Outsmarting the warden

You ever have one of those days as a mom (or dad) where your kids act like little criminals who keep outsmarting you???  Well, I have those days very often.  I think b/c I essentially have 2 very active, mischievous toddlers who love, love to break out of my ever so carefully placed baby proofing--at this point, I don't know why I even try.  The other day, after I had placed the gate in the great room of our home so they couldn't bother me why I was getting dinner ready, I hear the gate being slammed.  I look over to see both of my children head butting the gate to get it out of their way.  Since I knew the baby gate wouldn't hold them, I decided to try a different form of confinement, one which I hoped they would stay in for a while.  Because I have 2-3 loads of laundry per day, my hampers are always out.  I thought why not put them in those & let them think it was all a big game while I baste my slow roasting beef.  I am happy to report it did mostly work, although Jessica was out of my "jail" within a few minutes.  Ella couldn't quite figure out how to get out, so at least she was confined while I finished working on dinner.  Take a look at my little criminals in their jail ;)

Yep, just in case you're wondering Jessica is naked AGAIN

My little criminal

I'm pretty sure they were scheming how to get out

Full circle

Remember this photo from last July---baby Ella was only 2 months old & Jessica was 16 months old.  It captures the sibling rivalry perfectly that we were struggling with at our house.

It seems as though our Ella girl has learned to exert herself as a force to be reckoned with.  It also appears that the sibling rivalry has come full circle.  I had to laugh when I saw this ;)  These are keepers for posterity for sure!

Yeah, baby was hitting Jessica on the head

Funny that Jessica seems to be enjoying this

Brown-eyed angel

Now for those of you that read my blog regularly, the title does refer to Jessica (she's can surely give me fits, but it does actually describe her--at least some of the time ;)  Every so often I will ask Jessica if she wants to have her picture taken & often she will say "no, no--baby", meaning not me, but take some of baby, which usually does happen.  However, the other morning it was beautiful outside & I wanted to try a little something different & to my surprise Jessie was all about getting dressed up to have her picture taken, she even wanted to wear a bow or bow-bow as she calls it.  My mom made the girls these cute matching lilypad dresses that I've been dying for the girls to wear so when Jessica picked it out the other day I thought why not!  Her look is changing so dramatically right now....if you ask her to smile she will (& on that note, her open bite from her long-standing pacifier habit has mostly closed--to my dental friends that's just what we learned in school, right??), but it's sort of a strained smile & not very soft.  Also, she still looks a great deal like Michael, but her face is changing a lot & it's hard to know how everything will turn out.  She's definitely looking more feminine, at least to me.  She's doing really well on the potty most days.  Some days she'll go the entire day with no accidents & other days she won't go at all...don't really know what that's about.  She'll be 26 months old May 4th & although I told myself I wouldn't do monthly updates once she was 2, I find myself kind of doing them anyway.  She's all about being the big sister right now & is so funny trying to show the baby how to do things.  She also is very vocal about telling the baby "no-no" for getting into trouble.  She also continues to enjoy being my "lil' helper" & I find if I engage her on tasks she does pretty well with sticking with them & completing them.  She starts "playschool" this Friday, so let's all hope she doesn't get kicked out.  Enjoy some pics of our brown-eyed angel!

**To my photography friends: I did something a little different in my post-processing this time.  I've been looking at real photographers stuff lately and a lot of them are selling light room presets to edit raw files.  Now I always shoot in raw & like all the control it gives you, but don't really know about the lightroom program.  I use Digital Photo Professional (DPP) which came with my camera to edit Raw files & then convert to high quality jpeg.  I did learn you can change a lot of settings with the program & give your pics a really different look by changing color tone, contrast, etc.  On all these files I opened the Raw file then used the following settings to get this "angelic" soft look.  I had previously set my white balance to auto, so no filters applied.  Here are the settings:

Increased brightness as needed (but mostly overexposed when taking the pics as most were back lit)
Contrast -2
Shadow +2 or +3
Color Tone -1
Color Saturation +2 or +3
Sharpness 4 or 5

I saved these settings as a recipe called "angel" & think they may work well when I want to edit a whole bunch of pics at once.  Once I had converted to jpeg I edited these pics in my photo editing program (photo explosion---about $40 bucks at Target, but almost the same as photoshop).  I removed dark circles under eyes, sharpened over the eyes, and smoothed skin.**

She looks so grown-up here

This is the strained smile I get often

I really do like how these settings give this really soft look

Funny story & dental humor

Well, it is probably no surprise to the mother's reading this blog, that I have kind of let my wardrobe go over the past year.  This last weekend, my loving husband sent me out to the mall to get a few pretty things for myself.  I happened to come across this really cute store called Francesca's Closet.  Now I'm sure some of you know about this place, but I surely didn't.  The two young ladies working at the register were very nice & I started browsing the racks.  Really cute dresses, tops, adorable accessories, & cute shoes at good prices.  I began trying things on in the trendy decorated dressing rooms when I notice that they have a framed picture of Bella & Edward's wedding from Twilight Breaking Dawn.  Now don't get me wrong I love me some Twilight & especially Rob Pattinson in a tux is always nice, but then I started trying the clothing & sure enough it was junior sizes or else I've gotten really fat & didn't realize it.  I walked back out & noticed I was the only person in the store over 21.  I also noticed, which I hadn't before, but there were other framed pics of Zac Efron & all the young stars that teens love.  Guess this old married lady with two kids had stumbled into a trendy teen store & didn't know it.  I quietly slinked out of the store as I heard the girls at the front talking about prom dresses....so funny to think how different my life is from theirs!  I had a laugh at myself for not realizing that this store catered to a younger crowd; oh well, it did make me feel good I could even fit in their clothes.  Now as far as the dental humor goes, well, we were having trouble getting Jessica to give up the paci or papey as she called it.  Our replacement at bedtime has become an adult size toothbrush.  And she also likes to tell us which color tooth paste she gets on her "ti-ti" (toothbrush in Jessie language), it's either white or green at our house.  If we don't give her the correct color of paste she will throw a fit, so to anyone who may potentially babysit for us listen to what color paste she desires!  Take a look at how we find her after she falls asleep at night---is she a dentist's child or what??

I didn't edit these at all, hence the dirty face & presence of the "boo-boo"

Just as peaceful as ever with the toothbrush hanging out of her mouth!

Overalls

Did you ever notice how cute babies look in overalls??  Well, the other day I couldn't help but take some pics of Ella in her overalls.  If you ask me, some of these are really great pics.  What I have discovered is that the light you want to photograph in outside is shade (it looks sort of gray & usually near an area of sun--this will give you those pretty saturated colors that the pros get--it took me a while to figure this out, but to my friends who are photo enthusiasts--that's my trick, oh also, set your white balance beforehand to shade).  It's so hard for me to believe that my baby will be 1 in just a few short weeks; no doubt, this year has been busy & a whirlwind, but we've also had a lot of good times.  When I look back at pics of her before 3 months I don't even remember taking them--crazy, right??  Well, I was terribly sleep deprived & had a very young toddler running everywhere, that could be why.  Ella has the most pleasant disposition & is really not a lot of trouble.  She's not demanding or very willful (of course, that may start a little later on, but for now I'm happy for it).  She's also very content & will take whatever attention you give her with a smile.  I am so thankful that this sweet little girl is part of our family.  She's still teething some (thus the hands in the mouth when I try to take her pics), but mostly just being her sweet little self.  Enjoy some pics of our almost 1 year old in her overalls & have a great day!

85mm, f/3.2, ISO 100, 1/125

Love the little expression here

Little stinkweed

On the move

One of my favorites of her so far for the year

The leaf in front on the pic above...I edited it out of the other pics, should have in this one

This one is for dada...baby Ella knows how to do the Vulcan symbol for Live long & prosper (nerd humor..lol)

Such a cutie in the overalls

Not the best expression, but still beautiful eyes

This is such an Ella face

Chubbin' it up

Another classic Ella face right now, we see this one a lot

Yeah, she's eating dirt or a leaf, but I had to attempt a full length shot

Little pudge is thinning out

I know she's not looking at me, but just darling in her overalls

Spring Sickness & a visit from the South

I hope everyone had a nice week last week....I am happy to report that the Passineau family is feeling better after a week long sickness that really wore this mama down.  A few days after Easter the girls started sneezing & I thought it was just allergies/teething, but now I think it must have a been a cold of some sort.  Over last weekend the girls were terribly congested & didn't sleep hardly at all---I went 1 straight week with both girls being awake at night, I know I don't work & this should in theory be not too much to handle, but I was also sick & I truly felt like I was back in the newborn days of sleep deprivation.  It was tough!  My parents rode in like the Southern Calvary on Monday the 16th & helped me take care of the girls the last week & I was even able to grab some naps that helped me recover.  Despite our sickness, we had a nice visit (very low key, but nice).  I am sure my folks need to recoup after their visit with my kiddos & their long car ride, but we appreciate their efforts to help us while here in Pittsburgh.  Nuna & Pawpaw, as Jessie calls my parents, enjoyed swinging the girls & my dad even helped me with my landscaping project--mulching, pulling out dead plants, & replanting some azaleas.  So a huge thank you to Nuna & Pawpaw for visiting us.  Enjoy some pics of the girls playing with my parents. (My photography skills weren't too great in some of these, as I was sick & high on Alavert most of the week, but oh well, still some good memories captured).

Practicing her trike ride with Nuna

My mom made the little tutu ensemble for Ella for her 1st birthday, of course, she had to model it

My dad was a little outside the DOF, but oh well!

Look how pretty Ella looks in her tutu

My dad & Jessie were playmates all week

Who's having more fun, Nuna or Jessie??

We attempted a group shot, it's tough with 2 little ones

Doesn't everyone want to enjoy pushing their grandchildren in swings when you retire??

Jessie thinks Pawpaw is hysterical