New Camera

I've been experiencing camera frustration for several years now. I'll go through the ups and downs of reviews and feedback and finally breakdown and buy a camera. Then, within 30 days, I realize I don't like it. For one reason or another, it does not fit my needs. Usually I just keep the camera and gripe about it until I get bored with even using it. However, at Christmas I bought a camera and was so unhappy with the picture quality that I actually returned it. I went for months putting off the process of buying another camera. So many memory-making-photo-capturing moments slipped away because we had no camera to record the moments. The blog went by the wayside because I had no camera to get good shots. Well, that has changed. I FINALLY broke down and moved away from the point-and-shoot cameras to the SLR style. And, like the day after I got my king-sized bed... I said, what the heck took me so long to do this!?!

It is as wonderful as people say. It's addicting and fun. The "professional photographer" comes out in everyone who picks up the camera and starts to play around with it. And, we did not even go top of the line. We bought what I consider to be a great starter camera for us. The Nikon D3100 was our choice and I am thrilled! So, get ready for some great pics. Here are just a few from the first day.

Granny In Town

Andrew really enjoys climbing all over playing with Granny because, for the most part, she does not act like a granny. She crawls on the ground, goes down the slides, rides on his "bike" and has as much fun as he does with his toys. It's fascinating to watch how they interact and the hours they can spend together playing games and just enjoying each other.

The unfortunate part is that Granny is only in town once every few months. So, they try to pile all the fun of 2 months in to 3 days. They do a pretty good job of it. Here are some pics from the latest visit
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 By the time my mom leaves - she is absolutely worn out...and so is he.

=

Andrew's Bike

We bought the most awesome bike attachment for Andrew and he absolutely loves it. We ride bikes almost 4 times a week and he gets so excited. I can't recommend this enough. Because we live so close to his school, Jeff and I ride our bikes to pick him up several days a week.

Jeff is much more brave than I am with the bike so he will go much faster, jump over curbs and ride across fields. I'm more boring and basically ride straight at a slower pace. Needless to say, Andrew much prefers riding the bike with daddy. Boys...

Andrew and His ABC's

Ok, I'm that proud mommy that posts a half way decent attempt at ABC's. I think he did fantastic and I'm so proud of my kiddo.

A new camera...finally!

Things have been very quiet on the blog front around here. Mostly because our family camera bit the dust. Back when Andrew was about 3 months old, a bottle of milk was in my purse for an afternoon feeding. The beauty of Avent Bottles - they leak. The milk turned over in my purse and soaked our camera. It still worked - for the most part - for almost 2 more years. Although, to see your pictures, you had to look through a very cloudy screen of old milk. It was gross - but I was not going to spend several more hundred dollars to get a new camera when the one I had would work just fine. Well - those days are done. The camera gave up.

I bought a new camera and it should arrive today. I'm thrilled!

In the meantime, here are a few pictures of my kiddo from my mom's camera.

Halloween 2011

 Happy Halloween! We had a fantastic time trick-or-treating last night. It was a beautiful night, the weather was absolutely perfect and the kiddos had a blast.

To address his costume - typically, Andrew is allowed to watch 2 shows - Sesame Street in the morning before school and Yo Gabba Gabba in the afternoon. Andrew's Costume is one of the characters on Yo Gabba Gabba, a robot named Plex. I was not overly thrilled to dress my child as a character from a tv show but that's what you get when you shop for costumes 3 days before Halloween. We were lucky to get something that sort-of fit and after 2 trips to the same store - had all of the pieces and parts.

We decided yesterday afternoon that our neighborhood was not the best for trick-or-treating. There are not many kids on our street and historically, we've never had more than 10 knocks on the door in the past years. So, we wanted Andrew to see what it was like to be around tons of kids and a big neighborhood with lots of decorations and candy opportunities. Mission Accomplished. 

We, along with "Aunt" Jennifer, met up with our friends Mendy and Joe who live across the street in a much larger neighborhood. Their son, Carter, is a month older than Andrew and so we figured the boys would have lots of fun together.

It started pretty slow for Andrew. He was nervous and was not comfortable saying Trick-or-Treat. We had been practicing door knocking, trick-or-treat saying and thank-yous all week. But, at go time - my kiddo was a bit shy. That shy behavior lasted for the first 5 houses and then he really embraced his role. So much so that we had to tell him kicking the door to get them to open it was not necessary...neither was helping them open the door or actually walking in to their home to find more candy. It was tons of fun to watch and I was beaming with excitement for my baby boy.

Andrew mastered the Trick-or-Treat pretty quickly, but the Thank You usually came about 3 seconds after they closed their door and we were turned around to leave. But, hey - the sentiment was there.

We trick-or-treated for about an hour and a half. We found ourselves a bit further from the starting house than we anticipated so we were out a little longer than Andrew was prepared. But, he was still a trooper. He had so much fun.

It could not have been more perfect! It was an amazing Halloween and it makes me absolutely adore even more being his mom. I can't wait to watch him get to experience more holidays.

 P.S. - Pictures are terrible quality - my camera broke and I'm using my phone to capture moments. It is not a good alternative and this will be remedied very soon.

Andrew And The Hat

My parents came in to town this weekend to spend some time with us. And, when I say us.. I mean Andrew. They are so enthralled with him and are amazed at how much he grows and learns in the short time they are away from him. As much as they told me that they did not want to leave, I don't think I could have paid them to stay. They were absolutely worn out from my kiddo. He is a handful and has non-stop energy. He is obsessed with them and insists that they are involved in all aspects of his day. Hard for them - but a vacation for me!

At one point in the weekend, my dad gave Andrew his hat to play with. Well, this started a bit of an obsession with "the hat". Andrew adored wearing it and running around with it covering his eyes.

A few pics from the hat moments...

This is when it began... at the park.

 The next day...it started again.

He thought it was hilarious!

We will miss Granny (pronounced nannneee by Andrew) and Pappy very much. Can't wait to see them again! I have a feeling it will be sooner than later - they are as obsessed with him as he is with "the hat".