Stuck In a Rut

I both love and hate taking new photos. I love learning about photography and finding ways to improve my images. Yet because I'm still learning it I need more time to experiment with different settings, lighting, etc, especially if I'm shooting in manual mode where I control all the settings by hand. Too often by the time I've tweaked exposure settings to where I want them my subjects have lost patience or the photo opportunity has already come and gone. And then of course even my best photos are far below the level that I'm aiming for so taking pictures is always at least a little discouraging. I know though that I'll never improve if I don't practice though so today I did just that and here are some of the results.

Grandma Ingrid Comes To Utah

Grandma feeds David his first taste of raspberries at the Ogden Farmers Market. They were a success!

Last week Derek's mom and Jim came to visit us from PA. I wish I could have gotten some more pictures while they were here, especially of the grown-ups but I guess I'm so used to taking pictures of David I didn't even realize until it was too late that I ONLY had pictures of him. We all enjoyed getting to spend time with them, especially David who was spoiled by getting to swim almost every day they were here. He's a little fish and loves to splash around whether it's in the inflatable kiddie pool in our yard or taking a trip up to Lava Hotsprings in Idaho. As you can see he was a little disappointed about not getting to ride the waterslides. Maybe next year.

Derek, Grandma, and Jim all relaxed in the hot pools while David and I rested.

David pulls himself up to stand in his crib for the first time

Eight Month Update

I can't believe it's already time for another one of these posts! Based on how hard he's been trying to get the hang of crawling lately I have a feeling that by next month David will be on the go. He can get himself up on all fours but he still tries to move both arms and legs at once and hasn't got the coordination down. Even though he's not crawling just yet he still tries to roll and scoot his way around. I guess I really should get serious about babyproofing. He also has been trying to pull himself up from sitting to standing, but again can't quite manage without help yet.

David still gobbles down all kinds of fruits but the only vegetables he's interested in are ones from Mom's and Dad's plate so I just make sure each night for dinner we have some sort of vegetable dish he can have. He loves being outside as much as he can whether it's swinging at the park, splashing around in the baby pool, or just riding around in his stroller. I don't know what we're going to do once the weather gets too cold, but for now we're enjoying the warm summer days.

Go You Chicken Fat Go!

For those of you unfamiliar with this flop of a national youth fitness program you can listen here. I remember my mom playing this record for me as a kid.*

Being able to work mostly on Fridays and weekends has been great in that one of us can almost always be home for David. But it's also difficult because it means a lot less time when we are both home together. When you factor in the time that Derek needs to spend studying for the CPA exam and that I need for paperwork along with just day-to-day cleaning, yard maintenance, etc. it's virtually impossible to find time for anything else. This is shocking I know because all the other parents of infants out there are scratching their heads wondering what to do with all the free time on their hands(yeah, right).

Pretty much all unnecessary tasks and even some necessary ones have fallen by the wayside for now which until recently have included exercising. Derek's been really frustrated by not having the time he used to for running and I'm pretty depressed over my post-baby body so we finally decided that we needed to somehow make time. For us the solution was to join our local community center. The fees are relatively low and not only do they have some fun family pools that David enjoys, there's some good exercise equipment and classes. They even have an indoor track. Best of all they have a fantastic daycare so we can go on our days off even if the other parent's not around. We've worked out a schedule that gives us both at least 3 days a week to work out and for the past few weeks at least it's worked well. So hopefully I will once again be able to wear my jeans of old.

*Note: Chicken Fat is not the workout routine we are using however.

Help Wanted

Wanted: Childcare on Mondays and sometimes Fridays from 7:30 am to whenever one of us gets home. That is usually between 5:00-6:00 pm but may be any time between 2:00-8:00pm so you need to be available just in case. Unfortunately we won't be able to let you know in advance which days we will be running late. This may look like an ad for a babysitter, but in actuality it is an ad for someone to find a babysitter for me so I don't have to.

Grrr. I hate having to find childcare so much that I'm almost considering quiting my job to not have to deal with the headache. The first time around I lucked out in that a coworker I trust recommended her neice with lots of experience and looking for part-time work. She's done a great job and I would love to keep her on, but unfortunately she starts back to school in the fall and won't be available anymore. Also in the fall comes a mini busy season for Derek so we will need at least part-time coverage for Fridays as well until mid-Oct (and of course from Feb-April for regular tax season too).

Finding someone you trust to take care of your baby is never simple, but when you factor in a part-time somewhat unpredictable schedule it's almost impossible. Most of the licensed providers I've spoken with either don't accept infants at all or won't let you pay on a part-time basis. I've seen a few stay-at-home moms advertise online looking to babysit part-time and I suppose I could place an ad myself for a part-time nanny. Either way that would mean interviewing perfect strangers who are unlicensed and unregulated to try and determine that they are not psychos and are capable of caring for an infant. Ugh!

The nanny would probably be my preference even though it will probably cost as much as full-time traditional daycare would (at least on weeks where we need 2 days covered) but our current sitter comes to the house which definitely has its advantages. For one thing instead of having to scramble to get myself and a baby ready to head out the door she comes a little early and occupies David giving me time to get myself ready. Also I like the extra one-on-one interaction it means for David and the fact that he's not exposed to a whole bunch of germs from other kids. Plus it forces me to give my house a thorough cleaning each week because somehow I'm convinced that if she sees I'm behind on my dusting she'll think I'm a bad mom (although maybe this is as much of a drawback as it is a plus because I typically am up past 1:00 am on Sunday nights cleaning and scrubbing). But of course setting a stranger loose in your home with your baby has it's risks too. She could steal from us, throw wild parties, or use our house for a love nest of sorts.

I know I need to start making calls and placing ads (I promise I'll start today). I'm just dreading the process so much and wish it would just go away.