Bundled up to get apples...

not sure which one I like better...I had to spend a few minutes removing the cheese off of her face in photoshop!

Just like Ma!

Well, it snowed today so we got bundled up to go explore. I put Eva's warmest clothes on with her cute pink fur lined jacket.



She decided she'd rather wear Ma's hat and scarf!

Photography news - Wedding

This is exciting for me - my photography teacher chose me to help him shoot a Raleigh wedding at the end of the month. It will be my first professional shoot behind the camera. Yay!

Like mother, like daughter

I remember saying to myself growing up that I would never, NEVER stack things on the stairs for my kids to put away. For some reason that always drove me nuts (sorry Mom)! But now, not only do I stack stuff on the stairs for the kids to put away, but for Todd too. It makes perfect sense to me now, I guess I just didn't see it that way as a child.

Apparently Eva has a little more clarity than I...if she finds any shoes or other articles of clothing on the main level, she runs them straight over to the stairs! She is so happy and so proud of herself when she does it, that she claps :)

Mickeyisms

Ok, so most of you know that I keep a book called Mickeyisms where I write down some of the silly things that Mickey says. I'm going to start putting some on here because I often think of them while I'm sitting at my computer. If you can think of any, please add them in the comment section! Also, if you can remember his age when he said them, be sure to put that down as well...

Mickey, he's the coolest one (age 5)
King Arthur Day (age 10)
Beep! (age 5)
Hey, how about you look at my face (age 5)
Retirement - it's when you give up (age 9)
My bathroom is so clean and white, it's like heaven (age 10)
tanbark (age 5)


I'll think of more and keep adding on!

Some favorite new words...and other new things

turtle
Cuacito
pizza
help
pe-yow (said whenever there is something stinky, ie a foot, sock, skunk etc)

Caca (Santa - no idea where she got that one!)

diaper - for some reason paper diapers are 'diapers' and cloth diapers are 'poo poos'

Ma is still her name for Mickey

who who for an owl sound and uhu uhu if you want to hear it in Spanish!

What a cute boy!

Athletic photoshoot

I needed to do some athletic shots for my portfolio. I shot with a local Raleigh photographer today and got a ton of great shots. Now the problem is narrowing it down...

Football

Running

Yoga

After the Workout

If you have a few favorites, let me know!

Christmas babies

Todd's article in the News and Observer

System analyzes productivity

Software development doesn't happen in a vacuum -- but sometimes it feels like it.

Companies, wary of intruding into the creative process, traditionally have taken a hands-off approach to managing their developers. But without insight into employees' work, companies often don't know why their projects fail...

Click here to read more

Overboard - look out below!

Yep, she climbed out of the crib today and had a tough landing! Guess it's time to move that mattress one more notch down and hope that she doesn't try it again!

and Roll 'em!

Shot a commercial today for Lane Furniture. Woke up at 4:15 this morning so I could get out the door by 5:15. Believe it or not, I almost made it. I left at 5:30 and made record time to the West side of Greensboro. It took me exactly 60 minutes to get to Elm St. Thats not a bad time to drive - no traffic. Only problem was that I didn't have to be there until 8:00 AM! Despite the early day, it was a nice smoothe shoot! It only took 3 takes and we were finished.

A very serious face

Sound check

I did my first professional voiceover in a high tech sound booth today for a training company based out of DC. The studio was in downtown Raleigh in a historic building - very cool! It sounds like I will be getting quite a bit more work from these folks too!

Quack - Happy Halloween

Halloween was a lot of fun this year. We had a baby Halloween party for Eva and her friends from the main playgroup. Ava (duck), Alex (dragon), Lula (spider), twins (pocohontas'), Nicolette (ladybug), Alexa (pumpkin), and Eva (duck) were all there. Yes, 8-1 year olds dressed up. It was too cute.

During the party, Mickey was fortunate enough to have an escape plan. He headed out with Mary Margaret to the neighborhood Halloween party where he was dressed up as a baseball player and MM went as a soccer player. They came back afterwards, but didn't seem too interested in the babies!

On Halloween night, Mickey and Todd went with John, Drew and the crew around the neighborhood trick-or-treating. Eva and I headed over to Forest Hills Baptist Church to participate in the trunk-or-treating. Everyone brings their cars, trucks, suvs etc and opens the trunks and hands out candy out of the back of their vehicle. Some people go all out and decorate their trunks to be scary or themed. It was a fun experience.

Before trunk or treat begins, the church has dinner inside as well as rooms set up as stations for the kids to do activities. Eva was a huge hit as a duck. She ran up to random people and quacked. She also was very excited to see all of the 'punkies' (pumpkins) that were scattered throughout the church!

going, going, gone

This morning Miss Eva took 20 steps. Thankfully, we figured out the other day that she likes the mats on the floor and walks much more when they are out. She is all over the place and getting much more stable!

Communicating

Eva has been talking / signing up a storm lately. This morning, all four of us were in bed just trying to plan out the morning and talking. After we had a bit of a plan in place, I looked at Eva and asked her if she was hungry and wanted to go out and get bagels. She kept signing yes until I finally understood what she was saying - I just didn't expect her to answer me! Then she looked at us and signed diaper chance almost as if to say, wait, we can't eat until you change me. Just fascinating.

Yesterday, at her 12 month appointment, she showed the doctor a nice range of signs. As he was talking to her, she kept signing 'cow' for some reason, which of course, had Mickey cracking up. Not sure if she was calling him a cow or what she was doing, but she clearly wanted to indicate 'cow' every time he talked.

When it was time for him to examine her, she continuously signed 'Daddy'. This was the first doctor's appointment that Todd has missed, so I have to think she wanted him there and was trying to ask where he was. She did the same thing that evening. I put her in bed and she signed 'Daddy' a couple of times as if to ask for him. By the time he got back from Oregon, she was sound asleep.

'More' is another one of her new consistent signs. She'll let you know when she wants more and most of the time, what she wants more of.

We are also noticing just how much she understands. You can tell her to do something and she will very likely do it. We were playing on the floor in her room when I told her to go get her purple ball which was behind her. She turned around, went straight to the ball and brought it to me. Last night in the bathtub, I told her to put the fish in the pelicans mouth and then to shut it. She did both things that I told her and just smiled (probably because I was so excited)!

He's back!

What a big week...Mickey came home on Tuesday with Grandma and Grandpa Ward. Eva was so excited to see everyone, especially Mickey. She was even more excited when she woke up the next morning and realized that they were all still at the house! Mickey pulled Eva in her birthday wagon for hours. He strapped her in, wrapped a blanket around her, put a scarf around her neck and pulled her around like a princess. She absolutely loved it.

Eva's current status

With the crash of my PC a few weeks ago, I am a little behind in keeping everyone updated...so here it goes!

Eva is now walking! She has been taking steps as of 7.15, but only when someone holds their hands out and calls her. On Wednesday, she decided to walk across the office (8 steps) to rummage through a bag of stuffed animals. Yesterday, she discovered that she can walk from toy to toy across the great room. I'd say she is now on her feet 50% of the time and crawling the other 50%.

Current words:
Momm(a/y), Daddy, kitty, baby, hi, doggy, bubble, and balloon (no longer bubbloo!). Oh, she can also quack and moo.

Current signs:
duck, milk, fan, light, more, eat, come here, diaper change, dog, kitty, horse, cow, daddy, mommy

She has been signing away lately. It seems like everything is falling into place. Even though she doesn't sign every word that I have been teaching her, she clearly understands them. There have been times that I have signed to her without speaking and she follows the command - fascinating!

Certified Bubblologist

You guessed it. Eva's most recent achievement. She is now a certified bubblologist through Raleigh Parks and Recreation. Tonight we explored the world of bubbles through various bubble stations and activities. She was excited to see all of the bubbles and the balloons, but nothing was as exciting as the parachute. It was a full-sized rainbow colored parachute which they called the big bubble. Eva sat near the edge as we all lifted it up and let it sail back down to the floor. She squealed in excitement and thought that this was just the coolest thing ever. Needless to say, we stayed at this station the longest!