Our Kid is Awesome

Gareth gets to watch movies on Mondays while I do the laundry. (And lately more often as well, but we're going to do better about that this week.) He was sitting there happily watching his movie while I checked some blogs and whatnot on the computer. I went and told him that in fifteen minutes it was time for a nap. Then I proceeded to lose track of time until I heard his door shut. Yes, my child just turned off his movie and went to put himself down for a nap - at exactly the time I previously told him would be nap-time - all on his own. I doubt this will become a habit with him (though I certainly wouldn't mind). Some days he's so exasperating and some days, like today, he's awesome. I love awesome days - and could use a few more of them!

Halloween

I actually managed to put together a real costume for Gareth this year - one that I figured out as much as three weeks ahead of time! A huge thanks to my neighbor who took me along to Joann's with her, which is why I actually purchased a pattern for a costume. And then she let me use her coupons for the fabric and her sewing machine for the sewing. And there's no way it would've been made if it hadn't been for my mom patiently answering my gazillion questions every day about basic sewing things that the pattern assumed I should know. Here it is, Gareth the monkey:

Gareth at the playgroup Halloween party

Excited that we're letting him push the stroller.

Pre-trick-or-treating

I basically took shortcuts wherever possible when making the costume, so I didn't make a lining for the hood (good thing, since it barely fit as it was) and instead of making a tail I used the tail from our monkey leash and just clipped it to the belt loop on his pants. That turned out to be very useful for steering him around the neighborhood.

Overall, it was a fun weekend. Ryan and I made honey popcorn earlier in the day:

I meant to separate all of the unpopped kernels before putting the sticky stuff on, but totally forgot, so later Ryan tried to remove as many as he could find:

This stuff is awesomely delicious. And addicting. It's already gone. Gareth really enjoyed the little bits I gave him on Saturday, but on Sunday he decided it was too sticky or something and refused to eat anymore. Ryan and I certainly didn't mind that!

We went trick-or-treating with our neighbor and her little girl. Unfortunately, the best picture I got of her was from behind - my front one turned out blurry.


She's a bug, as you can probably tell, though it might be hard without seeing her other extra leg I suppose. She and Gareth got "oohed" over an awful lot - I think because there weren't too many other really little kids out. We saw a fair amount of 8-10 year olds and some middle and high schoolers, but not many others as small as our kids.

Gareth, of course, didn't remember anything about Halloween, but it only took him 4 or 5 houses to figure out that he needed to open his bag and the person would put candy in it. He did a pretty good job of saying "trick-or-treat" as well when we prompted him to, though he says it "critch-or-treat". It was slightly disappointing how few houses were participating. If there were eight houses in a cul-de-sac we were lucky if two were passing out candy. It's not like Gareth cared though. He got plenty of candy and had fun - maybe next year he'll remember what Halloween's all about.

A Little Short

I finally worked up the courage to cut Gareth's hair myself. But not with scissors - just with the razor. So now, even though I used one of the longest guides, it's super short and he kinda looks bald:


Ryan's fine with it, but I think I like it a bit longer. So maybe, since Gareth was so patient and good for this cut, next time I'll try to do it with scissors. If it turns out horribly he'll end up with this cut again.

Our neighbor was awesome and took some pictures of our family this past weekend. We got some really good shots, but then Gareth decided he's rather run around, so that brought the photo shoot to an abrupt end. I'll post a few once I get some time on the other computer, which is where they are.

Ahhh...

I finally got released from the nursery yesterday! It felt a little strange to be so free. I strongly considered introducing myself as someone new in Relief Society, but held back. A few friends were celebrating with me and for the first time in years Ryan and I attended Sunday school together (well, I suppose we have had the odd week here and there when visiting family or after just moving somewhere new, but it feels like it's been years).

I'm looking forward to getting to know more women in Relief Society. The hard part is that, over a year after moving in, my energy and excitement for being super sociable and reaching out to others has definitely waned. Perhaps the coming weeks will revitalize that. I felt bad about not trying harder yesterday, but between the strangeness of being there at all and combating my body's dislike for fasting I wasn't able to expend any energies in that arena.

Overall, I'm excited for this change. I got the Bishop to promise that whatever they give me to do next I'll be able to attend Sunday school and Relief Society. And while I may not always enjoy the lessons in those two hours (though yesterday's were pretty good), they should at least give me some food for thought and a much-needed break from Gareth. Besides, it felt awesome to go pick up Gareth yesterday and have him so ecstatic to see me - and for me to feel happy to see him as well.

Another Milestone

Gareth has hit another milestone this past week - climbing out of the crib. I was wondering if he'd ever figure that out before we moved him to a big bed. I'm hoping to purchase a mattress for him this next week, so he squeezed this accomplishment in at the last minute. Gareth's been really good about waiting patiently in his crib until we decide to wake up and get him. I was therefore quite surprised yesterday as I was getting ready for the day to hear him crying and to hear the sound get nearer to our room. When Ryan got up this morning he walked out to find Gareth in the living room playing with books. And when Gareth woke up from his nap this afternoon he failed to emit his usual cry for me, but quietly got himself out of the crib and came to find us. It's rather nice to have him get himself out of bed - or will be until he does it at 1 am.

Portraits

And now we come to my worst area of all - portraits. These are all pictures of Gareth, since I didn't have anyone else willing to have their picture taken. I would post some that Ryan took as well, but his aren't as easily accessible at the moment.



Now that we've got a nice quality point-and-shoot, we've decided we need to start saving up for a good SLR. Taking pictures of a constantly moving child is practically impossible with a point-and-shoot, unless you like your pictures really blurry.

My neighbor owns a mat cutter and we were able to get some linen tape from a local framing store, so I was able to mat a couple of my pictures myself (the clarinet keys and the water spigot). I was going to frame them myself as well, but when I took them to the frame store to verify I was about to do it correctly the nice man there framed them for me for free (but now I know how to do it myself in the future). My class is over now - our last couple of sessions were about matting and framing and then we held an "art show" at the church with finished products from both photography classes and a quilting class. It was a fun class, though a bit stressful at times, and I think I've learned a lot from it. Hopefully what I've learned will help my future picture-taking improve.

Line and Texture

I'm a bit behind, so I'm going to combine line and texture. A couple of weeks ago our class focused on line and how you can use line to make a picture seem more "positive" or "negative" or give weight or emphasis to objects in your picture. (A line going left to right in an upward motion will apparently give a positive feel to anyone who read left to right. Countries where they read the opposite will get the positive feel from right to left lines in an upward motion. Or so our teacher says.) Here are a couple of my line pictures:





Last week we discussed texture, which is basically what you'd think (the picture above would be an example of both line and texture). The idea behind texture in photography being that you want your viewer to get a sensory reaction to the picture. I had a much more difficult time finding texture pictures, but had more of them turn out decently. Here are some of those:






This week we're working on portraiture, which I'm afraid I'm no good at. In case you haven't noticed the trend, I seem to tend toward abstract pictures rather than representational. I feel that I never quite get everything working together right in the representational world. And it doesn't help that Gareth always, always, always notices when I'm taking pictures. Or that for some reason he's decided that having his feet/toes photographed is the best thing in the world. After this week we learn about matting/framing and then we get ready for our art show (held at the church) on August 4.