From the Balcony

The weather has been gorgeous here this week and Remy and I love going out on the balcony!  When we are out there though I have to keep on him about being gentle with the plants, leaving the dirt alone, and not throwing things off the balcony. It's hard being a toddler sometimes, but fortunately he does have his rocks and his watering can to play with when Mommy is being a killjoy. 

 

I am grumpy and sick and don't feel like blogging, but since it would be selfish and wrong to withhold this awesomeness from the world...behold!

Watching TV

When I am old and senile and I look back at Remy's baby photos I may have to conclude that all he did was watch TV! It's true, he watches a lot of TV. But he does other things too! ...It's just that they don't photograph as well. It seems like the only time he stops pushing his truck, or making weird faces, or hopping up and down long enough for me to get an in-focus picture is when something on TV catches his attention. So I have hundreds of pictures of him looking at the television. Oh well, at least he is a beautiful TV watcher.

(Okay, so I just scrolled through the pictures I have posted lately, and I was relieved to see that I have some decent ones of him NOT watching TV.)

Poor Baby

Oh my word, folks! Remy is still sick. I tried to take him out yesterday for a couple of little errands - the post office and target - and he had a full-on meltdown. Thank goodness I had Mama there for support!  So we are staying in once again today. He usually has a few good hours a day, generally right after he wakes up in the morning and after his nap, and he runs around getting in as much playing as he can during those brief hours. Then he slips back into bewildered tears and sniffles. :(

Meanwhile I am playing around with photoshop actions. They mesmerize me. Here are some free ones I downloaded yesterday from My Four Hens (thanks Steph [btw, couldn't find the one you were talking about.])

NOT a Chicken

One thing you may not know about Piper is that she is always on the lookout for a good game of chicken. She is pretty sure she rocks at it. I'll concede at least that she has nerves of steel. You could throw that ball at her and she wouldn't flinch...she would just try to stare it into submission until it hit her in the face. Then she would give a quick, indignant hiss, move a foot away and act like she had won. She also employs this method with Remy. It's amazing to see a snot-nosed, sticky-fingered toddler barreling at a cat and the cat staring him down without batting an eye. The wisdom of her tactics (or tactic, it's pretty straightforward) is sometimes questionable (I can't count the number of times I have stepped on her not realizing that we were engaged in a game of chicken) but her persistence is remarkable.

By the way, I did not throw that ball at her face. But Remy might have.

What's Up

• Remy is still sick but he is more cheerful so I think he is feeling better than he was. 
• Poppo and Ross are also not feeling too hot.  Something is definitely going around.
• Yesterday I went over to Mommo and Poppo's place to watch ND kick some butt. It was such a gorgeous day that after the game we drove down to the Town Square mall to walk around. 
• At said mall I bought some pricey blush. It is my reward for being such a good nurse this week. 
• I read The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern this week. It reminded me so much of Jonathan Strange and Mr Norell that I kept expecting footnotes. It was good! Nice love story, interesting characters, good prose, and the lovely circus itself. If you don't mind a little fantasy in your fiction you will like it.
• The season finale of Doctor Who was last Saturday. Apparently some people didn't like it. Hrmph. I thought it was great. Visually it was gorgeous. And there was a wedding, so it was kind of romantic. Matt Smith and Alex Kingston are brilliant together and I love seeing a woman over 30 as a recurring character. Personally, I don't miss David Tenant or R.T. Davis one little bit. I still miss Rose though... (((sad sigh)))
• Still playing around with the telephoto lens.  Here are some pictures from early-sunset on Friday. 

Zooming...

SUPER zooming!

From the Balcony...

More weather! I love the big puffy clouds and the rain that falls far enough away that it only enhances the view. I also love that we are finally out of the triple digit highs.

I took the above photos using Ross's snazzy telephoto lens. I feel like I could explore the mountains for hours using that lens. I am hoping to buy a tripod in the next  month or so that I can get crisper, clearer shots with it.

Sick Baby

If I had to characterize this week in just one word that word would be snot. Rivers of snot. My hands are always damp and I am so exhausted that I struggle to remember if they are wet because I just washed snot off of them or just touched something snotty. It's been a lot of fun. But look at this little buddy, doesn't he melt your heart?

Job Perk

I think there was about a decade of my life when I only saw sunrises once or twice a year. One of the blessings of motherhood is that now I get to see them whenever I want. You give up some things to be a mother, but you get so much more back.

New Shoes

Our Most Distinguished Cat

What makes a cat distinguished? Well, a haughty expression is a good start. Add to that the ability to remove keyboard keys with one's tongue, a talent for fetch, and a stubborn streak a mile wide. 

Old Keyboard

One of the best things about replacing my laptop is that I don't have to use an external keyboard anymore! Piper had destroyed my old laptop's keyboard (first licking off numerous keys and then puking into it until half of it shorted out.) Before putting the keyboard (the good one, not the pukey one) into storage yesterday I let Remy have a go at it. He loved it!

(I'm also trying to transition from picnik for my photo editing to photoshop so please excuse my trials and errors!)