I love baby goat season.

I think the only thing I love more than baby goat season is Linc feeding baby goats.

The place is Beltane Farm in Lebanon, they let you visit, tour, and taste cheese from 11-3 every Sunday in April and May.

Our spring break is next week and I’m starting to plan our schedule so that we don’t end up screaming at each other staying home the whole time. Getting out of the house during the week is both really fun AND important to our mental health when we don’t have actual vacation plans.

We are BIG fans of the Cirque Eloize shows that sometimes visit Foxwoods Casino. E and I attended one a couple years ago where we got to get up on stage during rehearsal and try our hand at some of the stunts. And then last year we took the kids to another show – Saloon – that had some of the coolest performers we’ve ever seen.

So when I got an email saying Cirque Eloize is coming back for another show during Spring Break, I jumped at the chance for tickets.

This year’s show is both kid-friendly and hands-on. They’re running a special pre-show experience to meet the cast, take pictures and maybe participate in a few activities. From the press release:

The cast of Cirque Éloize Cirkopolis is treating families to a unique and interactive experience before their seven-show run at Foxwoods. Families can enter the enchanting world of contortionists, jugglers and aerial acrobats as the cast prepares for show time! Lucky kids and parents will be invited on stage to participate in some of the crowd-favorite tricks from the show. The cast of clowns and artists will greet guests and take photos through out the show. This amazing “Behind the Scenes Family Experience” will on Tuesday, April 11 at 12:15 p.m. at Fox Theater. Tickets are required in advance and may be purchased in advance at https://www.foxwoods.com/CirqueEloize.

I’ve been a mother for eight years now and I’m like 75% sure I’m not doing it right. It’s unfortunate that there’s no real way to tell until I’ve really screwed up. I need a warning sign somewhere between “isn’t always happy in group settings” and “burns down the house”, but right now I’ll have to settle for “says he’s part of The Dark Side but gives really good hugs”.

I can’t even begin to sum up Evan in a post the way I do for babies, because when you are eight you are a whole human person. He understands things like reading and math and sarcasm and other important life skills. He is old enough to be trusted with important jobs and responsible enough that I can tell him the rules and I am mostly sure he will follow them. We’re getting close to being allowed to stay home alone, which might be the most real milestone I can imagine.

He can ride a bike, read a novel, carry the laundry upstairs, pay for something at the store, make his siblings breakfast in the morning, do all the dog-related chores and work all the technology in the house.

And here is Evan in his own words. Happy Birthday buddy, we love you so much!

I wanted to take some photos of Caroline in her new princess dress last week, but it was dinner time and Multicultural Night at school so my timeframe for this magical photo shoot was about 7 minutes. I live on a teeny tiny lot in a city neighborhood, so meadows and forests are in short supply. We do have an empty lot across the street, but most of it has been turned into a community garden (the vegetable kind) by a church.

But the weather was warm-ish and the sun was shining and my model was cooperative, so we popped across the street to borrow their grass, figuring we would just be making the most of a convenient location.

And we found a beautiful field of crocuses!

But it wasn’t actually that magical. It was just a little square of flowers between a driveway, a dead spot, and the church’s mulch pile. Here’s the cell phone pullback shot of Caroline in the same location:

There are several tricks you can use to maximize a less-than-ideal location if it’s all you have to work with. I knew when we went out to shoot I would be trying to disguise the background so I choose my 85mm f/1.8 lens, which is a medium length and is good at separating the subject from their surroundings. Once we found the flowers I decided to shoot at about f/2.2 or f/2.8 so I could include a good slice of the photo in focus – I wanted to be able to get Caroline’s whole profile in focus instead of just her eyelashes, or her whole body as opposed to just a sleeve.

Here are 5 more pieces of advice to help turn a bad spot into a good spot:

1. Light! The sun is starting to go down and partially blocked by some of those trees, which means a great glowy kind of backlight instead of harsh overhead shadows. If the sun had been coming from the opposite direction I would have shot the other way (which would have been unfortunate, because there’s pavement the other way).
2. Work your angles. I took a lot of these photos from overhead with Caroline crouching down, which includes a lot more grass/flowers and a lot less background. You can also get super low yourself, and shoot straight across the ground – you’ll end up with fewer distracting background elements.
3. Get close. Fill the frame with your subject instead of trying to get too much of the environment. Yes I wanted to capture the crocuses, but having her hold them or shooting the flowers on their own is a good option.
4. Horizontal vs vertical can be your friend. I shoot horizontally 90% of the time, but in this location I didn’t have a lot of space to work with. To create some variety in my shots, I took a series of photos vertically. Sure, she was standing almost next to a dirt pile, but because the photo is narrow you can’t see it.
5. Don’t say cheese. Almost none of these photos have Caroline looking at the camera. Instead, you’re looking at what she’s looking at – her hands, the flowers in front of her, etc. Let your subject guide the viewers eye into the foreground instead of the background. Then if you are looking for excellent photographers in Sydney then see those as they are top-notch and always deliver incredible photos.

If this was a client shoot instead of just a fun session for Caroline, I would have taken the extra step in  post-processing and fully removed the fence posts, dirt spots, and blue trash can from the background of a few of these. It’s not a hard fix in Photoshop, but I’ve gotten in the habit of using only Lightroom to edit my 365 photos or blog photos, just because it’s so easy.

Let me know if you have any questions!

Previously: Lincoln 7 months, Caroline 7 months, Evan 7 months)

Baby Finnegan is now closer to 1 year old than he is to being born. He’s  way past the lump stage and can no longer be trusted when I put him down – pulling things over onto himself is his new hobby. He also has started trying to pull himself up on stuff, although I’m not allowing that. Nope. He eats anything you put in front of him, but still isn’t sure about bottles or sippy cups. I’m hoping he changes his mind about that pretty soon, since I have plans to go out of town for a few days and his life is going to be SAD if he doesn’t get any milk during that time.

The tentative schedule he started working on a month ago is sticking around. He takes 2 naps most days, a morning and an afternoon. He’s pretty good about letting you know he’s tired, so I don’t spend too much time wondering why he’s being a grump. Mostly he’s super cheerful. Old ladies love him. He’s big enough to put in shopping carts now, so he makes lots of old lady friends when we’re out running errands.

Finn is wearing mostly 12-month clothes and lots of hats. He doesn’t mind hats so I put them on him a lot. He feels strongly about cold feet (he hates them) so he wears more socks than any of my other babies. He’s a perfect rolly polly little chunk. Because he can sit on his own now, I’ve started wearing him on my back, which is much more comfortable for a 20+ lb baby.

He does not sleep through the night. Not even close. But he does sleep in a pack-n-play instead of a swing, which means we can take him on vacation this summer. Hopefully in the next couple weeks we can start cutting back on wake-ups.

Likes include crackers, pears, apples, french fries, snuggles, smiling, being carried around, dogs, cats, goats, other babies, sitting, rolling, his blankie, nursies, naps, the outside, warm feet, water, mama, daddy, music, wiggling and grabbing stuff he shouldn’t have.

Dislikes include being tired, falling on his face, having his nose wiped, having things taken away, and 3 am.

He was very cooperative for photos this month! Such a good photographer’s baby.

7 Month Milestones 

Mastered Skills (most kids can do)
Sits without support – He really likes sitting and will sit for greater than 1 hour on the floor if you give him toys.
Drags objects toward herself – Yes.

Emerging Skills (half of kids can do)
Lunges forward or starts crawling – Definitely lunging. He can do a plank, but not really crawl.
Jabbers or combines syllables – Mostly squealing
Starts to experience stranger anxiety – Nope. Loves everybody.

Advanced Skills (a few kids can do)
Waves goodbye – No waving. I don’t think he has that kind of control.
Stands while holding onto something – Yes, sometimes he refuses to bend his knees.
Bangs objects together – Sure, but maybe not on purpose?
Begins to understand object permanence – I don’t know, let me ask him?