Boop's Photos. 9-27-15

Boop frequently nabs my camera. Here are a few recent ones:

She took this of the sky over the Mall in DC near the Washington Monument

She instructed me to "make a silly face" as she snapped this photo at Sesame Place in Philadelphia
But, I'm just generally sticking my tongue out at you.

Here is a recent photo I took of the photographer herself.

And here's a photo of Boop on her latest adventure.

Wolf Mom Parenting? 3-26-15

Just read these stories this morning:
Wolf Dad Parenting
Er, All I have to say to this dad is: Have fun at 2 1/2 years when you finally try to get him to wear clothes. Fortunately, we've gotten to the other side. Maybe. I hope. Boop is well into her 3's. I had to eliminate Peppa Pig from the screen. Ah sweet Peppa Pig seems so perfectly harmless. Yet, Peppa Pig encouraged all sorts of defiant behavior--not wearing clothes, not going to daycare, not going to bed, not having dinner at the table. Peppa could not be interupted. Alas, Peppa was sacrificed for the benefit of household harmony. Thankfully, we may have also lost the temptation of 'muddy puddles,' but I kinda diffused that when I explained that Peppa was a pig, and that pigs like to play in mud (not really true but true enough to get us through the moment). I have made my piece with Teen Titans Go! They really aren't so awful. Certainly not the IQ-dropping mind-suck of Spongebob Squarepants.

"Little Brats" playing on Veterans Memorial
Yes, I can see Boop trying to have a go at something like this. I'm sure she's already offended people horribly, as have I by my parenting misdeeds. But, goodness, the two of them are pretty old and have scaled pretty high. I guess the troubling thing is that the parents laughed, thought that what the kids were doing was funny. And it sounds like it took a huge crowd to take the hint that this was not okay and not funny. No apologies offered to the by-standing vets. No apparent scolding of the children. Hm. At times like these, I'm thinking it might be helpful to do a little research on the monument and sit down and have a talk: Information on the Vietnam Women's Memorial. Regardless of what you think of the Vietnam War, c'mon these were nurses. MASH was never really my thing (my parent's watching likely conflicted with a Peppa-Pig-like show that I wanted to watch and the blood, still don't like to see blood and innards), but I can appreciate the day-to-day difficulties of nurses in war. And it gives a hint, even if depicting Korea.

Boop's photo of me in the morning.
Yep, nearly 2 years and $5000 of Invisalign and still not quite right.

Firecrackies! 7-6-14

Hope you had a wonderful July 4th!

"Elbow #1" 6-9-14

My Budding Young Photographer

This is Boop's first photo of me. I'm clearly dressed to the nines in my house cleaning clothes; I guess she was going for me in my natural state. Although at first glance, you might think this is her "Up the Nose" period, she was clearly going for my elbow, as she's a little obsessed with elbows these days. She proudly proclaimed "ELBOW!" when she reviewed the photo.
Even looking at this post, she was inspired to grab my arm and announce, "That's Mommy's elbow!" 

What's wrong with my camera? 12-27-13

It looks like Boop has done something to my camera.
Or as Boop would say, "I fick it! I fick it!" <translation: I fixed it! I fixed it!>

Push and Pull. 11-15-13

photo by SF

Boop and I at the park before Halloween

Summer, Revisted. 10-25-13

Boop is so used to seeing butterflies on our buddleia, 

that she calls butterflies "fowfers" (flowers). 

I'm not if she knows the difference or has confused one for the other.

These were done by SF.

Another Beau. 10-22-13

I took this photo of Boop in the park while at the family reunion.

She met a little boy at the playground. It doesn't take her long.

Cute now, but when she's a teenager, I'm going to have to watch her like a hawk!

Happy 4th of July--a little late.

Stinker #1 and Stinker #2 at Grandma's:
All dressed up with nowhere to go.

Up and Down the Stairs. 10-20-13

 She loves to play on the steps...

Come Out, Winnie! 9-15-13

Do you recognize this child? 7-28-13

a photo from SF

On the Move. 6-26-13

These photos were taken in late May, but our photographer just returned from Iran. The election slowed down things a bit there. These are copied from a PowerPoint she sent.

If she's not on my lap, she is clinging to my knees.
This gets really challenging when I try to make dinner and slows me down a fair bit, in general.

San Francisco Easter Photos. 6-23-13

Curly girl with bunny from Aunt R

Look in her eyes: You can see she's just angling for mischief! 

More of the February Photos. 5-30-13

Christmas in May. 5-28-13

Here are some older photos that we had done after Christmas.

Yikes! 5-10-13

That's just scary! 

Just because a photo effect can be done, doesn't mean it should.

Not that I look that much better here...

Shoulda Been in Pictures. 9-29-12

Mom didn't want her face in the photo.
A photo after the session...

My mom and I have a compulsion to take Boop’s photos all of the time. We have oodles. You’ve seen plenty on the blog. However, you may not have seen the ones we get from Wally World. We are there at least once per month. Some we like more than others. We had a new photographer this time. I can’t say I was excited about the photos he took. Some of them, Boop looks scared to death. Not sure how he managed that!

So, when I called to schedule last weekend, I had to try and pick a time that Mom would be here. I asked him about Sunday morning. There was someone scheduled at 10:30am, and they opened at 10am. I asked for the 1^st one, explaining that my mother needed to travel on Sunday. So he scheduled us at 10am. It took him 20 min. (after 10am) to get started; he was moving pretty slowly and spending a fair bit of time on the phone and such. After shooting the photos, we waited on him to download the photos and finish them.

While we waited, we tried to make small talk with the next family. The grandparents were talking the most. Well, it was mainly the grandmother. The woman was upset that we got the 1^st spot because SHE wanted it. Mom and I were pleasant.  UNTIL we got out to the car. THEN we let it rip—or let them rip—or ripped them. It started with me cracking up but saying nothing. I was just waiting for Mom to start. We made it to the stop light: “They weren’t nothing but snobs! Well, it was the grandmother...”

Clearly the woman thought they were better than us. I’m cracking up. The woman knew nothing about us—leading us to wonder a bit about how she perceived our situation in comparison to hers. Yep, she was clearly better than us in her cheap flip flops. AND getting their photos done at Wally World, no less; definitely the go-to spot for the well-to-do who want everyone to know how good they are. Poor little boy, he was named after an object that was a common farm danger; this in spite of the lady’s apparent displeasure with my child’s name. Boop was getting really fussy, and the rest of the family had left except the grandmother. Mom and I decided I should go ahead and nurse. I covered, of course, but part of me secretly hoped it offended her—and from what I gathered from the woman, it probably did ;) People are funny. She certainly entertained us.

Dock of the Bay. 8-6-12

Irrelevant photo of Boop in green shoes!

I was emphatic with Mom, 'whatever we do, we have to be sure that Boop gets her naps.' So, we waited until she got her morning nap to do anything. She got a late start on her morning nap; so we had to delay our lunch, and delay our lunch, and delay our lunch. She woke up at about 12:30pm and got ready ready by 1pm. We were going to get lunch first but decided it best to have her photos done first. Boop would surely get something on her pretty dress if we went to eat first. 

Someone else was finishing up when we went to get her photo; so we had to hang around about another half hour. Then, her photos. Such a lovely subject: how could there be a bad photo of our little Boop? Hard to choose, hard to choose. Collages? Yes, well, but we want this and this instead. And so it went. We were pretty hungry by the time we left there. The directions I had for the restaurant on the lake weren't great; so I got a little turned-around a few times. I was so used to driving there when it was all detours here and there. I made it harder to get there than it needed to be.

It was just a little mom-n-pop type place on the lake. They had a little boat dock there and plenty of birds hanging out. We enjoyed seeing the little duckies paddle around in the water. And Miss Boop did well through it all. Nary a cry; although she did make many grunts to make it clear that she wanted more! more! carrots and rice cereal. Unfortunately, this made her a bit late for her afternoon nap, but we managed.

Waxing Patriotic. 5-22-12

Off to get photos at Wally World.
Mom liked the bib because it matched her dress.