Can't Resist This Pouting Face

Dova was 2 and 1/2 years old when I captured this precious pouting face. I just love her expression and her  squirrel cheeks.  She was mad because I didn't want her to get too close to my mom's fish pond because she teetering on the edge of falling in. When I uploaded this photo to Flickr, I got a comment from Melissa on facebook (I assume the terms of service won't catch me), "Little girl pouts are so cute. Until they aren't. :)". So true, I don't think Dova would have that much cuteness pouting now at age 5.


Hosted by I ♥ Faces.

Photo Hunters - Self, Hands

I rarely take pictures of myself and the kids always seem to photograph me in my underwear, so those get deleted right away (since I'm in my underwear right now, I'm beginning to think this is my fault and not theirs). So for these self pictures, I enlisted my kids as hand models. After all, they came from my self and are genetically half of my self. Adam's hands are enormous for a seven-year-old and some of his fingernails are bigger than mine. Dova still had little hands at four and since her arms are not as long, this photograph was shot blind with my other hand.

Edited to add March 27, 2009 - Yet another recycled PhotoHunt! This post from last summer had the perfect photos for the "Hands" theme.

Free time! Unpaid time!

My company is not immune to today's economy, so they instituted a 10% pay cut for salaried employees. But the good thing is that we are required to take two unpaid days off per month. All of a sudden, we finally have ways to handle the thousands of half-days, professional development days and obscure holidays that the public school system throws at us (hopefully no more snow days!). In our family, Doug is home to take care of these miscellaneous days off, but he is on the hunt for a job now that Dova will be entering kindergarten in the fall.

I'm really grateful that the company went this route instead of lay-offs or a pay cut without time off. There are always the grumblers and complainers, but another mom and I were hooting for joy! Now if only I can make the extra time off permanent...

WW - All the other photographs of Dova

Before the shot of Bubble Girl, here are some the other photographs that I took of Dova before she insisted on "just one more shot".









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Silly Adam Faces

I finally make a photo book of our recent trip to Walt Disney World and came across these silly pictures of Adam.  You can see the photobook on Snapfish.



You can even tell by his feet that he is the silliest one in our family.



Here, he is choking because he's being kissed by Dova. The trauma of being adored by his sister!


Hosted by Karen at 3 Garnets and 2 Sapphires.

Bubble Girl

This week's theme at I ♥ Faces is "no flash". I usually steer away from using the flash which means in the wintertime, I only get shots of the kids during the short daylight hours on weekends. Now that spring is here, I can finally shoot pictures again in the morning and evenings.

This particular shot was taken outside, after a full day of running around the yard with the kids. I took a bunch of photos of Dova playing soccer, jumping, climbing trees, riding her bicycle, and blowing bubbles, but she insisted on "just one more picture". So I chose a different angle and she blew a wonderful bunch of bubbles my way. Good thing she insisted on that one more picture.


Hosted by I ♥ Faces.

The Man Who Walked Between the Towers

In the late 1970's, when I was around 10 years old, my mother took me sightseeing to the top of the World Trade Center.  I remember being extremely high up and looking down at the impossibly small cars on the street.  I remember seeing the other twin tower right over there.  Both towers had hundreds TV and radio antennae reaching up even higher into the sky.  But I never thought that these monumental towers would cease to exist.  That my walk on top would become just a fleeting memory never to be experienced by anyone after 2001.  Since I vividly remember physically touching and being on top of the World Trade Center, I've always had this fascination to search for the towers in old video footage, old books, old souvenirs, you name it.

Man on Wire: Philippe Petit, James Marsh

This year's Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature went to Man on Wire, the improbably story of Philippe Petit's quest to walk between the World Trade Center Towers on a tightrope.  I haven't seen it yet, but I'm sure the documentary is completely inspirational and exhilarating.  I was first introduced to this amazing story by the children's book The Man Who Walked Between the Towers. 

The Man Who Walked Between the Towers

The illustrations by Mordicai Gerstein in this Caldecott Medal book are phenomenal.  They capture the whimsical nature of Petit's hour long dance upon the wire, as well as the majestic grace of the towers themselves.  The illustrations will simply take your breath away.  "As long as he stayed on the wire he was free."  I can't imagine being a quarter of a mile up in the air with death a mere wind gust away as being free.  But even if you experience vertigo watching the actual footage in the documentary, you can experience the freedom with these illustrations.

Scholastic recently made a video of this story and others.  Most Scholastic videos are simply narrations of the story with illustrations from the book as a backdrop.  This one has a read-along feature where the words are displayed and highlighted during the narration. Check it out, or enter to win your copy at Mom Most Traveled by March 27th.

The Man Who Walked Between the Towers... and More Inspiring Tales

PH - Yellow

Since Dova's middle name is Bea, she has always gotten a lot of "bee" toys. Here she is with her collection of yellow and black bees.


Hosted by tnchick.com.

Welcome to the Ultimate Blog Party at mommy bytes!

I'm Angela and these are my two kids Adam (8) and Dova (5). Thankfully, I could find a picture of them where Adam is not making the sign of the horns! Of course I have very few pictures of myself because I'm always behind the camera capturing all my kids antics.

I've been blogging for nearly five years in all my *spare* time, as I work outside of the house as a software engineer and manager in the biotech field.  None of this would be possible without the support of my husband, who graciously takes care of the kids during the day.  Somehow through serendipity, I've also become an editor for kirtsy and a contributing editor for BlogHer.

I love contests and for the Ultimate Blog Party, I'm offering a $15 gift certificate to Amazon. I have two other giveaways going on this week at my contest/review site, so check those out as well!

• Leapfrog Tag Reader plus 5 books, and Leapfrog Tag Reader plus 10 books for your local library
• $25 Gift Certificate to Threadless
  

The prizes all look great at the UBP, but here are some that I would love:

• $50 gift certificate to Target Stores from Agoos
• $25 gift certificate for Shutterfly from SandwichINK.com
• $25 gift certificate for Amazon.from Just Say these Words
  
• $25.00 Old Navy Gift Card from Manic Mother
  

Please leave your link so I can visit you too!

PSF - Springtime is for Baseball

Yes, we have many mounds of snow left in our yard, but if it hits 60°F outside, you can be sure the kids will outside playing every sport they've been missing all winter. Unfortunately, I had to be photographer as well as pitcher here, so my aim wasn't very good (ball-wise and camera-wise).



Oops! I hit Adam's privates. Of course, this is just a hammed up picture. It was really difficult to pitch and then put my DSLR up to my face to take a photograph (no LCD preview screen).  Left-handed pitching didn't work.  Looking through the viewfinder and pitching didn't work. I had to pitch something that Adam could hit and then manage to take a photograph of something other than sky or grass.  Finally, I got this shot:



Kapowie!! Right at me.


Hosted by Cecily and MamaGeek

WW - Jumping for Spring

We had a wonderfully warm weekend, but it didn't put a dent in the snowbanks next to our driveway!

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Happy St. Patrick's Day!

We are not in the least bit Irish, but Adam doesn't mind showing off his green tongue, courtesy of Fun Dip.

Silly Monkey Story - Marge Simpson Hair

I received a package that was packed with this awesome shredded blue crinkly paper.  Instead of disposing of it right away, I figured I would hand it over to my silly monkeys for a while.  We first got "Marge Simpson" hair:





Then they were more interested in throwing the blue paper at me:









Even Dova had to get in on the action:






Hosted by Karen at 3 Garnets and 2 Sapphires.

Dova's Disney Princess Lunch - Take Two

Since Dova had been sucked into the Disney Princess cult since she was two years old, we thought that she would love to have another lunch with the highnesses on our last visit to Walt Disney World. I can't believe that she has had two opportunities to meet the princesses before she even turned five! Since our first trip was really a birthday present for my 40th birthday and our second trip was complete serendipity, we were not out to totally spoil her with multiple meals with Disney Princesses as though she could dine with them any day. But apparently, they've just become old hat with her.

The day before Dova's Princess Lunch, we unexpectedly ran into Princess Jasmine coming out of a magic door near Aladdin's Flying Carpets in the Magic Kingdom. We jumped right in line for photographs, but Dova refused to have one taken. I only took a quick test shot without Dova, as she adamantly refused to pose with her. We started worrying that she would similarly freak out during her Princess Lunch the next day. But by the next morning, she put on a pretty dress and completely changed her tune. She wasn't quite as excited as she was two years prior, but she was well poised to receive the Princesses.


First stop was with Princess Belle. Her dress was too hoopy to get a nice close shot!


Next was a very tall Princess Aurora. Lackluster smile at best from Dova!


Thankfully Dova didn't freak out with this Princess Jasmine. She wasn't as pretty as the one from two years ago.


Snow White looked spot on.


Dova was finally happy when she saw Princess Ariel. In the end, it was worth this photograph with her very favorite princess.

The food was delicious as always in the Akershus Royal Banquet Hall in the Norway Pavilion at Epcot, and oh, the desserts...

PH - Four

I think age four is the epitome of little kid cuteness. Before that, they still have baby features and after that, they start looking like big kids. Here are pictures of Adam and Dova when they turned four.





Can you imagine if they were twins? They would have never survived as both their three's were most terrible! Then again, I guess that's why kids are so cute, so we parents won't strangle them.


Hosted by tnchick.com.

Blogging Shackles

Tavern puzzles from Greenfeet. I love puzzles of all sorts, but tavern puzzles drive me batty.  Especially ones with ropes and chains.

So have you noticed a lack of substantial blog posts lately? Have you been seeing just a string of cutesy kid pics and the usual memes? A few months ago, I managed to offend not one, but three people that I know with my blogging.

First my hubby complained that he was not put in a very good light with one of my kid interviews.  Never mind that it was cute and not exactly insulting or offensive.  Plus they were equally hard on me.  Now I will be sure to leave him out of any blog posts.  Or I can censor my kids or have him approve my posts.  (Not!)

Then my mom took my BlogHer post on grandparents spoiling their grandkids completely out of context.  In fact she didn't even read my main point which was to "Let them know your expectations but don't deny them the opportunity to give."  So there will be no more cross posting from BlogHer.

Lastly, I heard from a friend that writing about how your kid scored a goal in soccer was bragging.  So I shouldn't be proud of my son on the internet?  For that reason, there will be no more Tuesday Toots for any of us.

There's part of me which says to hell with what other people think, I'll just write what I want, it's my blog.  Then again, these three people are dear to me, so I will retreat to inoffensive cutesy blogging (my knitted kittes are still being stumbled upon to my disbelief).  People don't want to see me rant or express an opinion that may not be popular.  Just wait until I write my post on vaccinations on BlogHer in June...

The repercussions of saying your mind on the internet can be astounding.  I've been following Sara of Suburban Oblivion and for nearly a year, she has kept mum about her troubles at home.  Finally, she let it all out on her blog, only to get extremely nasty repercussions from her soon-to-be ex-husband.  My life certainly has no deep dark secrets but I can't imagine going through what she currently has to deal with.

I guess cute it is.

WW - Dova Loves MommyMae

For NaBloPoMo last November, I won a prize from mommymae, this handmade outfit in the theme of pink lemonade. Dova loves having a shirt with her very own name on it.





Check out the awesome craftsmanship and all of mommymae's handmade creations here.



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