Monday, September 22, 2014

Picture Practice: Fall

Here's the deal, I have a "real" camera, but do I cart it around everywhere with me? Umm, no. Lately I've been trying to work on my phone photography skills (angles, lighting, different camera apps). Since I finally got the dining room table cleaned off and decorated for September, I thought it would be the perfect thing to practice my phone camera skills on!

 

My first attempt:

 

 

Ehh...not super in love with this one. The colors feel off and the straight-on view looks too stark with that white wall (that isn't even white in the picture).

 

My second attempt:

 

 

I took this one with the VSCO cam app. I'm still learning how to use this app. Right now I'm excelling at slapping a filter on it. I do like the angle more on this one though.

 

Clearly I have a lot of work to do- so this is the part where I ask for help! Give me your best phone photography tips, please!

 


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Tuesday, September 9, 2014

Potty training: chapter two

I've been meaning to write about our second attempt on potty training for a couple of weeks (you can read about the beginning of the journey here) and I'm finally getting around to it.

 

 

After attempting casual potty training on Saturday and Sunday of that week, I decided to try again on Wednesday since we would be home all day. I was all set and ready to go. We woke up and I put on big boy underwear on Clay and set the alarm for every ten minutes. Our first visit in, we sat there and sat there and sat there... Twenty minutes later I get him off the potty and decide to try again in ten minutes. TWO minutes later Clay pees in his bedroom floor. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat.

 

The plan just wasn't working. Plus, we were low on carpet cleaner (I know, bad planning). Then, I had the most genius of genius ideas. I would put Clay in the kitchen to play with his dollhouse turned car garage and Curious George on the ipad! Perfect! I could cook lunch and Clay could play in an area that was easily cleaned in between his potty visits.

 

 

WRONG. So, so, so wrong, Jess. See that arrow? It's pointing to my ipad. Soon after I took this picture, Clay moved over to the side of the house to play and peed. Lots of pee. The ipad case WAS made out of this weird rubber/cloth material. It was gone. No amount of cleaning would help.

 

After that incident we had lunch and put a diaper on and headed for naptime. For both of us. Because I earned it after that.

 

 

After lunch I decided to let Clay watch Planes on the couch on a waterproof pad and continue to try the potty every ten minutes. I even put the little potty in the living room. Well, folks, we ran out of pads. No more sitting on the couch. Then we ran out of carpet cleaner. I gave up. I just couldn't do it anymore.

 

Then life got crazy with all of the birthday shenanigans. We continued to talk about the potty. A lot. Clay even started talking about the potty a lot. But if you asked him if he needed to go? "No." If you put him on the potty. Nada. He was ready though, so ready. By that I mean he woke me up one night with a diaper in his hand asking to be changed. Ready.


And a random funny story: when Clay had gas he used to tell us he pooped. Now? He goes, "no poop, just gas." Every.single.time.


Okay, back to where we are: Clay is having more dry diapers, he's peed in the potty exactly one time (after he held it on a four hour roadtrip, still haven't figured that one out), and I still haven't bought more carpet cleaner. Oh, and Clay likes to mess with his diaper. So twice last week he peed in my bed while I was showering. Once on my birthday. On my birthday. Also, we're kinda hanging back until Clay transitions to the next class at daycare next week. They will start potty training when he moves up so I'm really hoping it will help to be training at home and at daycare.

 

Feel free to send cases of wine, chocolate, and coffee.

 

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Sunday, September 7, 2014

The Sky

Earlier today I was halfway through writing a lovely post about potty training but then I remembered Kelli's Picture Practice was returning tomorrow! That's great, Jess, we didn't want to spend our Monday morning reading about you cleaning pee off your mattress anyway! Never fear, potty training post coming Tuesday, you lucky ducks!

 

This week's theme is "The Sky." I knew right away that I had a few pictures that I had taken lately that I wanted to share, I just had to narrow them down! These are the ones I chose:

 

 

This one was taken on Father's Day at Douglas Dam in Tennessee. Every year my dad's family has a family reunion there and you know how the relatives get if you don't bring those babies... Anyway, I was snapping pictures of Clay and decided to try my hand at pictures of the scenery. This picture makes me miss the mountains so bad! I can't wait to drive through the Smoky Mountains on our way to Tennessee in October!

 

 

Blue skies, happy boy, and planes (and the Charlotte skyline but Clay's big ole head is blocking that). This picture was from a pretty perfect day. I took Clay out to the airport overlook park at the Charlotte airport one Saturday afternoon and we had a blast watching the planes land and take off. Of course Clay's favorite was when they took off. "Bye-bye, pane! Bye-bye!" I really need to make it out there with him again soon!

 



I can't wait to see all the other pictures! And don't forget to come back tomorrow (or stay away) for potty training: chapter two!


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