On my drive in to work the sky was beautiful with scattered and layered clouds, the sun was starting to break though in some areas, and the snow was white and clean. Just before arriving at work I pulled off to the shoulder in front of a muddy field filled with construction equipment and other dirty things, pulled out my camera, and put on the 85mm 1.8 Rokinon. Set the Aperture to F8, metering to Spot and shot over the freeway and billboards in my foreground. Really happy with how this turned out.
This morning Elle was feeling a little sick so I decided to stay home with her and Emily. I managed to get a good amount of work done so that was good. I came upstairs to get some water mid-morning and found my little girl all dressed up and sitting on the table coloring on the chair. The curtains were open and light was perfect so I had to grab my camera and capture the moment.
We had fun together today, at least until 5 or so when she was getting kind of hungry and quite cranky. She is just over 4 but so much more grown up in some ways, and yet still very young and immature in other ways. She has lots of emotion and struggles every day to live with them. I do too. We have some good fights, her and I. She just gets so stubborn that I can’t help but just want to send her to her room or put her to bed… and then she breaks and starts crying. She pushes me to my limits and then immediately regrets it. By bedtime though I make sure she knows I love her and we talk through it. She doesn’t like getting sad, and I don’t like getting mad.
Kids are amazing for personal growth. They’re all so unique in what they teach you.
Alicia recently decided she was wanting to go out and get a job – which she did. So now, Emmett goes to first-grade, and Elle and Emily go to a daycare a few miles away. The transition to daycare for Elle was pretty tough. She was excited and enthusiastic the first day or two, but quickly became very vocal about not wanting to go. She would wake up and the first thing she’d say to me in the morning was “I don’t want to go to daycare today” and would repeat that over and over while getting ready. It just broke my heart. I kept her home a few different times because I just didn’t have it in me to take her.
Week two. Tuesday. Once again Elle is feeling pretty sad about daycare. I’m laying in bed around 7:15am when Emmett comes in excitedly and shows me something. However, he quickly twisted his face and said he had a tummy ache. Alicia rushed him off to the bathroom and he started throwing up. Poor little guy. I hate seeing my kids gets sick. Time to stay home from work again.
To help Elle get off to daycare, I promised to take her to buy something new to play with afterwards. That helped. She was more willing to go. Little rewards can be such great motivation for kids when you’re at your wits end. Since daycare was only about 5 minutes away, I left Emmett at home with a bowl and a TV show to watch and I dropped off the girls. Success.
Emmett was up and down throughout the day. Sometimes he was normal and other times he was sluggish and took a long nap in the afternoon. By the end of the day though he was doing great.
That evening – true to my word – I took Elle to the Dollar Store to buy something new. She picked some marker coloring pages of Peppa Pig and Shimmer and Shine. When we arrived home she got right to work coloring – and did a really great job!
Finally, the day is done and it’s bedtime. It went okay. Bedtime is such a struggle for me.
No picture today. I’ve subscribed to a few writers’ newsletters lately and discovered I want to join them. I want to write. One is a business copywriter that shares tips on writing better copy for your business. He’s very good. The other is a man that walks – a lot. Long long distance walking. He takes along his camera and documents his journeys with images and words and he’s so compelling. They’re both excellent writers communicating in two different disciplines yet both are storytellers. Storytelling really is the key. Creative storytelling that’s engaging regardless the topic. My life isn’t nearly as interesting as wandering through the small villages and towns of Japan but I do have a unique story. I have a family. A wife and 3 little kids. All of us growing up and learning how to be people and parents. It’s my story and it’s worth sharing and keeping. I love taking pictures, now it’s time to write stories to fill the time before and after the photos.
Emily is almost 8 months old and getting really good at sitting up. She sits in bouncers and bumbo’s and even just on the floor with very little support. She’s also starting to assert herself a little more – getting excited when she sees a bottle, and gets angry when it’s not immediately put in her mouth. She loves to be around people and gets cranky if we leave her alone in a room. Her smile still lights up everyone around her – she’s a ridiculously cute baby.
November 2, 2019This has got to be one of the dumbest things I’ve ever seen. It’s a bike-bar. You sit, drink, and pedal while someone at the front is yelling at you to go and stop.Yep. A fur coat. Didn’t know people really wore them.
Oh boy is this place good. It’s so good. You get there and the air is filled with a glorious smell of Texas Post-Oak smoking up hundreds of pounds of meat. After waiting in line for a bit you come across this pit just filled with beef, chicken, pork, turkey, sausage… oh it’s so good. It’s so, so good. There are 5 or 6 locations around Dallas. Do yourself a huge favor and stop on by next time you’re there.
This weekend I ventured back down to Texas with my company to meet with Optometrists to chat with them about websites. (We were there last October as well) It was a fun event and we did well down there. The weather was fantastic and it was nice to head outside into the sun several times.
We stayed at the Omni Mandalay in Irving just outside Dallas. There’s a really nice walk around a lake and a canal that we ventured around a few times while there. Of course I had to take my camera along.
