Do you understand exposure?

Well, DO YOU? Apparently Bryan Peterson thinks he does, because he wrote a book about it. In my desperate attempt to actually maintain a HOBBY, I have signed up for a photography class at the Indianapolis Art Center. I figured, what's the sense in having an expensive digital camera, if I only know how to shoot in the "auto" mode. Here is my homework for the week...experimenting with aperture and shutter speed:

The subject was a single night light. Since the shutter was open for almost 20 seconds, I moved the camera to the right and then to the left and it recorded 3 images
aperture:20 shutter speed:19sec


Way over-exposed, but very cool looking
aperture:3.5 shutter speed:1sec


aperture:5 shutter speed:1sec


aperture:13 shutter speed:1sec

Rite of Passage

Alina has officially passed into "girlhood" with her brand spankin' new pierced ears! I know, I know...she could get a terrible ear-lobe-rotting infection, I subjected her to unnecessary pain and trauma AND I am only feeding society's objectification of women, but, darn it, they sure are cute!



For all of you truly concerned mom's out there, she didn't cry or even wince while getting it done, and I promise to faithfully apply antiseptic every night:)

"Santa ate my lovey!"...and other tales of Christmas woe

Well, I have finally recovered enough from the holidays to blog about the holidays. We had a great time with extended family, as usual, but also enjoyed staying home in our pajamas all day on Christmas day! It was especially fun this year as Alina is old enough to have expectations about Santa, presents, etc. Alina was amazed that Old St. Nick had eaten the cookies we left out. Later on that morning, her lovey came up missing. She was distressed about it and I asked her where it was. She started to cry and said, "Santa ate it!" I guess Santa can seem like a pretty scary character to a 2-year-old.

On the 26th we started our road trip to Jacksonville, FL. As we bid farewell to the 465 loop, we were all healthy and happy, looking forward to seeing friends and a trip to Disney Land on Tuesday. This feeling of wellbeing continued through Kentucky, Tennesee, Georgia....then something happened when we hit Florida. I know you're supposed to feel better as you go to a warmer climate, but what happened to our bodies was some sort of abberation. The first night, Alina woke up with a temp of 101. This combined with a new sleeping environment resulted in me pulling the first all-nighter since college. The next morning, basking in the glow of the warm Florida rays, I told myself that she must just be fighting off a little bug. Unfortunately, things only went down-hill from there. By Monday morning, she was spiking scary-high temps which I felt warrented a trip to the nearest immediate care center. As we were at the pharmacy getting Alina's presciption filled, Meagan started complaining of a sore throat. We only had one shot that week to go to Disney...with one kid now on antibiotics and the other kid in the early stages of getting sick, we thought we had a good window to make a break for it. Instead of staying the night in Orlando, we decided to get up at 4AM and drive the 3 hours from Jacksonville to Orlando (we like to do things the hard way). Fearing that the park would sell-out that day, and with the kids half-dressed and doped up on Motrin, we literally raced to the entrance.

Here we are looking pretty bedraggled, but successfully inside of the Magic Kingdom


We hated to wake Alina up when it was her turn to meet the Princesses, but gosh darn it, we waited in line long enough she was going to have fun

Notice, she has no shoes


The girls looking really cute in their face paint








We left the park 12 hours later at 8PM and drove to Naples, where we spent a truly relaxing and enjoyable time with friends. The weather was perfect and the girls loved the beach









Here is NiNi with "Aunt Monica". Ok, nevermind that she looks like AMAZON baby in this picture




Although the weather and the company were both great, our health continued to decline. Chris and I succumbed to the fever/sore throat virus, hitting it's peak during the 19 hour drive back up north. By the time mommy acutally drug herself to the doctor, it had turned into a mild pneumonia. Go figure.

Now we're back home, bracing ourselves for the really grueling part of Indiana winters. Hmmm...let's do a little comparison:

Florida: Happy, sunnny, lot's of endorphins flowing

Indiana: Cold, gray, low endorphins


I guess we still have our children to entertain us. Here are a couple of recent quotes.

Meagan: "Your spit smells like bologna" (A refreshing twist on the usual sibling banter)

NiNi: "I have a diaper rash. Need to put cream on it" (I guess when your kid is old enough to diagnose and treat their own diaper rash, it's time to potty trian)

I gave NiNi a good morning kiss and she said, "Mommy, you stinky" (What would we do without our children calling to our attention our bad breath, pimples, food stuck in the teeth, etc.)

In trying to psych NiNi up for breaking the finger sucking habit, I explained to her that she is a big girl now. Only babies suck their fingers. Then I asked her, "Are you a baby or a big girl?" She replied, "I'm a baby." So much for psychology.

Mommy's Chores

I had been making up a new chore chart for Meagan when I found this in her doodle notebook:


Hmmm...Do I sense a little passive-aggressiveness? If the lettering is too hard to make out, it says:

Daily-before eating dinner

1. Put laundry in washer-dryer
2. Make kitchen counters clean
3. Cook dinner

Ah, if those were my only chores, I would be a happy woman indeed.

Recent NiNi quotes I want to remember:

Giving herself a pre-potty pep-talk: "Poop, come out of my body!"

Her new favorite movie: "The Poo-Poo Panda" (aka Kung-Foo Panda)

As you may notice, "poop" and its many variations is a popular word right now

While Chris is at work, NiNi likes to walk around the house and say, "Where daddy? Watching football?"

We were quizzing her on family members names...
me: "What's sissy's name?"
NiNi: "Meagan"
me: "What's NiNi's name?"
NiNi: "Alina"
me: "What's daddy's name?"
NiNi: "Honey!"

She also has an amazing memory and calls us out on ALL of our bad parenting moments. The other day we had switched car seats and forgot to reattach her seat to the seatbelt. As Chris pulled out of the driveway he looked back to see Alina strapped into her seat, with the seat itself laying sideways. Later NiNi ran up to me and said, "Daddy tipped my carseat...it was scaaaaaary"

Ask how old she is and she will proudly say, "Two-na-haf" I'm not quite sure where she picked that up since neither of us say that.

She has also learned to "joke" with us. We like the girls to respond with "Yes Ma'am/Sir" when an adult speaks to them. The other day I asked NiNi to do something and she looked me straight in the eye and said "Yes SIR!" At first I thought she just misspoke so I asked again, "What did you say?" Laughing now, she said again, "Yes SIR"

Playing catch up...

It's been awhile since I've posted any of the miscellaneous pictures that have been piling up or given a good update on the girls, so here goes.

Alina has finally and thankfully transitioned to her new daycare. It's been rough the past couple of months. At one point we couldn't even mention the name "Ms. Teri" (her teacher) without Alina bursting into tears. The report from her teachers now is that Alina LOVES school, and has a great time while she's there (M-W-F). Ms. Teri is wonderful, warm and kind. They have a short session of "school time" each day. Alina now knows her ABC's, can count 1-10 and writes the number 1. She does amazing crafts with the kids. One day Alina brought home this elaborate paper flower-pot. I said, "That is so pretty, who made that?" She said, "Ms. Teri did!" (Ms. Teri got busted)

We're still battling the chronic sinus infections. After two visits to the ENT and ruling out other causes, the doc came to the conclusion that the fistula is causing the infections (Um, I think I heard someone else mention that about 700 dollars ago) but that he would NOT do the surgery. Since the fistula is related to the cleft he is sending us back to the plastic surgeon at Riley. The problem is, our surgeon there happens to be world-famous and it takes months to get in even for a consultation. Meanwhile, NiNi is getting these infections about every 6-8 weeks now. Ugh. We're currently trying to change surgeons, at least for this procedure, since it is relatively simple.

Potty training is almost complete(Yeah!)and her language continues to develop by leaps and bounds. Recent quotes:

"Mommy, I play in the playroom....Don't say no to me" (Gee I wonder where she's heard that before?)

"That's so cute!" (When we're at a department store and she sees clothes or shoes)

"I need a mommy, I need a mommy!" (All of her babies and stuffed animals say this. If you've read the book "A Mother for Choco" [our favorite adoption book] this will sound familiar)





Meagan is doing great in school. We try to not let it go to our heads too much, but actually, Chris thinks she is a genius. Ok, we're just a little bias. She is reading at an end-of-fourth-grade level now. We are reading the Nancy Drew books together. (I have to admit that I struggle at times with some of the out-dated vocabulary...the books were written in the 30's after all!) She continues to amaze us with her 'deep thinking' ways. Most recently she came to the conclusion:
"Mom, 80 is really old...but when YOU'RE 80, try to forget about that."



We have her in swimming lessons now. She is the oldest in the class but she is overcoming her fears and gaining new skills and I think she really likes it. She is truly her mother's daughter in terms of being non-athletic.

She likes to do her own hair now. I guess the style is to have all of it pulled into a pony-tail except one strand which hangs down in front of the face. I have to really bite my tongue sometimes as I watch her go out the door in the mornings...as I'm sure my mother did with me! Hair styles are not the only things we are behind on. Chris recently got an iPod. We are always about 5 years behind in technological advances. Anyway, we were trying to figure out how to use it when Meagan asked what we were doing. Trying to put it into terms she could understand I said, "Daddy just got this new thing...it's like a little radio." Meagan said, "Mom, it's called an iPOD."

Last but not least, we tried to have yet another family picture taken. I thought the out-takes were pretty funny. Meagan was recovering from strep throat and Nini was minus a nap

Happy Halloween

Here are some pictures of our two pirates. Yes, I realize that one of the pirates bares a striking resemblance to Pocahontas, but that is just a coincidence. NiNi insisted that she was indeed a "piwat"


By the way, that's OUR candy she's slipping into her bag


We did have a pre-trick-or-treating emergency. Meagan could not find the eye patch that went with her costume. In classic "MacGuiver" style I was able to quickly fashion a new one using a piece of cardboard, a glue gun, and an eye glasses polishing cloth. I was very proud of the end product...unfortunately, Meagan decided that she did not want to wear the homemade eyepatch which is why she looks just a little bit ticked off in all of these pictures

More deep thoughts...

Meagan:

"If no one ever died, would there be too many people in the world?"

"Are there lice in China?"



There was a huge glob of green snot coming from Alina's nose and I asked, "Do you need a kleenex?"

She replied, "No, I wipe mommy's pants."

Of course.