Photos . . .

I would like to start out with good news on my photos, all but one day was recovered.  April 20th will not make it into any memory books because the whole day is "corrupt", whatever that means!  I'm happy that I'm only missing a few photos and that the rest are okay and looking good too!  We'll get to those recovered photos in a minute, but first . . .

I love taking photos . . . I love editing photos . . . 

I dream of getting really good at both one day. . . 

I think I'm doing pretty well so far . . . 

But I'm nearly certain that I'm only using something like .05% of the endless possibilities within Photoshop . . . 

And I dream of shadowing a real professional photographer one day, oh the notes I would take, if I could only download some of that knowledge . . . 

But I think to be a professional is to learn in the real world, with trial by error and by making an effort to learn and be inspired and "practice, practice, practice" . . .  

So I take thousands of photos . . . and I edited hundreds of photos . . . and I post some that I really like . . . and I self critique . . . and I look a lots of photography websites for ideas and inspiration . . . and I strive to learn and practice and find that mythical, magical photography "eye" that is so often referenced . . . 

And sometimes . . . every once in a while . . . I think I have "IT" . . . and that makes me very happy!

Thank goodness for my Johnathan.  He never minds me taking photos of him.  He never frowns on purpose or rolls his eyes.  He's happy to just do his thing and let me capture it . . . and I do . . . over and over and over again . . . and I don't think I will ever get sick of seeing him in little view finder!  

I look back at the photos I took when he was first born and I want to scream at myself and say "take more photos" "use the good camera" "zoom in on all his small features" "don't use a flash for crying out loud" "take more photos of him naked" "get a few of the cry face" "take more, take more, take more" . . . but what I realized today is that not only did Johnathan make me a Mama . . . he also ignited the flame inside me to want become a photographer and because of him I find myself wanting to capture every minute of every day so that I will never forget how wonderful it is to have him in my life and to be his mother and the tiny fire that he started has become a full grown blaze and something that is part of me and part of who I am and who I want to be.  

So thank you Johnathan!  Thank you for making me your Mom! Thank you for motivating me to take photos!  Thank you for letting me love you!

Here are all the photos of Johnathan that I thought I lost forever . . . oh thank goodness for back-ups! 

{Easter 2009}

Megan, Emily, Nikki and Johnathan on Easter morning . . . 

Johnathan loved playing with the colorful eggs!

Nikki loves playing with Johnathan :-)

Buddies . . . 

Clean-up on aisle 8!! 

Johnathan loves making a mess! hehehe

Easter breakfast, yum yum yum!!

Family photo . . . yeah! :-)

The Easter Bunny left these great gifts for Johnathan with his Auntie Kris . . .

Later on in the day we went to the Sponseller's and played some bocce . . . go Jeff! 

Bob was a very good spectator!!

Awe, Johnathan and his Aunt Victoria . . .

Cutie pie!

Easter dinner, another yum, yum, yum!

{9 month check-up}

Johnathan had just woken up from a nap and was in that grey area between asleep and awake when these toys caught his eye, he had to investigate . . . 

"Johnathan Thomas, Dr. Needle will see you now!"  Yes, Johnathan's pediatrician's name is really Dr. Needle.  I guess with a name like that medicine is in your future right?

{Just hanging at home}

Johnathan has his dinner at 5:00 every day.  By this time in the day we have played and napped and played and snuggled and played and laughed and played, oh and we've played a lot too, so by the time 5:00 rolls around Johnathan is tuckered out!  He eats in slow motion and sometimes stalls out completely . . . 

"I aaam hungry, but why can't the food just make it to my mouth on its own, this whole feeding myself thing takes too much energy!!"

"just gonna take a small time out . . . "

After dinner is tubby time . . . Johnathan LOVES tubby time!!! 

He splishes and splashes and sings and tra-la-la-la's and just loves being in the water . . . 

And I love taking photos of him in the tub, I try different things and look for interesting views . . . like this one, the toilet was working as my tri-pod, cool huh?

Johnathan has started trying to crawl into and out of the tub . . . here he goes!

"I'm coming to get you Mama!"

My little fishy! One day he's gonna grow gills! :-)

{Uncle Kurt comes for a visit}

My baby brother and my baby . . . I really can't believe that my little baby brother who was born at 3 1/2 pounds is taller than me AND in high school AND driving AND an Uncle.  I can very clearly remember Kurt when he was Johnathan's size . . . oh man, I'm getting old! :-(

"So, tell me about this 'piece of poo' song Mama tells me about" (sorry, that's just for Kurt, you know what I'm talking about CB) ;-)

Buddies!!

{More hanging at home}

Johnathan is a lucky little boy! He has tons of toys, so many that we have THREE different play locations in our house . . . so why is it, I ask you, that he ONLY wants to play with the remote controls and my sandals?  Seriously, I don't get it! Case in point, see all the neglected toys behind Johnathan sitting there waiting to be played with . . . yeah he's reaching for the remote . . . 

And success, he's reached the remote and hit every button . . . twice . . . . now we're watching "telemundo" and such a volume our neighbors have called the cops . . . nice! ;-p

Again with the leaving the toys and wanting to play with non-toy things . . . see his cute sandals . . . they stayed on for .5 seconds! Argh! :-)

"I'm gonna look really cute here and every so slightly reach to take these shoe things off . . . "

{My Birthday}

Jeff brought home these beautiful roses for me, I put them on my desk so I could enjoy looking at them while I work . . . . 

These showed up on my birthday as well, thanks Dad!!

I also got these beautiful daisy's from my friends Giovanni and Erin, thank you!

My Dad took me out to lunch for my birthday, we went to P.F. Chang's, yummy!!! Johnathan managed to do very well and not make a peep while everyone else around us was having business meeting lunches.  He did manage to get white rice all over the place, I'm not sure how he did it, but there was rice in his diaper . . . . sneaky, sneaky!

Later that night we went to Cold Stone for some ice cream . . . 

"Woooah, Mama you are HOW old now?"

"Golly, that's OLD!!" :-)

"Can I have some ice cream, just a little . . . No? . . . PLEEEASE?!?!?" (I learned my lesson on this a few weeks back, no sugary ice cream right before bedtime, thank you very much!)

Later on in the week my Mom came over to celebrate my birthday and had some nice snuggle time with Johnathan before bed.  No one can read a Dr. Suess story like my Mom and she made it through the whole thing without falling asleep! yay! :-)

{Gymboree Time}

"Cheese!!"

"Okay, so we are suppose to pick up these ball and drop them in the bucket . . . easy peasy, I've got one . . . "

"and in the bucket it goes, see it's not that tough!"

There you have it . . . until next time!  :-)