Jan 28--Park

I played solo parent today, which meant we ran out of things to do and so wound up at the park. It was a 50-ish day, but with a cold wind, so we bundled up and spent some time. I brought my camera along for giggles. I love this shot of E, who was pointing at a plane. I like the glow of the sun, and the look on his face.

I also love this photo of my boys in the blue bouncey car. They remind me of two old ladies who've known each other forever and just have a great time.

Jan 24--Herbs

Another night, another photo forgotten. So, on my way to bed, I took a few shots of my new windowsill "garden." The basil is looking pretty sad, and I'm worried the parsley isn't going to make it, but they'll work better than the ones that are already snipped...

Jan 27--Clementine

Another night I forgot to take a photo and realized on my way to bed. I've been going through a ton of tangerines and clementines lately as snacks for me and for the boys. I saw a post on pinterest about things you could do with the wooden boxes, so was disappointed to dsicover a previous box was cardboard. Yes, my purchasing decision was based on the re-usability of the container, however, these have been the most delicious little treats. Unlike the buggers that came in that cardboard box, these are seedless and so easy to peel!

Jan 26--Daddy phone

I forget where M went on this day, but he forgot his phone.  The first to notice the error, of course, was E, who walked around saying "Daddy, phone" for about an hour.

Jan 24 and 25--Fail

It appears that there were no photos taken by me on January 24th or 25th, at least not on my Canon, my Nikon, or my cell phone.

Jan 23--Chicken Salad

I made cooked chicken to bring in to work for the coworkers with whom I share lunch as buffalo chicken dip and also as chicken salad. Here's the mess my work created... nicely blurred onion, chopped chicken, knife and board, roasting pan and silpat mat.

January 22--Dull

I didn't really take any photos today, so looking around the house for ideas, I remembered this little magnet. A friend gave it to me a really long time ago, when I got my first apartment, and it's something I TRY to keep in mind while in the midst of disaster.

January 21--Pile

Yesterday, E and I had some serious alone time. He discovered the big bucket of Legos and decided to dump them in this corner of the world. Who knew, the simplest toys DO provide the most enjoyment?

Yesterday was the first snowstorm of the new year, and the first one for which E was really aware.  Thus, he was incredibly fascinated by all things snow related.

January 20--Belly

Today, the boys' school had Crazy hat Day. We don't really have any crazy hats for them, so went with the next best thing--matching hats! For some reason, A decided he was going to flash his belly while E was all about saying CHEEEEEESE!!!

January 19--toast

We went overboard in our New Year's Eve purchasing, and then due to illnesses and sleepy children, ended up not opening any of the booze at ALL. The line of bottles caught my eye as a great opportunity to play with depth of field, but I had some issues with shake in the tighter shots I took.

To New Year's 2013!

January 18--Stir Fry

Because E is going through a period of chewing on everything (and most everything he chooses are not things I'd like in his mouth due to dirties or to toxics), I bought him a rubber chewer.  Both boys love the little bugger--it's seriously like a dog toy with squeaker and everything--and on January 18th, I caught E playing with our littlest cast iron pan, the "chew toy," and a bottle.

January 17--Intent

I've officially taken more photos than I did in 2010 when I first tried this project.

This was on January 17. It was just me and the kiddos that night, and A and I "agreed" that he could stay up a little late if he changed into his pjs early. These were the only clean jammies at the time, and as short sleeves, he had to put on his sweatshirt. For whatever reason, he plopped on top of the blanket, on top of the pillow, kind of on top of the airplane.

January 16--Nice chair

I came into the family room to see this. Our family room doesn't have what anyone (a person taking a photo, a person reading a book, a person doing any kind of craft, a person trying to grade papers, etc) would consider good lighting. Combine this with some energetic little boys and you find a lot of blur in the amateur's photos.

Knowing that this slice of life photo wasn't quite what I sought, I also tried to get a picture of Mr. E's toes. He hasn't been too keen on keeping his socks on lately, so they're often on the floor after dinner. His toes are cute. Photo magic. Alas, poor lighting, fast moving boys, blur.

January 15--compost

For Christmas, my father in law brought me a bunch of flowers. I do not do well with bouquets of flowers, forgetting to tend to them, neglecting them altogether, then forgetting about them. Clearly, this bunch needs to go to the compost, but it's been too darn cold. And I've forgotten.

January 14--Brothers

My boys were having a morning snack of apples for each of them. It sounded awfully quiet, so I went to investigate, and I found them here, under the dining room table with the chairs pushed all the way in. I showed my husband the photo and when he had no idea what he was seeing, told him to look at WHERE they are and what they had done. They'd built themselves a little fort!

Here's (yet another) snacktime today.  The blur is a problem, but I love that they both have their arms up, pointing at who knows what, and E has that little smirk on his face.  I loved seeing them next to each other on the bench, doing whatever it is buddies do, and hoped to get a shot that captured it.

January 13--Game Night

Fridays are no tv, family game night. A had mentioned earlier in the week that he wanted to play checkers, so we pulled out our dusy board and he learned how to play with Dad. I then played him, and will need to do so more often because I actually won.

We needed to entertain Little Brother, who kept reaching for the checkers, so I gave him a few chess pieces.  This kept him very happy.  Woot!

January 12--Yum

It only took 12 days for me to forget to take a photo. We had a busy night after work, and it didn't happen. We did, however, go out to dinner and I took this photo to add to my restaurant reviews blog. So I did take a photo in keeping to the letter of this challenge, even if it wasn't consciously FOR this challenge.

The food was excellent, by the way.

January 11--Bottles

In attempt to better manage our open shelving disaster in our kitchen, I corralled all the sippy cups and relevant accoutrement in this perfect sized box. As I shot the picture, I thought, "I sure hope this isn't wrong because it sure feels right!"

January 10-Tongue

Yes, keeping the sideways photo for now.  I can't figure out what's going on with it.

In the course of this 366 project thus far, I know I've posted way more photos of my second born than my first. There's a reason.  My firstborn would much rather take the photo and/or steal the spotlight from his brother than let me take a picture of him for the sake of taking his picture.  His brother, however, is much less argumentative AND is up much earlier in the morning doing cute stuff.

I tried hard to get a picture this evening of just Mr. A, but he would have no part in it.  E, however, was totally cool with sticking his tongue out at me and having me stick my tongue out at him, to an extent.

More bad photography, but what can you expect in a self portrait?  Yes, and opportunity to have myself represented in my 365 Project made up of photos!

January 9--Slippers

This evening after dinner, E decided he wanted to wear my slippers.  It didn't go so well for him; he needed a lot of help getting them on, and he couldn't really walk in them, but he had himself a good little time... at least, until Big Brother came along and HE wanted my slippers too.  A fight broke out until A decided to go get Daddy's slippers, and then E wanted THOSE.

Nonetheless, I got a (via device that takes horrible pictures) picture of each boy in one parent's slippers.

January 8--Party

We went to the birthday party of one of A's school friends today. I had a really hard time getting any decent pictures using my P&S; first because these kids move faster than the speed of shutter, but also because I think our P&S (bought in April 2010!!) is on its last legs. I had an even harder time choosing a picture because, while I have a picture of E going down a giant slide that makes me crack up, I feel he's gotten the bulk of the photos in the past 8 days in addition to nearly every other picture of A has some of his school friends in the frame.

I had to edit out red eye in this shot, which always strikes me as strange because I tend to think of this as an affliction of lighter eyed folks. It's true that E and I are more likely to have red eyes in photos than A and M, but those brown eyed peeps get them too.

This was a tee ball type thing, and A did a pretty good job. He hit from both sides, though M said he didn't change his grip to accomodate hitting from the "leftie" side, and he got it into the holes at least twice. He was really proud of himself.

Both boys (and both parents) had a great time bouncing and jumping and throwing balls. This was the first time E has gone to one of these and really been able to enjoy it, and boy did he enjoy it! No fear, he wanted to go on all the slides and climbed up many of the ladders by himself. A had a great time just being in a different environment with all his friends as well as jumping and climbing and blowing off some steam.

January 6--Cleaning Crew

Ahh, the cell phone picture.  On Friday night, it was just the two of us while Daddy and A were out.  A few months ago, I bought a cleaning set for the boys from a consignment sale.  As such, it didn't come with all the parts and I didn't realize it until I got home.  Nevertheless, the boys, and E in particular, love to help clean.  Especially when it comes to pushing around a broom or duster, these boys want to do it.  So, I was happy to hand E the broom and sit down and take his picture.

January 7--Green

When E was born, his eyes were undeniably blue. Sometimes they looked more gray, but my blue genes persisted. Sometime after his first birthday, though, the brown moved in and his blue eyes are usually a green shade with specks of brown. It's usually really hard to tell his eye color, and it never comes across in a picture, but this one shows the green.

January 5--Bad, but cute, habits

Over our winter break, our boys developed some nasty habits regarding sleep. E started waking up at 5. Or earlier. One day, he slept really late--all the way till 5:30. Frustrating, and more so since he's continuing the trend now that we're back to work. So, while I shower, M gets E up and changed, and sometimes gives him milk and/or a banana.

Meanwhile, A would sleep later and then come into bed with whichever one of us didn't have E duty that day. He was wide awake, I'm sure, but came in to cuddle with us. Now that no one is in the bed, he still wants to get in and under the covers while I'm getting dressed (which, somehow, has him waking early as well--this photo was taken at 5:24 this morning.

So, add in Mr. "Wants to cuddle in bed" with Mr. "Up, dressed, and in awe of Big Brother," and you've got two sweet and sleepy little boys cuddling together in Mommy and Daddy's bed.

January 4--ipad-a-holics

My husband has borrowed his father's ipad for the month for work related activities, but has begun using it as well for our son's 365 Project. I think they were looking through A's photos for today here. I love the glow on their faces, their rapt attention on the screen, and that they're all cuddled together. Our kids are truly growing up in a world we can't even fathom!