for new work. I don’t mind the current one, but the pay sucks and I’d have to bump up my hours to 32 a week to get insurance. I figure, if I’m going to be working just about full time hours I guess I better have a better job to show for it. I’ve been putting my resume out with a few government job services the past week, I’m going to spice up my resumes on monster and all those as well. I’d be keen to get a job in the city or federal gov. but we’ll see what happens. I’m just sick of minimum wage and if I have to work and be away from my son for most of the day, it needs to be worth it.

As far as I go, I’ve squirreled away pennies and I’ve plunked down the $ to start my NYIP courses. It’s photography related, but I figure it’s personal growth more than anything. I need to develop my own skills with that. I also want to look into some sort of skill building stuff for work. Erm, still fat. need to do more about that. I’m lazy and I’m finding it terribly hard to be motivated. I have some mommy friends to go do walks with, it’s just coordinating them. The warmer weather etc for doing all this exercising business is almost over and I still sit here doing nothing. I need to stop snacking as well. I keep the snacking to a minimum, but I need to do away with what I have and replace it with something better for me. Need to get a big water bottle to keep with me all the time so I can constantly slug the water back. Oh and that whole Curves thing. I’ll be starting that back up on Tuesday with a T/Th/Sat schedule. Hopefully life will leave me alone for 2 weeks so I can get back in the groove of things.

Anyhoos, I gotta bolt. Monkey has Gymboree here in a bit and I need to get a shower before I head out. Grocery shopping afterwards and maybe a stop at Costco!

oh here are some photos from the 85mm prime :)

My friend N

L & R on a walk while camping

L&D&Nanner Peel

I Peench

Gone Swimmin’

Living on the Edge

Dutchess