Baby Portrait Taking 101, Featuring Isaac B.

First of all, go outside! Indoor light is yellowy and dim compared to natural daylight. Try to pick a day that isn't too crazy sunny, so your photos aren't bleached looking. Overcast is great all around, or go earlier in the morning, or later in the afternoon for an extra dramatic effect.

You found me!

If your camera has settings, set the aperture (that should be found by looking for the letter A on your camera's dial) as low as you can. That will make your little one clear, and everything around him or her, nicely blurry.

I am running in through the one clear area of the park, what fun!

Its kind of hard to explain how it works, but basically, your camera will let in more light, and in return for that give you a smaller depth of field to focus on. You can also use a low aperture if there isn't very much light, and you want to make your camera's "eyelid" open as much as possible. Come to think of it, it works with us too! If there isn't much light we open our eyes wide, and when we can't see something far away we squint our eyes, and make far away stuff clear.

wide open eye, medium eye, squinty eye!

Ok, back to your picture taking:

Isaac as baby-heartthrob

Don't be scared to get close up! Especially if you want your little one to look like a soap opera star.

I am feeling very contrasty!

Play with your photo after you take it! If you like the quality of this photo above, go to the contrast button on your photo editing software (even the most basic ones (like mine) will have it!) and up it as much as you can stand. It can give your photo lots of "pop!", and look like candy, and who doesn't like a baby that looks like candy?

Ok, that's all for now, happy picture taking!

Potty training success!

Oh I am ridiculously excited about the newest developments that have happened today: Isaac was pee-peeing when asked!

Last year during potty practice

It's helped that he has been really excited lately about dumping the little potty into the big potty. So, today, when he wanted to "dump!" the little potty, I explained to him that the little potty was empty and that he would have to make a peepee in there first so that we could have something to dump. He sat back down, made a little grunt, and out came a little pee! I had two fists up in the air cheering him on I was so darn happy.

A little background about our potty training life to date: We've been doing EC (elimination communication) with Isaac since he was 4 months old. Basically that meant letting him go without a diaper quite often, and putting him on the potty whenever we changed his diaper, came in from outside, before sleep, after meals, or when we didn't have anything better to do. It was lots of fun and we've had some very quality family time hanging out on there. We've read countless books, sang a million songs, dropped things into the potty (accidentally) and fished them out (yuck!). We've had guests visit with Isaac on the potty. We've had sing-a-longs with those guests too!

Due to all this potty positivity, Isaac has been mostly pooping in the potty for probably a year now. We used to read his signals; there was a wide eyed staring kind of expression, a bit of a lean forward, sometimes if we were almost too late, a small grunt. Now he will often (not always) say poo-poo when he has to go, much to everyone's delight.

Pee-pee on the other hand has consistently eluded us. EC advocates advise putting them on the potty as soon as you take them out of a snuggly style baby carrier, and that used to work. The idea is that they don't want to pee when they are close to you, so that when you separate and take off their diaper, the change of atmosphere will make them want to go. Isaac is way too big to be carried around anymore, and our living room floor was getting peed on way too often. It really just seemed like luck whenever we could get him to pee in the potty. Or he would pee in his fortified underpants (I sewed little pieces of towel into training pants) and then say, "uh-oh! pee-pee!"

So today, when he peed when I asked him to, like 5 times, elation set in.

This is a really big deal!

Update: He isn't doing peeing on demand anymore...all that excitement, and now more peepee on the floor. Poop!

Dandelion Seeds

Long before Isaac, I remember hearing how little people make you appreciate stuff that you usually take for granted, or just plain forget about. Which brings me to dandelion seeds!

We found some in Fort Greene Park the other day, and by some animal and entertaining instinct I picked it, blew on it and voila, like little bubbles they scattered over our heads and into the air.

Then, of course, I made Isaac wait while I took this picture.

House Hunting In Brooklyn is NO FUN

I want to let any of you know this who may not know this already.

Actually, it can be fun if you have loads and loads of money and can afford private school for your children (I'm considering the future here). But if you aren't loaded, want to live near a park, have a window in the kitchen, have windows in both bedrooms, not walk up a million stairs, and believe in, or want to believe in public schools, then you will not enjoy it one little bit.

For example, take a look at this 2 bedroom coop apartment in Park Slope, which has lots of windows, is near a park and good schools. The only problem is the millions of stairs, and that the second bedroom is teeny tiny:

The current owners do have style!

Aren't you cute!

It's just under a million dollars!
A million dollars for 1000 sq. feet of Brooklyn apartment.
I know that doesn't necessarily mean that they'll get 1 million dollars, but 27 people saved the listing on streeteasy and that means that someone might. Certainly not us.

I kept hunting online, and find this apartment:

1400 sq. ft., private patio, no stairs!

Lovely garden, and we went to  a very sweet birthday party here once.

Yippee! I'm feeling interested and happy. The schools are supposed to be good in Carroll Gardens. The building used to be a candy factory which sounds very sweet. It looks like a real possibility! Especially because it is only (I can't believe I am writing only) $749,00.00.

Then I look at the Maitenence + taxes: $2,324 per month. That is of course plus a mortgage. Oy!
(Corcoran begins showing it in mid May in case you are rich.)

The other places I am finding are affordable townhomes (if you have renters) that are right next to the highway. Or first floor apartments with bars on the windows that look out onto other first floor apartments with bars on the windows.

Its really a tough market out here in Bklyn.
What gives?

Shortees!

I've been doing perhaps a little too much online shopping lately, but some good stuff has come out of it!
Like these "Shortees" pants I bought for Isaac on Etsy.

They are made by Kim West, a creative momma in Philly, PA. I think her tag-line is something like, "Upcycled tees for your shorty!" I like her optimistic take on big used tee shirts :) Very cute! And, I don't know if you can tell, but she used lovely rainbow thread to sew 'em up. A very nice added touch! They do hug Isaac's bum a bit, but hey, what doesn't!?

They also say "My mom rocks", which is very appropriate because I am taking baritone ukelele lessons and learning how to rock, or at least learning the key of G!

Here are the shortees, modeled by the wee Isaac:

I've got a yellow tulip petal, green sandals, and cool pants.

And the doors still won't open!

Scooter Fever, How to be on the Lookout

Uh-oh, he looks pretty happy.

I've wondered when Isaac would catch Scooter fever. It's a virus, and it can spread like lightning from one sweet talkin', quick turnin' 5 year old, to one big eyed toddler with a simple suggestion:

"C'mon, I'll pull you!"

It happened today, just a few hours ago in the handball court across the street.
Keep your ears open for, "Sootoo!", "Sootoo!" If you hear that, it means they just caught it.

Uppababy G-luxe Stroller Review

Do I like you?

I've had this stroller since July, when I got it in the mail as a replacement for my other G-luxe which was recalled when it kept folding up and onto the little guy.

I have very mixed emotions about the G-luxe (2011) and I'm just not sure if I like it. I've certainly thought about it a lot. (see my other stroller post here)

I've decided the easiest way to sort this all out is with a pro and con list, so here it goes:

Pros:
1.) Its light - 11lbs!
2.) Reclines for napping, though our little guy has napped in it maybe 5 times max, in almost a year.
3.) Easy to push. One of our babysitters said it was the smoothest stroller she had ever pushed. Go figure!
4.) It has low sides, so its easy for the little passenger to look around
5.) It folds pretty easily (though I do need to teach Isaac's omi, everytime she visits, how to do it), and stands up on its own,
6.) The part that goes under their knees lifts up so that when they are really little, they have a nice place to rest their legs. Isaac used to sit cross-legged in there, like a little buddha.

Cons:
1.) The crotch strap is too short.
2.) You can't remove the fabric on the outside of the crotchstrap to wash it, so after you wash the seat pad, the crotch strap cover looks very dingy.
3.) The seat is really narrow. My little guy is a big little guy, but not that big, and I feel like the seat squeezes his hips too much.
4.) The seat pad (this is what irks me most on a daily basis) is attached with velcro (see below) on the top, and over time velcro wears out a bit, so now whenever I put him in it, the seat pad falls down, and when the seat pad falls down, its messes up the alignment of the crotch strap. Geez, how many times can I say crotch strap in one post!? So I spend lots of time trying to pull it up when he's already sitting in the seat, squirming. This is no fun at all. 
5.) The brakes for the back wheels are positioned in such a way that when you try to pull the stroller up stairs, the brakes catch on the stairs. So you kind of have to tip it forward and pull it up at the same time. Its hard my back, and not so much fun for the passenger either.
6.) The part that goes under their knees lifts up when the stroller is folded, so when you unfold it, you have to lower each side down, every time, kind of a pain.
7.) It needs two hands to fold/unfold, and when folded it's not very stable, kind of a leaning tower of stroller. It can come crashing down quite easily.

Arghh! Silly seat pad!

note, dingy crotch strap (ha!, said it again!)

Reclining

Hmm...I see I have almost the same number of pros vs. cons, but on a close inspection, I see that the con list is much longer, word-wise, and a lot heavier, frustration wise.

Final word is nope, not the best stroller. Keep shopping!

How did he learn to say that!?

Isaac just said his first serious, long-ish, sentence!

"Cat knocked over modem - big crash!"

We were stuck in traffic and he was saying "Cat knocked over!" over and over again. I really wanted to hear a noun at the end of the sentence, and Jeremy had told me earlier that it was the modem the cat knocked over. So I told Isaac, easy as that! No way Isaac knows what a modem is.

Big crash!

This language learning phase is really somethin' else. I'm so tickled by it!

This morning I gave Isaac a strawberry, and he happily asked for more Seba-da-yee.  And then more Seba-da-yee, until I had to stop myself from asking him back, "You want another sabadayee?"

I did a small bit of online research into how babies learn to talk and found some good stuff.

In the Huffington Post, there's an article about a new study which suggests that young babies learn language from lip reading as much as hearing sounds - I had no clue!

And in Parenting magazine, a basic overview of how it happens and how they study it. There is info on when language learning starts when its starts (in the womb!) and how fast they learn (very very fast!), and what we can do as parents to help (play!, read!)

Language learning with Grandpa

I remember before we had Isaac and I was nervous and worried about how to be good parents, Jeremy said that all we had to do was feed, and clothe him, love him, and read to him. I liked it laid out simple like that.

Double Dating

waiting for lunch

waiting for dinner

Roan's grandma Susan and I have been going on a few double dates with the little ones. Its been lots of fun, even if not always so restful. Susan is really strict with Roan. She calls it Grandma's rules and says she's gotta do it or she wouldn't be able to catch him. He is pretty fast. And when she tells Roan he has to eat his chicken and tomatoes before he gets a french fry, he actually does!

I asked her how to do it and she says I have to get, "the look". The "you better do as I say or else" look. I've tried it out, but it's not so easy.

Susan has blue hair that is very photogenic in the sunlight.

Springtime Colors

 

I found these little green sandals in the girl's section of livie and boo, a sweet consignment shop in Prospect Heights. Jeremy can't wait for Isaac to grow out of them since they are bright green, but Isaac loves them so much and almost cries when he says, "saandaals!"

Isaac also loves "fee-owus", and was very happy to carry this daffodil about.
He knows three flowers names now, tulip, dandelion, and daffodil.

Lovely Korean Cloth Diapers

A baby preparation landscape

My step brother and his wife are going to have a baby soon (yipee!!). His wife's momma sent her 3 different kinds of cloth diapers from Korea. Some of them are really different than the American variety. They are much thinner and bigger and you fold them many times.

When we first had Isaac her mom sent me a bunch too. We didn't actually use them as diapers because they made such good swaddling blankets for a little one in need of swaddling; The fabric sort of sticks to itself.

We layered them on top of Isaac as little blankets too. I remember Jeremy really getting into the layering. Along with little white cheesecloth like blankets my mom gave us, Jeremy would pile up 5 or 6. It was pretty funny. But it was nice to have choices in thickness.

Mighty Mountain of Pancakes

We went to my step brother's house on Sunday and he made pancakes.
I love pancakes so much, and these were way better than any I've made. He said the recipe was pretty normal except for the wacky addition of making your own buttermilk by adding vinegar to regular milk.
Very DIY!

The recipe is from Allrecipes.com, and it goes a little like this (I only changed it to take out spray oil for the pan. He used, and I definitely prefer straight up butter!):

Fluffy Pancakes

• 3/4 cup milk
• 2 tablespoons white vinegar
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 2 tablespoons white sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 egg
• 2 tablespoons butter, melted
• butter for the pan

Directions

1. Combine milk with vinegar in a medium bowl and set aside for 5 minutes to "sour".
2. Combine flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a large mixing bowl. Whisk egg and butter into "soured" milk. Pour the flour mixture into the wet ingredients and whisk until lumps are gone.
3. Heat a large skillet over medium heat, and melt more butter. Pour 1/4 cupfuls of batter onto the skillet, and cook until bubbles appear on the surface. Flip with a spatula, and cook until browned on the other side.

Easter Meets Passover

If you introduce Streit's to Cadbury, something very magical happens!

Streit's, meet Cadbury.

Voila!

And it tastes goood!

Isaac's First Girlfriend?

Elegant Abby

There is a little girl named Abby who lives down the street. She is very precocious and lovely and says things like, "Happy Pass - Over!" when you least expect it. Abby is also very shy and barely gives Isaac the time of day, though one can't really expect a 22 month old to tell the time quite yet.

"Pitcher Abby."

Even though she barely looks at him in person, according to Abby's mom, she talks about him quite a bit when they are back at home, like about how nice he is. And Isaac, just last night, asked to see the valentines card with Abby's picture on it that we have posted to our little bulletin board. He said, "See!...Abby!...Abbyabbyabby!" So I said ok, and went and got it for him. He looked at it for a while, and then kissed it and said, "Kiss Abby!", and then held it to his cheek and said, "Hug." 

kiss

hug

While I'm on the topic of hugs, Isaac's Grandpa David got him such a sweet book called "HUG", by Jez Alborough.

It's about a little monkey looking for a hug, and the Elephants and other animals that help him. Its very simple and to the point and inspires lots of hugging at the end.

Hugs for all!

Tai Chi at Fort Greene Park

This couple practices Tai Chi at Fort Greene Park almost everyday. The old guy is so thin it looks like the wind could blow him over, but then it doesn't. The old lady is very sweet and was happy to see Isaac appreciating their moves. They move in unison even though they aren't looking at what the other one is doing. Its very impressive, and sweet, because before the guy used to just do it by himself, but now she is there too.

Isaac's Baby Pants File

much easier and arty-er than folding!

and highlights our fondness for blues, browns and corduroys.

Cooking Together

I've always dreamed of the day that Isaac would stand up on a chair and cook with me.
And on Saturday, it (sort of) happened!

I hope he's thinking about how he must stay away from that big knife.

I hand him the potatoes and he plops them in the bowl, just like that.

Ready, aim and shoot!

We were very excited that he we can (mostly) trust him not to fall off of the chair.

Cooking requires lots of encouragement and kisses.

It was so much fun we decided to do the same today:

Note the concentration.

And the healthy sampling habits!

We look forward to what you create next, Chef Isaac.

Take Your Baby to The Beach...

And he's gonna eat sand!
That was a shocker, and a bit disturbing, especially when he started using a piece of coral for a spoon.

Jeremy, Isaac and I went to Culebra, Puerto Rico for our first vacation only us as a family. It was quite a roller coaster of awesome fun, gentleness, and bleary exhaustion.

I wrote myself a few emails from our porch because I really didn't want to forget. Here are a few excerpts, and photos:

watching out for airplanes at JFK

From the first email, 4/1/12


"King king Kong, ahhnnghh..."
Isaac sang this over and over again that first morning, sitting, bouncing, lying down, in between Jeremy and I, while we deliriously tried to sleep, and finally gave up at 6:22am. (He had been up and singing since 4am.)

This stray kitty got way more sleep than we did!

The sun flooded the porch this evening around 5:30 with golden light. It was before dinner and Isaac was totally naked, looking so content holding an empty trash can, and then broom, and then both.

pre-dinner raisin snack

There was last night lying in the hammock with Jeremy. Isaac (who says "hammock" now too!) was finally asleep and Jeremy and I were reading, listening to the the froggies say, "ko-kee!" and every once in a while, smelling that incredible blossom, blooming just outside our wooden fence. It smelled like heaven: vanilla and orange, and something mysterious.

Oh beautiful plant, thank you for making our nights so smell-diferous

Isaac loves to be in the baby-pack here! He fell asleep yesterday on our way back from Carlos Rosario beach, which was kind of awful because we couldn't get him to take another nap, even though he was so tired and poopy and so were we. Plus it was raining and raining and we needed to go to town for food. It was nice getting there though, we met a nice and beautiful Puerto Rican lady with her Italian husband, their kids, and his sweet family, visiting all the way from Italy. The grandmother wore a gold chain and had dyed blond short hair, lots of wrinkles and glasses. She kept squeezing Isaac's thighs and joking with him in Italian. We were all very tired when we got home.

hammock nap-time

Today the beach was amazing and reminded us of why we wanted to come.

Two little fishes, with hats.

So much to do!

"Oh, that momma making me go in the water again?", or "No wonder they got burned and I didn't!"

After all this activity, I must nap.

Second email, 4/3/12

I love how Isaac calls a rooster a wostershire, like the sauce.

Last night when Jeremy was waltzing him to sleep Isaac said, "eipaine...heel...ovaa..." He was reviewing his day! Remembering how in the evening, while Jeremy cooked dinner, he and I went for a swim. We saw an airplane go over the green hills above the beach, and talked quite a bit about it.

We went into the water early today, and it was so clear blue! Like a swimming pool with waves. Isaac said "daddy, fish, swim." Then later when we asked if he was a fish he said, "baby!" Jeremy said,"he's really puttin' it together."

In the wild blue.

 Playing in the sand, eating sand, with his little blue rashguard suit and green hat, he looks quite the part of beach baby. We were happy that we only burned ourselves and not him.

I am very well sun-protected.

When we were out into the ocean ("osheeen") yesterday afternoon, the water was so beautiful and clear. Isaac was in my arms and the wind was blowing our hair. We were cuddling and laughing and enjoying the moment and he says, "walk...visit...trash..."

I never want to forget how Isaac looked on Jeremy's shoulders two nights ago, his head plopped on Jeremy's head. His warm browned hands holding Jeremy's ears, the pink and periwinkle sunset behind the osheeen. They were so beautiful and human.

Sweet, tired boy.

Kir-plop.

Gentle sunset

Jeremy lost his wedding ring yesterday morning. It was a rough morning, even though Carlos Rosario beach is beautiful, and I saw pretty little fishes. We got into a stupid fight about where to put the beach umbrella. I thought it would be ok next to a driftwood log. Maybe I was feeling birdie-like and wanting to nest, but J thought it a terrible idea. He also lost his wedding ring in the water. He was very sad about it, but said, "now, don't think of this as symbolic of anything." And I thought, "wow, he knows me so well.", because of course, I did.

amazing yellow crab with big tall eyes at Carlos Rosario!

Surveying Carlos Rosario beach.

Later when I was happy he reminded me that the ring is just a symbol of what we have in our hearts and cannot lose, and he was very right.

I want to come back, with our friends or with more family. Isaac would be so happy to have Patou along.

Now we leave tomorrow, way too early. Ah well, I'm very happy we came!

The art of relaxation.