I realized this week that twenty months isn’t really that far from twenty four months, which means Caroline’s birthday is coming up. I’m not even going to pretend I’m sad about it – I’m too excited about getting to throw a party (I’m thinking winter/arctic fairy wonderland in white and red plus some puffins and whales and narwhals because, duh). Plus she’s already seemed like a big girl for so long now it hardly makes a difference if she IS actually a big girl. The only down side is I don’t get to blow strangers away with her awesomeness, although that hasn’t been happening too much lately since I think she hit a growth spurt and has super super long legs so she doesn’t look tiny. I HOPE she hit a growth spurt, since her normal breakfast is three scrambled eggs, an apple, toast, a cheese stick and a bowl of cereal. JUST FOR BREAKFAST.

She’s still pretending she wants to potty train, but only enough to be kind of a pain in the ass – last night at dinner she INSISTED she had to poop on the potty, which she totally did, but then she pooped again. In the bathtub. On purpose. Because she thinks that’s hilarious. I think I’m going to give her through mid-September and then I’m switching to underwear and we’re going to do this more seriously. Things are just too hectic right now to do it entirely on my own. Oh yeah, and, I’m lazy.

We’ve been going to the playground a lot lately, although all Caroline does is swing. The whole time. Just swing. While shouting “HIGHER!” at me and screaming if I try to walk away for even a second to help her brother not break his arm on the monkey bars. How dare I!? Worst Mother Ever. But she loves swinging so very much I can’t stop taking her. I pushed her for an hour and a half yesterday and she still screamed when I made her leave (to go eat blueberry pancakes. Someone call CPS!!) Who loves something so boring THAT MUCH?

Her other favorite things include her pink sparkle shoes, creepy dolly, OTHER creepy dolly, Minne Mouse, both of her blankies, apples, plums, eggs, reading books, my singing voice (bless her), dancing, kitties, whales, grapes, Octonauts, napping in my bed, arguing, saying NO, running, splashing, babies, the zoo, aoudads (at the zoo), cheese and having people tell her she’s pretty.

Dislikes include having a dirty diaper, half of her clothes, not having enough eggs, not reading books and not swinging.

These pictures are kind of not great and all over the place but between the swinging and the blueberry pancakes we were Very Busy And Important today, so I had to do them right before bedtime.

She insisted on wearing her crown…as a garter. And then biting it.

Hi neighbors!!

Double trouble

Daredevil baby is always covered in bruises

Happy 20th Monthday Caroline!

20 Month Milestones (from BabyCenter, as usual)

Mastered Skills (most kids can do)
Feeds doll – CAROLINE DOESN’T SHARE FOOD. But she could feed her doll if she wanted to.
Takes off own clothes – She can get from dressed to entirely naked in less than 30 seconds, including her diaper. I’m not sure if I should be proud or invest in snaps that lock shut.
Dumps an object in imitation, such as throwing garbage away – In imitation? No. But if you say “Hey Caroline, go throw your jammies in the laundry and this diaper in the trash and this bowl in the sink” she will do all those things correctly. When she feels like listening, she is EXCELLENT at following directions.

Emerging Skills (half of kids can do)
Learns words at a rate of ten or more a day – Easily. Her words this week include “iPad, sound machine, penguin, puffin (she can tell the difference between those last two in her books), lion, bell, carpet, Bailey (one of Evan’s friends), soda, bacon, eggs” and “band-aid”.
Can walk up stairs (but probably not down) – Up and down. Although down still makes me nervous, so I insist on hand holding if it’s more than a couple steps.

Advanced Skills (a few kids can do)
May start exploring genitals – There was a playdate a few days ago with a friend who was very interesting in his own, ah, areas. Now Caroline thinks putting her hand in her pants is HILARIOUS. Toddlers, they’re just like frat boys!
Draws a straight line – She loves to color but I wouldn’t call any of her lines straight. Mostly they’re just scribbles. In pen. She hates crayons.
Names several body parts – She loves body parts, but refers to everything from her neck to her thighs as “butt”. We’re working on it.

Let me start by saying that while I have learned a LOT about taking photos in the past 3 years, I am by no means an expert. I’m not even a photographer, since my eyes glaze over when people start talking ISO and shutter speed. The only part of photography I actually understand is aperture, and even then I only know a small number means I get a fuzzy background and that looks fancy so, like, do that? Right?

But after owning a Nikon D90 for a while and reading a zillion articles and books and tutorials I feel like I’m qualified to give 5 tips for taking great photos even if you don’t know what you’re doing. And the top 5 things I’ve learned about photography DON’T involve super fancy camera settings or post-processing. Photoshop and Lightroom are amazing programs but if your main goal is to take better pictures of your kids – either for your blog or just for their scrapbooks – you don’t need editing software. I promise. Just be more mindful of the following things when you’re snapping away:

1. Use natural light. It’s all about the light. Yes, your camera has a flash and no, I’m not saying flash is evil. Skilled photographers can do amazing things with artificial light. But when I use flash, everyone comes out looking like a deer in the headlights and/or a flesh eating zombie so I take advantage of natural light whenever possible. I don’t mean direct sunlight – it can often be too harsh – but light coming through a window, a shady spot under a tree or that magical golden hour right before sunset are all better places to take you kid’s monthly baby photos than under your ceiling fan lights at 8 pm. (This goes DOUBLE for photos of food.)

August, 6pm – the light is behind the trees so even though Caroline is backlit it’s the nice halo-type of backlit. Plus it shows of her ginger curls in a way head-on light wouldn’t.

2. Pick a great location. My couch is moss green, filthy and makes a terrible backdrop for photos. My kitchen is OK but the dark counters and wood cabinets make it a cave. The rest of my home is always a mess. But the park less than a mile from my house is gorgeous – stone pathways, arbors, fountains, lots of shade, space for playing and running and bikes. I’m not capturing our “everyday” in the sense that we are in our house but I am capturing a typical afternoon in our neighborhood. It’s easy to bring the camera along, sit in the grass and let the gingers run in circles while I mess with my settings. Having a great location makes all the rest of the tips MUCH easier.

This was spontaneous wish-making…something that wouldn’t ever happen at home in our family room.

3. Pay attention to your background. This is why you’re shooting at the park instead of in your house (as cute as my tiny gingers are in those photos, the background prevents them from ever becoming prints I hang on the wall). But it also means take three steps to your left to avoid capturing that trashcan or people scooping dog poop or a couple having a fight behind your kid (all actual things I avoided during this shoot). Even if you are in your house, do your best to get blank walls, plain cabinets and doors in the background rather than piles of brightly colored toys and laundry. You can crop in post-processing – even basic, free programs allow cropping – but these are tips for AVOIDING all of that so try to remember to look behind your kid’s adorable face.

Things going on around Evan that you can’t see because I framed the photo well – trash can, people fishing, teenagers loitering and smoking and doing general annoying teenagery things.

There were some people sitting on the edge of the fountain at first, so I took close up shots until they wandered off. Then I backed up and let Evan throw his penny.

4. Children looking at the camera are better than children not looking at the camera. I should have just called this tip “Bribery”, but that seemed crass. I take a LOT of pictures of the backs of heads, butts, shoes, etc. But when you’re trying to take memorable photos, try to get your kid’s face as much as possible. Some of the best ways to get a child to look at you are shouting, waving your arms, playing “Can you see my eye through this camera?” and promising candy/ice cream/ponies. Mostly it’s a matter of following step number 5…

As cute as Caroline’s ruffle skirt is, her “leader of the tiny bike gang” face is way cuter. (Although, technically, the composition of the facing away photo is better…BIKE GANG. I MEAN COME ON.)

5. More is more. As long as you’re shooting digital, keep shooting. At a photography class just a couple weeks ago one of the pros told us to STOP taking so many photos and really focus on getting the shots right the first time. I am definitely going to work on that…soon-ish. But if you aren’t a pro, my advice is take tons of pictures, especially of kids. You might only get a few worth saving but that’s the magic of digital – delete, delete, delete. When your kid is running away from you, shout their name and start snapping – those just-turning-around faces are great and you almost always get eye contact. The same goes for jumping, swinging, splashing, dancing, and running kids – it’s better to have too many shots to choose from than miss a moment you loved.

Dancing kids are hard to keep in focus but too cute to miss, so I took at least 30 pictures in 60 seconds.

Swinging pictures are even harder than dancing pictures (plus the light on the playground wasn’t as good) but I got this one from a collection of many.

I’m not saying you’re going to get magazine-worthy photos from your point-and-shoot or your cell phone camera, but I wish I had known all this stuff from the beginning when I was taking pictures of Baby Evan with my Panasonic. Just remembering to set the baby down somewhere without burp cloths in the background would have made a huge difference.

If you have any questions, feel free to ask and I’ll try to help or find someone to help. And feel free to link photo tips that you’ve found helpful (or written!) in the comments.

All my photos in the post are straight out of my camera (Nikon D90, 50mm 1.8f lens) – no cropping, no exposure changes, no editing. All I did was watermark and resize the files for uploading. I did use my camera’s manual settings when I shot but I do that fairly often now and still don’t get great results. These photos look nice because I took them mindfully, not because I have amazing technical skills with a DSLR. 

I’ve been staring at this blank page for ten minutes now, wondering how to write a BlogHer12 recap post and I’ve just decided I don’t actually want to. It’s only been a few days since I got home but the posts, tweets, threads and private gossip is coming fast and furious. Who was rude, who got pushed, who snubbed who, what super top secret parties I didn’t get invited to, whether or not bloggers who don’t use all the words count as bloggers at all… It’s amazing how other people’s experience can completely change how I view my own. I don’t want to be responsible for doing that to anyone else. If we met, I thought you were LOVELY. Truly, every single person I met was kind and welcoming, from people I’ve admired for years to brand new faces.  If we didn’t meet, I’m so so sorry and I hope we can get together soon. That’s my entire opinion of the conference besides these photos and captions…done as haiku. Please enjoy.

Wednesday:

Walked to Central Park
With Miranda in the rain
No dead bodies found

Went to find some food
The sunset was amazing
But there was no pie

Thursday:

Blographer and more
I met Ree for the third time
She did not know me

Friday:

Sessions and Martha
The meat of the whole big thing
With fun for dessert

Bright lights and good friends
Toys and swag and all the things
Can’t even compare

Saturday:

Disney made me cry
Katie and Serenity
Too many highlights to count

My friends may be weird
But that’s why they understand
I treasure them all

This might be one of the braggiest braggy monthday updates ever. Just warning you. I don’t feel bad or anything.

Caroline is 19 months and she can name pictures in books (kitty, mommy, milk, cow) which is listed as an Advanced Skill for 21 month olds. She already sleeps in a big girl bed, which is an Advanced Skill for 22 month olds. She can walk down stairs – an Emerging Skill at 24 months – by herself if it’s only 3 or 4 stairs or with a handrail, if she’s tall enough to reach it (mostly, she’s not, so she holds my hand). She can jump with both feet off the ground, which isn’t even ON this chart – it’s listed on the 25-30 months chart. And if yelling “JUMP!” as she throws herself off the couch and “WALK!” when I’m carrying her and she wants to get down (“DOWN!”) counts, she can “Name two actions (e.g., skipping, jumping)”, a skill not listed until 36 months.

She’s really freaking smart, is what I’m saying. And it’s not all good. Her new favorite word is “no”, which she says even when she means yes. I started counting with her (“Caroline! Stop running away from me. I’m going to count to three!”) and instead of listening she yells “THREE!” and runs faster. I’m just lucky she’s still too short to reach the doorknobs so I can trap contain keep her in her room for naps. Toddlers are like velociraptors – they’re only REALLY dangerous once they can open doors.

I forgot to bring her record book to her 18 month appointment so I don’t remember the exact numbers, but she was about 21 pounds which still puts her in the 25th percentile. She fell to the 15th percentile in height, but instead of freaking out the way the doctor did when Evan dropped to a lower curve, the doc just said “Meh, put peanut butter on her apples.” Which is good, since “AP-PULL!” is her new favorite food (again). She also loves every other kind of fruit, carrots, peas picked from our garden, anything she can dip in hummus and Wheat Thins. She pretty much loves food in general, which makes me a happy mama – no fighting to get calories into her and worrying the doctor is going to order more weight checks.

Her favorite place is the aquarium (although the zoo is a close second) where she presses her entire body up against the glass and screams “FIIIIIIIIIIIIISH! FISH! FISH!” She will sit through the entire sea lion show and is happy to touch the sharks and stingrays and crabs in the touch tanks. I cannot even tell you how much I love that she loves the aquarium. It feels like I somehow passes a piece of my heart and brain to her as well as my genetic code.

Other likes include dogs, kitties, books, turtles, climbing, slides, water of all kinds, nudity, juice, cheese, apples, talking, shouting, screeching, running, stairs, the potty, beds, fruit snacks, fist bumps, boats, fire trucks, her dolly, dancing, music, babies and hugs.

Dislikes include falling down, being hungry, letting me look in her mouth, missing out on fun things, when her brother puts a pillow over her face and sits on it.

Baby pool? I don’t need no stinkin’ baby pool.

Oh hai, is this a problem?

NOW is it a problem?

Man I love testing limits! So fun!

I’m too cute for you to stay mad.

LACE. ROMPER.

She’s thinking about jumping

Accessorizing!

Heartbreaker

Posing for her Senior Portrait

The many faces of Caroline

19 Month Milestones (from BabyCenter, as usual)

Mastered Skills (most kids can do)
Uses a spoon and fork – Prefers forks, but can use both.
Runs – SO FAST.
Throws a ball underhand – She got E RIGHT in the face with a ball the other day. I laughed because I’m a bad person, but I should probably be signing her up for softball.
Enjoys helping around the house – You guys, I think she does more chores than I do. She loves helping and I am not adverse to letting her.

Emerging Skills (half of kids can do)
Understands as many as 200 words – Understands ALL THE WORDS. She even understands sarcasm. Obviously she’s my daughter. She also SAYS at least 75 words – her newest skill is words with more than one syllable.
Recognizes when something is wrong (e.g., calling a dog a cat) – I’m sure she WOULD but that seems like kind of a mean game.

Advanced Skills (a few kids can do)
Washes and dries own hands with help – Washes hands all freaking day if I’d let her,
Points to picture or object when you call it by name – We just played a game of this in while hanging out in front of the open fridge. She got: yogurt, milk, juice, cheese, grapes and beer.
May know when she needs to pee – Can pee and poop in the potty but also just thinks using the bathroom is REALLY COOL so she wants to do it all the time. I’m not going to work on actual potty training for a couple more months, unless she does it entirely on her own.