On Our Walks.

Almost every day I try to take Seren out for a walk around our neighborhood – sometimes our friends Lisa and baby Audrey come along, but it depends on who needs a nap/feed/time out!! The walk is usually only 45 minutes, 1 hour if it’s 85 degrees or higher. The other day we we walking alone (Audrey = nap) and I decided to take some pictures along the way to document the scenery this time of year; plus I’d like to remember as much of it as possible should we decide to uproot again and move somewhere else in the future.

So I took along the camera. I would like to point out 2 very important matters:

1) My main point of concentration was on Aperture and not of shutter speed. One would think that Aperture Priority settings would have been a good fit for this trip. But I didn’t think of that at the time (Lucy + baby = mommy brains). So the pictures are pretty crappy, and I edited about 80% of them before deciding I was making matters worse. But you get the general idea.

2) I had approx. 0.5 seconds for each picture because slowing down or stopping the stroller makes for a cranky baby. She needed a nap. So did I, but that’s another matter for another time.

So here we go, off on our trek.

T’was a pretty day.

The golf course to my left.

The course to my right.

Random wall growth.

Turning the corner (there’s a hill up ahead) – starting to sweat a bit just looking at it.

Pretty blooms!

Squirrel Cove. I swear there are about 419,538 squirrels in this area and counting. But not a single one around when you want to take a picture, heh?

Hang on……… that might be one.

Could be a pine cone though

Definitely pine cones.

Ok enough with the pine cones already.

Onwards and (sadly) upwards.

There’s only a bottle of Aquafina and a pair of Karen Millen sunglasses to keep me company.

Because at this point, this happened -

The excitement obviously got way too much for this little one.

(and yes, I am WALKING with my jogger stroller)

On the loop back now (and holy overexposure).

Damn you, sunshine!!! You make me sweat and huff & puff.

Home stretch now!

Ugh, another hill

Irony comes in many shapes and forms.

The final furlong.

And then it’s home to soak in a bath of cold water and a liberal application of aftersun on my burned cheeks and feet. But I shouldn’t complain too much, it’s helping to burn off the baby fat plus it’s nice to just walk and not have to entertain/feed/change/carry a baby once in a while, know what I mean??

Happy Wednesday folks.

Rolling with the punches

I think I may die from Teething.

That or chronic back pain.

Or lack of sleep. I haven’t decided yet.

 

The top teeth are now upon us - which brings a lot of finger-biting and crying, refusal to nap/sleep and night waking. The night waking is proving more difficult to manage now that she’s siting up and pulling up in the crib too. I’m all over these Baltic amber teething necklaces! I hope they are going to help. So it’s been a tough week or so in our house. Plus a busy week. We’ve had a guest stay with us which is always great for Seren to spend time with family and friends but hella exhausting at the same time. And now my house is now even more of a mess than it was before. The dust bunnies are outnumbering me 200:1 and counting.

We’re also having issues in getting Seren’s passport sorted in time for our trip back across the pond in August. There is a 4 week wait on passport appointments in all the regional post offices so we headed downtown early Saturday morning, with a very tired grumpy baby, to an open day/first-come-first-served in their central office. We got there 30 minutes past open time and the line was already down to the next block. We tried again a few hours later, still no difference. So we have an appointment on June 22nd and then we’ll all pray that her passport arrives in time. Or else I might have to smuggle her in my suitcase.

Girl can take some gorgeous passport photos though:

 

The guys at Wolf Camera were great with her! She just sat on their stool, leaned forward and smiled and we got it in the first shot!! We did go to Walmart the day before and get some, but holy over-exposure. Plus I made friends with a very nice man in WC that gave me some great advice on my photo taking issues. And I left with a new SPEEDLIGHT!!! Hurray for late Mother’s Day gifts.

I brought it home and immediately started playing, then it was bath time so I thought it would be the perfect opportunity.

 

 

Hmmn, this speedlight business is trickier than I thought. The deer in headlights look wasn’t exactly what I was going for either. I’ll have to keep trying.

Notice how her eyes have changed though?? Finally. She has something that is mine.

Besides her lack of patience.

 

Two more Seren things: she finally started babbling this weekend.

 

And of course she turned 8 months. I’d better get started on the birthday planning. I sense a committee coming on.

(yeeees it’s overexposed. I went to far fiddling with my camera and I couldn’t get the settings back!)

As bad as it sounds, I’m anxiously waiting for her to turn One so I can stop with the monthday pictures; only because they are so flipping difficult to do now that she’s so mobile and unwilling to sit still and pose. That and she is getting too big for this rug!

Anyway, off to continue with some Father’s Day surprise planning. It involves the number 14, plaid and a very fidgety 8 month old. Send help plz.