Cool Kid, an altered picture

Wheel of the year photo project.

Over at Perwari's Prattle she's set up a photo challenge, she's calling it "Wheel of the Year".

"Here's the rules:

Step 1: on January 1st, take 12 photographs around your neighbourhood. These locations must be places that you can get the exact same shot of throughout the year - so make a note of exactly where you stood, the composition of the shot, etc.

Step 2: on February 1st and each 1st of the month throughout 2006, go back to those same 12 places and take the exact same photo as you did on January 1st.

Step 3: by December 1st 2006, you should have a 12x12 grid of photographs recording the changes of the passing year in your neighbourhood. Upload it to your webspace of choice and if enough people are interested, I'll arrange for a page on this site where you can post your links so you can see everyone's compositions, otherwise just stick the link in the comments of my Dec 1st, 2006 entry.

Important considerations:

Choose your locations carefully. You've got just over a month to think through where you would like them to be. I suggest local and fairly close together, mainly because you're committing to retracing your steps every 1st of the month. If you've spaced them too widely or made them awkward to get to, then you'll have an excuse to give up half way through, or fail to get them done on the right day dosen't really matter, if you're a day early or a day late one month due to personal circumstances, but would be more satisfying to have them on the 1st each month.
Get other people involved. These sorts of projects are so much more fun if lots of people get involved - would be fantastic if we could see the change of the seasons all over the world.
Remember variety is the spice of life. 12 tree pictures would be fairly dull, although a landscape in at least one of them should probably be compulsory! Be creative with your ideas. "

I think it's going to be interesting. I'm not sure what I'll do my pictures of. At least one group will be of Aidan, maybe in front of his growth chart. Maybe my tree out front, a construction site down the road, the intersection by the school, art projects, farm land, or ... I think I need to think about this a little more. LOL We might be moving back to Oregon this year, which may actually be 2 or 3 moves depending on exactly how we decide to do it. So maybe I should pick things that will be easy to find some thing similar where ever we go.

Another picture post.

Here is an edited picture. I removed the original background and added this Christmas/Yule themed one. I think it worked out ok. His right hand and lower arm are kind of strange, because in the original there was a plastic jar with a green lid there, I removed it along with the background, so his arm and hand are a little cut off. But I don't think it's really noticeable, what do you think?

The year in Review.

Find the first entry for each month of 2005. Post the first line of it in your journal, and that’s your “Year In Review”. "Purple Goddess" has this on her blog, so I borrowed it. Here is my year in review.

January: While Aidan still isn't talking as much as I would expect him to be at 22 months, he did pick up a couple of new words over the Holidays.

February: My visit to Oregon was very nice. The wedding was beautiful, I saw family and friends that I haven't seen in awhile.

March: My Mother-in-law is in the hospital. She wasn't taking her meds correctly and got neumonia.

April: A closer look at Aidan using an old laptop.



May: I've been noticing how different things are raising Aidan than it was with Christopher and Allen.

June: I'd like to say that something exciting has happened, or that I've had some kind of epiphany.

July: My toes are doing much better. I still think the middle one is broken, but it's healing.

August: Allen, Belinda and Xander are going to be in Oregon today!

September: I was playing around with the photo editing program that came with my printer/scanner and added text to some of them.

October: This is proof that Howard is teaching Aidan bad habits.

November:I finally found a photo editing program with clear directions on how to do what I really wanted to do. And it was FREE! So here is my favorite so far.

December: Dear Xander,
I wish I could call and tell you how much you mean to me.

Philosophy

There's been some discussion lately about saying "Happy Holidays" or "Merry Christmas", and whether or not people are or should be bothered when someone uses the wrong one. I am hearing that it's usually Christians who are feeling the most put out over the whole debate. They feel that by saying "Happy Holidays" instead of "Merry Christmas" their religion is being slighted. The Christ is being taken out of Christmas. The Pagan or other non-Christians who has stated that it bothers them when someone says "Merry Christmas", seem to be the younger people, and/or the ones who are newest to their religion. Are the young usually more militant?

On a slightly related note, if you found out that your favorite shop/restaurant/store supported groups or philosophic that are diametrically opposed to your own beliefs, would you stop going there and giving them your business? Would you feel guilty for shopping there before you knew? How much research do you put into such things?

Happy Birthday!

Dear Xander,

I wish I could call and tell you how much you mean to me. But I can't do that, so I'm hoping that your Mom will see this and let you know that I'm thinking about you today. I know that we don't know each other very well, and that makes me a little sad, but I know that you have a wonderful Mom and Dad, who love you even more than I do.

It's hard to believe that you are already 7 years old! I remember hearing that you were on your way into the world seven years ago. I was thinking about you and your parents wondering if you had been born yet. I was filled with love and joy when I heard that you and your Mom were doing well. It's interesting to me to think of how much I love you, my first grandchild.

I hope that your day is as special for you as you are to me. I wish I could be with you, to hug you and play with you. Aidan would have so much fun with his big friend Xander. Grandpa Howard told me to tell you that he hopes you have a great birthday. We all love you very much!

Kiss your Mom for me.

Love,
Grandma

Thanksgiving food and 2.75 year old melt down.

I made a Pumpkin cheesecake for Thanksgiving. It turned out really good. I'm not sure is anyone else liked it, but Howard, Aidan and I did. I also made a pumpkin bread, I KNOW that the kids liked that!

unfortunately Aidan had a major melt down just before dinner. I think it was a combination of too much action, not eating at the normal times, and missing his afternoon nap. But he was screaming, hitting himself, kicking his feet and crying. He wouldn't calm down for almost half an hour. Howard took him outside and just let him do it. He stood there to make sure he didn't really hurt himself. Things got worse whenever Howard tried to talk to him, or tried to calm him in any way, so all he could do was sit back and watch. Finally I went outside, it must have been the right moment because Aidan came into my arms and calmed down a little. He was still crying, as if he was extremely sad. We decided that it was time to take him home, and gathered things. By the time we left, Aidan was almost normal again. Once we got home, he ate a little, and went to bed. It was about 45 minutes earlier than normal. He's been fine since, so he isn't coming down with anything. (Thank Goodness!) This is not normal for him, I can count the melt downs we have had to go through on one hand. I wish I could have stopped this one. I'll have to be sure that Aidan gets a nap before we go over for Christmas. And I need to remember that when they say 2 or 3 as the time to arrive that it's more likely to be 5 or 6 before everyone gets there and we are able to have dinner. SO I need to make sure that Aidan is rested and has had something to eat BEFORE we get there. Oh, and we won't be going over until 5 or so. I felt so bad for Aidan, he must have been so overwhelmed. And now everyone has this image of him that isn't even close to how he really is. On top of that, all the other kids spend time together so they know each other well, and they had their GrandMother and Great-Grandmother there to be on their side and think they are the coolest, best and cutest. Aidan had his Daddy and me. Which is normally enough, but he didn't have anyone SPECIALLY his. Maybe if Jimmy and
Buna were here it would have been different. Maybe not. At least he isn't old enough to really notice the differences. Am I being overly bothered and worried about this?

Whining and self pity.

I'm still feeling very emotional. I miss my family and friends SO very much! Maybe it's my hormones causing this unusually sad feeling. I know that things are changing inside me, I think I'm getting closer to menopause. So I'm likely to be feeling kind of... off... for awhile. I just feel so alone here, I don't have any friends that are not Howard's family. My family are all so far away. Even my brother Cody is kind of out of reach for the most part. Well, at least Aidan is here to help bring my mood up a little. And Howard has been pretty understanding through it all. He wants to move back to Oregon even more than I do, so I guess it's pretty easy for him to understand how I miss home.

Thanksgiving

Howard and I have been a little sick the last couple of days. I think that we are finally on the mend now though.

Tomorrow we will be going over to his Aunt's house for Thanksgiving. I'm making a Pumpkin Cheesecake for the pot luck type dinner. I hope it turns out well.

I miss MY family and friends very very much. This time of year it seems to get worse, maybe because I have more time to think about them. I want you all to know that I'm thinking of you, I wish we could share Thanksgiving. I love you all.

Aidan and bed time.

We've had a few really busy days lately. Aidan isn't getting naps in the afternoon very often any more, which means he is more tired in the evenings. On Saturday we were out most of the afternoon, we are running the truck while Jimmy is on vacation. Aidan got to see some cows at the a dairy we were working at, and ran around and had a good time. We had dinner around 5, and then watched a little TV. Aidan got up from his chair and wandered off into his bedroom. I could hear him playing in there. After awhile I noticed that I hadn't heard him in a little while. I thought he had some how gotten into my bedroom, he loves to go in there for some reason. So I got up to check on him. But he wasn't back there. I looked in his room and he was up on his bed, covered up, and snuggled with his Elmo, fast asleep. (Elmo used to be mine, The Girl and Hennifer gave him to me, but Aidan fell in love with him so now Elmo is his. I hope they don't mind.) That is the first time he has ever done that. He did wake up around 11, but a diaper change and Pajamas, and a hug and kiss did the trick. He slept the rest of the night. Lately if we ask him if he is ready for night-night, he will go get Elmo and go to his bed. Well, if it's about 8 o'clock or there abouts. No bed time problems yet, thank goodness.

Another knitting post.

Well I actually did it, I got some wonderful yarn and made a sweater for Aidan. It's not really high quality yarn, but it's really soft and it looks good. I made it with Lion Brand Homespun yarn in "Montana Sky" which is a nice blue, kind of bumpy yarn.

It's too big, I had to knit it when he was sleeping so I just did it. LOL The sleeves and the lower edge have a roll built in. It's hooded, and should have a pocket on the front but I ran out of yarn before I got that far. He likes it ok, but since the sleeves are so long it's a bit of a problem, even rolled up the sleeves tend to slip down over his hands.

I got new glasses

Three or four weeks ago the right lens fell out of my glasses and broke. So I went in for a check up and to order new glasses. They arrived a couple of days ago, but I didn't get the notice until today. So here are a couple of pictures of me with my new glasses. They are the smallest lenses I've ever had, except maybe when I was a small child. The color in the photos is kind of poor, we were inside and didn't want to use the flash. I'll get some better photos soon.

Photo editing.

I finally found a photo editing program with clear directions on how to do what I really wanted to do. And it was FREE! So here is my favorite so far.

It was really very easy. The program is GIMP. There are a few other things I want to do, one of which is to change the back ground.

Pictures of the Furbrains and Aidan.

Here is a picture of litte Tee. He thought he was hunting in the tall grass under the cooler. It was hard to get a good shot of him today. He was very active, pouncing and jumping at the worst possible moment for photos.











This is Kee and Tee. I just got lucky in catching Tee mid-pounce.












Aidan liked this old riding mower. He climbed up on it and pretended to drive it. Here he is looking at his Daddy.













We went to visit Howards cousin Derrail, they have this little picnic table for their grandson, The boys were sitting on it for a time, but Caleb (The grandson) decided to get up. Then he sat on the ground behind Aidan. I knelt down to get a picture of Caleb. Aidan leaned down and peeked at me.

New knitting dilemma.

I've started a sweater for Aidan, I hope I have enough light blue yarn to at least finish the front and the back, I have some white and a multi-colored yarn with blue in it that would make good sleeves, hood and pocket. Or maybe I'll make the sleeves out of the light blue yarn and use the others for the body. Hmmm I might just have to go to the store and get something just for this sweater. Howard isn't really excited about sweaters for boys, but I think they are cool, and I can make one for a lot less than we can buy one for. Besides here in California it doesn't get all that cold so a sweater just might be a good choice instead of a coat. However, if we move back home to Oregon, we will have to find him a coat. Well, actually he has one I'm just not sure if it will fit for the whole winter. But in Salem we can go to the clothing by the pound shop, and maybe there will be something good there. I know that everything will work out ok, because I'll make sure of it. LOL

Cats renamed

Aidan has renamed our cats. The Mama cat was named Miss Psycho Kitty Furbrains McMillen, and the little boy kitty was Monster Child Furbrains McMillen. Now they are just Kee and Tee. Key is probably actually Ki, short for Kitty, and Tea, is probably actually Ty another shortened Kitty. But he knows which one is which and calls them by those names every time. I kind of like the new names anyway. But I'm going to keep the Furbrains part.

Blog stuff.

So you ever feel slighted by your on-line friends? For example, I submitted a comment to a blog I visit every day, and she never approved it. No explanation, nothing. It's not really a big deal, but for some reason I feel hurt by it. I almost don't want to visit her blog any more. It's such a small thing, but for some odd reason it's grown to be a very large thing in my mind. I'll get over it soon enough I'm sure.

My other favorites seem to be doing okay, although one of them has decided to stop blogging for now. I'll miss her, she has 2 little boys. One of them is a little older than Aidan and the other is a little younger. They live in England. It's been a lot of fun and very informative as well. But I understand her reasons and I support her choice.

I wish more of my family would write blogs, so I could keep up with what is happening with them. So far my 2 sister friends have blogs, and a couple of our friends. (actually my sister-friends are much closer to them than I am.) My son Chris has a blog, but he doesn't post often at all. That's it, everyone else I read on a regular basis are on-line friends, some of them don't even know I read them I'm sure. I have posted comments on a couple of them though.

I really admire those who have blogs. Keep it up. Inform us, help us, entertain us, keep your friends and family up to date on what you are doing. It is appreciated, even if no one says so.

Childhood perspectives.

It's interesting how we have a different perspective when we are children. Allen thinks I'm a TV addict, because the TV was on most of the time when he was little. But if he had been just a little bit more observant he would have noticed that I was reading or doing some craft or writing or something. The TV was background noise for me. Music was too distracting for the most part so I didn't listen to the radio or tapes often. I can't deal with the quiet either, so I needed something and TV was perfect. Neither of the boys were all that into TV either, Allen was more interested in people and being outside, Chris was into computers and reading. TV was background noise for them too, I think. But Allen thinks I was watching TV all that time, probably because of the few programs I really did watch. To a child it probably did seem like I watched a lot of TV, especially since he didn't watch much at all. Oh well, I doubt I could get him to change his view of it, so I won't even try.

Aidan is a lot like Allen in a couple of really important ways. First of all, he eats only when he wants to. Some days he eats and eats and eats, and other days he hardly eats at all. Allen used to be like that when he was younger. Aidan is pretty active, like Allen was, and he isn't all that interested in the TV. So I'm hoping that Aidan will be in much better shape than I am in. I am hoping he will be more like Allen and will be slim.

Aidan kisses Dora

So far Aidan hasn't had much preference about the things he wears. As long as he has clothing enough to keep warm or be allowed outside he is fine. I think that is going to change soon though. A couple of days ago we were grocery shopping, we were in the cereal section, when Aidan spotted Dora on a box of KIX, he doesn't usually eat KIX, but he just had to have THAT box. He even kissed her picture on the front of the box! I wonder how long it will be until he sees a shirt with one of the Backyardagains on it and just has to have it. He only watches about 10 minutes of any show right now, so maybe it will be longer than I think. I hope so, because those cloths are expensive! Oh and right now he is between sizes, his 2T pants are getting short, above his ankles, and 3T's are about 2 inches too long as well as a bit too big around the waist. I did hear that Levis slims are good for little boys who are not chubby. I'll have to look into them.

On a different note, Aidan has developed a taste for grapes. He still likes apples, oranges, peaches, blueberries and pears, but he would turn all of those down to have some grapes. Like most kids he likes candy and other sweets, but give him fresh fruit and he's happy. I'm trying to keep things balanced for him, not deny him sugar but keep a limit on it. He eats fairly well, he likes veggies, fruit, eggs, and dairy products. Some days he eats a lot of food, some days he eats a little food. The only problem I have with him is that he won't drink water. So I'm slowly watering down his juice and koolade hoping that he will eventually be ok with drinking plain water.

This and that.

This is proof that Howard is teaching Aidan bad habits. LOL I know that it was an almost empty milk jug. It didn't have enough left in it for a glass, but they both got a talking to about it.



Wish us luck, we have started on the long rocky road known to parents as Potty Training. It may still be a little early, in terms of his vocabulary and desire, but we are trying to set the stage for later advancement. He has training pants, and Howard got him some pull-ups kind of things at the store the other day. So far Aidan has peed in the toilet a couple of times, but still no poop. He doesn't tell me when he has to go, and I don't think he even cares if he is wet or poopy. But he does have a little seat that fits on the toilet seat, and a step stool so he can reach it by himself. I'm hoping that when it's really the right time he will do it just as quickly as he did when he moved to his bed from his crib.

Aidan is now saying "Thank you" and "Be careful" in pretty much the correct situations. He says "Cake" and "Coke" but neither of them usually mean actually cake or coke. Coke means that he wants something to drink, and cake means he wants a treat. Grapes are cake, fruit snakes are cake, and cake is cake. Milk and juice are coke, and any carbonated drink is also coke. But we are working on it. He still calls all animals Buddy. He knows that our kitten is a baby so he calls him Baby, and the Mom kitty is Kitty, as if they are named Baby and Kitty.

No news about a bigger house, or a job. There are possibilities though, so maybe I'll have good news for you all soon. It's about time that we finally have something good happen for us. But at least we have each other, and even though we are rather poor and live in a junky little house we are happy to be together.