The Twinkies

We’ve been working on this night weaning thing for a while and progress is basically good. I kick Brian and he gets up to deal with the babies and I go back to sleep. Last night F, sick and getting 2 canines, wasn’t having it. She came to bed with us at about 12:30 and stayed there until 2:30 when I returned her to her crib because she was hitting me in the face. In her defense, she was sound asleep and knew not what she did. However, she still got moved.

She said her first (understandable) sentence yesterday. “Why Can’t I?”

Like the mark on her cheek? She picked that little ouchie up at play-group. I have no idea how but she was suddenly attached to my leg crying and about 20 minutes later that blossomed. There was another group there and some of those kids were older so I blame the other play-group children. Of course, she is a bit pushy herself so I wouldn’t be surprised if she had given as good as she got.

I don’t know anything about extended bedrest, PROM or prematurity. I was very lucky. I know, however, that some of you know too much about those things. If you do (or even if you don’t), please go offer some support to AMS of Our Own Creation who is in the hospital on her left side at 22w2d.

Breastfeeding Twins at 15 1/2 Months (’Cause, you know, I’m not the only one.)

High School Poetry (Everything this woman writes is fabulous. I have serious funny envy.)

She Who Cannot Control Her Children (And everything THIS woman writes is insightful and thought provoking. Did I mention that thing about envy?)

Add yours in the comments. It’s been a while since I did a blog round up post so I’ll remind you that you should link to your favorite post of the week. It doesn’t have to be brilliant, funny or a major milestone. You are writing a BLOG. You presumably want to share your writing. Link to it here.

I’m feeling so frustrated with my photography. I having been having trouble nailing my focus lately and a lot of shots seem muddy and underexposed. My black and white conversions have been lousy and I’m not happy with the tonal range in my black and white shots. This is a problem because aesthetically I much prefer B&W. I’ve been playing around this morning with the camera set to monocrome and have reached the following conclusions:

1) I am going off full manual and am going to use aperture priority mode for a while so I don’t have to worry about the shutter speed. I’ll let the camera do what I was trying to do - constantly readjust the ss as the kids move from one lighting condition to another.

2) I’m going to stop opening my aperture all the way. With f/1.8 the depth of field is SO shallow that if the kids move even a smidgeon the focus moves from their face to, say, their shirt. I’m not doing fashion photography I’m doing portraiture; the faces are more important than the clothes. Or the chair behind them. Or the window sill.

3) For right now I’m just going to shoot monocrome. Yes, I know, I know. One should shoot color and convert. But my conversions look worse than my monocrome shots and I want to work on my focus and lighting issues. I’ll work on my conversions later.

And the rejoicing. I got a call this morning from the Director of Admissions at the school to which we want to send the kids. They have openings in their toddler room (also called the Young Children’s Community). Starting in February they’ll spend 3 hours 4 mornings a week in a Montessori program. Life is sweet.