At Play

I went to the doctor this morning to finally get some meds to treat the sinus infection that just will not end. Yesterday, I took Evan to the pediatrician for a stealth bomb ear infection. I'm calling it that because it came out of nowhere and the casualties were fierce. The sick has been in our house for weeks and I'm so ready to be done with it.

So needless to say I haven't had much energy to pick up the camera lately. But the other day, pre-ear infection, Evan was being particularly cute sitting in the floor playing with his trains and cars.









I want (need!) to get better about capturing these every day moments as much as the posed ones. Even if it's just picking up the iPhone. The camera on the 4s is incredible and I've been posting some of those images on instagram (@jlzoneil if anyone cares to follow!).

I've got a kid and a dog who are pretty good at humoring me.



Poor McFly, he stayed because I asked him to, even while his hind legs were sliding out from underneath him on the floors.



I'm testing out the beta version of Adobe's Lightroom 4 editing software. I switched to a Mac last week, so it seemed like as good a time as any. I'm not 100% sold yet, but I do like some of the new manual controls when I'm converting to b/w. In any case, that's why my old watermark isn't on these. I need to add them to the new catalog, or maybe this would be a good time to design a new one.

New Year, New Look, New (ish) Photos

I decided to change up the look of the blog. Truth be told, I decided this months ago, but just didn't have the time to make it happen. I had the best of intentions over holiday break - the first time in 10+ years I can remember taking the entire block from Christmas Eve to New Year's Day off. It was glorious. Mostly. I was also going to work out every day. And plan fun, brain-boosting activities every day with Evan. I went to the gym once, and Evan and I ate cake.

Look how cute this cake is.



Almost too cute to eat.



Almost.





Anyway, we had fun, and we did go sneak in to the park last weekend for an unusually warm January day. I figured if the runners could use the paths for exercise when the park is closed, we could nonchalantly, accidentally wander off the path and make sure the playground equipment was still up to snuff. It is, and you're welcome.

(cell pic)


So what do you think of the new look? I was going for something smaller and simpler than the previous banner. Eventually I might add some rotating images in those boxes. I have plans now, so look for it in June, mmmkay?

Christmas Day

When you have family both near and far, all who have their own families near and far, trying to schedule when (or sadly, if) you'll see everyone isn't easy. For several years I felt like we spent more time in the car than we did with each other. It's what we do though, isn't it? Be flexible. (We learned our lesson - before Evan - about trying to see three families in one day, 3 hours apart).

This year we happened to be home on Christmas day. And I have to admit, having Evan, it was kinda' nice. This was the first year he seemed to get what all the excitement was about. He was consistent in what he wanted Santa to bring him whenever anyone asked. One of his teachers at school helped with this note:



*The water reference has to do with which firetruck he wanted. He checked out several in store and settled on the one that shoots "water" (not really, just these little plastic balls that are supposed to represent water. Thank you, Santa and Matchbox for keeping my house - and the cats who live here - dry).

So he knew what he wanted, but couldn't quite grasp when all this was going to happen. It's January 14th and he told me today he thinks it's Christmas because it was snowing. For several weeks leading up to Christmas Eve he'd tell me me at bedtime Santa was coming that night. When Christmas Eve finally did come, I think he was a little nonplussed. I could see the look of "really, mom? are you sure?" He didn't wake us up at 5 am on Christmas morning. Not even close. More like 9. Instead of running down the hall in anticipation, he asked me to carry him while he hid his face. I got the impression he thought Santa might be hanging out in our living room. He wasn't, and once Evan had been read the letter Santa left for him, all was well.



Yes, Santa delivered. It's really pretty awesome being three.









(The trains were from his grandmas.)

Later he opened a few presents from us.



And showed me his impatient camera face.





My parents joined us for a while. I wish my Dad would loosen up.





My boys are so sweet together.





And just for fun, after a long but fun Christmas day, Evan wound down and tested out his new toy shaving kit in the bath.

Christmas Collages

What do you do when you've got a couple hundred holiday images to cull through for one blog post? If you're me, you make some collages and call it a day. Let's face it, it's the pictures you want to see anyway, right? Right.





And what would the holidays be without wearing bows and new pjs?