Like herding cats

Poo-pah (Z's name for Grandpa Walt) sent some Carnegie Mellon gear to the kids a while ago, but the shirt was too big for Miss S. She's finally grown into it, so I wanted to take a photo of the two of them wearing their CMU shirts today. After I wrangled them onto the bench (the easiest way to get them together is to make them sit on something that forces proximity), I faced the challenge of photographing two young children who aren't very interested in being photographed. Afterward, as I was looking through the photos to pick out my favorites, I decided that it would be more fun to show you what a typical photo session with these two looks like.  And maybe you will appreciate why I have so few photos of them together.



So after all of that, here's what we ended up with!  (Although I have to admit that some of my favorites are the sillier photos that show their personalities.)

Quote of the Day

Me: Z, do you know what a windmill does?
Z: Yeah. (In the noncommittal tone he uses when he's ignoring you, doesn't understand the question, or doesn't know the answer.)
Me: What does it do?
Z: Yeah.
Me: Maybe I can help. What do you think this part that looks like a fan does?
Z: Oh, that's the part that spins around to generate electricity.

Quote of the Day

Z:

"Uh oh, the excavator is broken. Do you know what 'broken' means? It means 'tighty-whitey'. And when something is broken, you say 'okie-dokie' and then Mommy comes and fixes it. But I don't need to fix the excavator right now because now it's a crane."

Happy Easter!

This was the best I could do in my attempt to get a photo of the two of them "together" and "smiling".  You can see Miss S's adorable Easter dress, knitted by Gramma Hill!  We also realized today that Z only has one button-down shirt, and it's the same one he wore in his Santa photo last year.

At least they are both looking at the camera this time...

The only way to get a smile in a photo around here is to do it myself.

After the Egg Hunt, Daddy reads their new Easter book to them.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Easter weekend!

Firework

Z loves to sing Katy Perry's "Firework", so his teachers at preschool filmed him today. I think my favorite part is the end when he says, "I've been singing back and forth! I didn't know I could sing back and forth."

Wow. It’s been over 3 months since I’ve posted here.

And I’m not going to do much better with this post.  Just wanted to put up a couple photos in honor of St. Patrick’s Day!

This is my new favorite photo of Z and Miss S.  I call it “Irish American Gothic”.  They are quite a cheery pair, aren’t they?

Lest you think we have two grumpy leprechauns all the time, this was taken 2 minutes before the last photo:

And just for fun, here is a classic example of how things are around here lately (which might explain the general grumpiness when I force them to sit together for a picture):

Compare & Contrast: Santa Photos (2008, 2009, 2010)

The first one (from 2008) still makes me laugh.  Z was doing just fine until the lady “helping” the photographer started ringing that darn cowbell.