Fingerpainting

In an effort to make some father's day masterpieces, we decided to try a little fingerpainting. Umm.....yeah. As if trying to do this with an infant very much in the oral stage wasn't hard enough, trying to a) keep her from falling over on the concrete b) keep her from ripping the paper to shreds and c) trying to take pictures without getting paint all over the camera made the task almost impossible. I felt like an octopus. At one point, I had my left hand pulling the paint top out of her mouth, my right hand snapping pictures, and my left foot keeping her stable.

I think we'll revisit this again a little further down the road, but in the meantime, I hope you can catch the humor in this situation! :)

The fun part actually came afterwards when it was clean up time. My water baby absolutely loved playing with the hose. And even after the water went up her nose more than once, she kept going for it again and again and again.

Just SCRUMPTIOUS.

Parker's a good dog

Emma was on the ground and I started to film her as she did her army crawl. Well, Parker wanted in on the action, so he sat RIGHT in front of me, with his tail in Emma's face. She couldn't get enough of this moving furry thing and kept grabbing at it. I had to keep saying "good dog, Parker" so he would keep wagging his tail in her face! :)

Parker's Tail from Eeks on Vimeo.

And then my pooor meeeeatballlll.....

You gotta love IKEA. I have rediscovered this place as a fun place to take kids. They have a mother's nursing/changing room, and the restaurant makes it easy to dine in! We go there for the swedish meatballs, and this saturday wasn't any different.

Except.......for Annie Oakley over here. This picture was taken right before Emma saw the plate of meatballs and grabbed it in a flash. Boy, is she getting QUICK! The two adults with her were slow on the draw, and the plate came crashing to the floor. Meatballs everywhere! Luckily, she found it fairly amusing and didn't get hurt. IKEA was nice enough to replace our plate with a new batch.

Oh, and I think their $20 highchairs are the best ones I've seen yet! Too bad we already have one, or I would totally get it.

Katherine Oppermann 1910-2007

Emma is named after two very special people. Her first name is taken after my babysitter growing up, who was like a second mother to me (see here).

Her middle name is after my maternal grandmother. Kay was an elegant, classy and loyal lady. She passed away in November 2007 at the age of 97. We hope that Emma inherited this longevity.

Last weekend, we took another road trip up to Santa Barbara (side note: this trip was MUCH easier once I reclined her car seat all the way back. DUH!) We had a quick weekend visit with family, introducing Emma to her aunt and two cousins.

My grandmother was one of four sisters, and the last one to pass away. So we decided to pay tribute to her and her sisters with the help of some beautiful floral wreaths, lily petals, a nice captain, a gentle sailboat ride and the Pacific Ocean.

Cousin Eric
My aunt Kyra and cousin Katie

Me and mom



We had a visitor. A local harbor seal wanted to know what was going on! :)

Sisters

8 months old!

Emma is 8 months old, and every day is a new discovery. Her little personality is really developing and she makes me laugh all the time. She can't get enough of people - any people, really. We go to the store and she just smiles and laughs at people and loves playing 'peek-a-boo' with any willing participant. Her laugh is funny too, it's kind of a chuckle. She cracks herself up and chuckles with this infectious, deep, gutteral "huh huh huh huh". Other times, it's a big gasp of air and then a long, hard, belly laugh. No doubt about it, this chick has a great sense of humor.

She's also beginning to show her recongnition of things: the Goodnight Moon book we read every night before going to bed - she loves to scratch the pages while we rock. The sound of her baby food being prepared, and the clanking of the spoon. She also hears Parker's nails on the floor as he enters her room, and she starts to look for him. The MINUTE we walk into the bathroom after dinner for bath time the arms start flailing and she starts looking for the rubber ducky faucet cover, whose beak she loves to chew on. She loves life, and life loves her.

Anyhoo, in honor of her latest birthday, we decided to bust out a few new 'toys'. It seems that just about every month or so, some poor toy from last month (so passe) gets rotated out of play and the new one gets rotated in. This month, we have a handy-dandy shopping cart cover (that makes shopping at Target that much easier....not that I need the help, frankly), the Leap Frog activity table, and the big rubber ducky bath tub! Ahhh. What a great life for this little popsicle.

Oh yeah, and she now has three teeth - all on the bottom. Silly Snaggletooth.





This last picture is kinda goofy, but it shows her hands as I know them: in constant state of motion! :)

The return of BTK

....no, not the serial killer - our friends! Brent, Tom and Kevin! They came to hang out with us for Memorial Day Weekend. I didn't get a lot of pictures, but here are a few from their visit. Emma looooooved having some boys to flirt with. :)

More editing

Here is another example of one photo, edited to enhance the photo. The first is the original.

Ok, and my last example is one of my favorite photos, because it will forever remind me of the cute little cottages down on Crystal Pier:

Before:

After:

Post-processing

One of the things I am learning about photography is that there are a few things you can learn to take a great picture -- but half the work comes afterwards. To make your photos look like the professionals, you usually have to do some post-processing (editing). It's not really cheating, since it's not a secret and all the pro's do it.

I am just embarking on this education, so I have some pretty basic editing tools (read: software) that I am trying to master. Here is an example of how you can take a good photo and "turn it up" some. I posted the original down below. It's subtle, but you can still pick out the difference. Here is the edited version:

My Little Pink Riding Hood

Will be 8 months old tomorrow!!!

My latest obsession

My sister sent me the link to a fellow mom's blog. I've basically read her entire blog, and I can't get enough. This adorable couple from texas has QUADRUPLETS!! They're also close to Emma in age.

Seriously, I'm obsessed with them. She makes it look so easy!! I have major respect for her family. I can only imagine how busy she is, and yet her posts are always so positive, funny and sentimental. Oh yeah, and she looks AWESOME pretty much all of the time.

http://www.thelifeofsuz.blogspot.com/

Cracks me up

Not only is this song one of my all-time dance favorites, but this video is REALLY cute. Enjoy!!


Behind the Scenes: Dance Off! from Human Giant on Vimeo.

100 posts!

This is our 100th post!

Things have been good, but very busy. Aunt Rachael came to stay with us for the weekend, and we had so much fun. I got two good videos to share with you.

You definitely need sound for the first video to hear Emma smackin' her lips for yummy carrots, also check out the cute hand gesture. Bring it on!

Lip-Smackin Good from Eeks on Vimeo.

And now for Jumperoo Madness:

Watch out, ya'll! from Eeks on Vimeo.

Hanging out and pool time

Last post from the weekend. We had fun hanging out with G.G. who read to me about Fashion (what else?!) and hitting the pool for the first time with the little fish. She loved it!

I love my Tia...
....and my Uncle Andy!

I know a girl called 'Party Girl'

Emma's bedtime fell during the dinner reception, so I wasn't sure exactly how everything would play out. I should have known - this girl is a serious partier. She fell asleep during dinner in her stroller, but when the band started playing, she cracked one eye open and noticed that people were having fun without her.

Needless to say, this girl was not going to sit on the sidelines. Despite having changed into her jammies, she hit the dance floor with the rest of the crowd and hammed it up. Her personal favorite was getting low on the ground to the song "Shout!" (a little bit softer now.....). We had a great time dancing with her, she was such a good sport.

And now for the wedding...

April 28, 2008
4pm

Congratulations Katie and Ian! I can't imagine a more beautiful place to get married. We had a wonderful time, and a big thank you to Doug and Cathy for allowing us to share in their celebration.