What's a girl to do?

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What's a girl to do when her brother is sick, it's cold and wet outside, and we've been cooped up too much lately?

Put on your "ballerina outfit" (aka the leotard Jocelyn found at Goodwill recently), and DANCE! (These shots are from the beginning of the month when there was snow out ... but she was wearing the same thing today!)

From February 2010
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Playing with different camera functions

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I've realized that the easiest way to play around with camera settings is when both children are somewhat contained or occupied. That doesn't happen often, so when Robs woke up from his nap a couple weeks ago

From January 2010

and Jocelyn came in to check on him

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and asked me if she could get in the crib with him, I agreed!

From January 2010

They both loved it. And I got to shoot to my heart's content. (I didn't have much of an objective; it was more of a "hmm, what happens when I do this?" type of a shoot. Some were good; some notsomuch. You see, I have to get friendly with my point and shoot camera's manual functions while we save for my DSLR! This was my first time working on manual mode, so nothing is spectacular, but I learned some tricks that make some of the pictures in my upcoming posts look much better than they would have been if I had been shooting automatic.) I won't narrate each picture since the same thing is happening in almost all of them: Jocelyn is running or jumping, Robbie is chilling in his sister's presence. In other words, it was the typical life here at the Dingle casa, except the kids were both in the crib.

From January 2010

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And I like these last two because my expression kinda matches my handsome boy's!

From January 2010

From January 2010

Sigh...

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Jocelyn is potty trained, except at night. However, we've been having some problems at home at times when she doesn't quite make it. (Thankfully, though, it's a never problem while we're out in public!) And then she often discards the pants and panties and runs around partially naked with nothing on from the waist down. (I can't put partially naked because of Literally, The Best Language Book Ever: Annoying Words and Abused Phrases, written by Paul Yeager who is more of a language nitpicker than I am. I've included an excerpt below.)

Today was a tough day of accidents, and I realized that we needed to have a little chat. (Side note: I'm loving that she's big enough to have little chats now.) So she sat in my lap, we talked about the accidents she's been having, and we discussed what should happen instead. We talked about what the consequence would be if she had an accident and didn't come tell me or Lee right away. We also talked about what the reward would be (a new My Little Pony) after five accident-free days.

I felt like the talk went well

Fifteen minutes later she came to me and said, "I have an accident. I went poo-poo and pee-pee in my panties and leggings. I sorry." Despite being bummed about yet another accident, I was pleased that she had grasped our little chat and come to me immediately.

I am too quickly and easily pleased. Why?

Because she then said, "I get a pony now?"

Yes, my sweet child heard this (imagine Charlie Brown's teacher for the "wah" parts): "wah wah wah wah... tell me when you have an accident... wah wah wah... and you get a pony."

Sigh.

(Side note: maybe she's not quite big enough for little chats like this yet.)

From December 2009

And here's your promised excerpt from the aforementioned book:

As the old saying goes, We're all naked under our clothes; however, we are never partially naked in any situation. Naked means completely without clothing. For the sake of convenience or out of laziness, it has become popular to describe someone who is partially clothed as partially naked; however, wearing even one lonely, little sock means that a person is not naked. The person might be embarrassed, but he's not naked.

Christmas morning, part two

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(Disclaimer: I don't want to break this into a third part, so brace yourself for a marathon-length post. Consider yourself warned.)

My little girl loves being a princess. Loves it! And she loves the PBS show Super Why. So when I saw the Princess Presto costume at Target, it just screamed, "Christmas present!" (Actually, it didn't really. That would have been freaky, and I don't think I would have bought it. I'm just being metaphorical, which - in case you were wondering - is a real word. I checked, because I thought I might have made it up. Nope, Webster already had it.) It's a good thing I also had a new dress wrapped and under the tree, since she opened her cape, wand, and tiara, and promptly announced, "I'm a princess. I need a dress." Thus, the wardrobe change out of the Little Mermaid pajamas she was wearing into the new dress. And just look at her spunk as she waves that wand!
From December 2009


Look, my child is a walking PBS ad!
From December 2009


Do you think she liked it? :)
From December 2009


Evidently Lee liked it too. Look at how happy he is here!
From December 2009


And now evidence of media junkie number one, as Jocelyn is staring up at the TV (with Mommy in one of her new Wild Olive Tees in the background!)
From December 2009


And evidence of media junkie number two. Yep, Shango loves watching TV.
From December 2009

I'm not sure which new Blu-Ray was this captivating, and I can't tell from this picture. I'm pretty sure it was Pixar, though.
From December 2009


Then Jocelyn opened MORE princessy stuff from Gammie (my mom)!
From December 2009


So what's a girl to do with two princess outfits?

Hmm.
From December 2009

Wear BOTH, of course, silly!!!
From December 2009


And, since the 50-inch isn't big enough for her, she utilized a stocking stuffer - the magnifying glass!
From December 2009


Then Little Man decided he wanted to check things out again and woke up from his nap! (Yes, his eyes are closed here, but he was awake. He's just like his momma and likes to take a little while to fully awaken.)
From December 2009


And Jocelyn continued to wear as many princess items as possible, while singing into her new Dora hairbrush! Wow, she certainly is all girl, isn't she?
From December 2009


And, though he looks apathetic in this picture, I promise that Robs was very excited about his new table! He's just a stoic little fellow, not quite exhibiting the full range of emotions that Jocelyn shows. (I'm not sure that most drama troupes exhibit the same range of emotion as Jocelyn either, but that's an entirely different post!)
From December 2009


Meanwhile, Princess Jocelyn (with her array of princess shoes from Gammie) broke into the art set from Gammie and Graddy as well! (Actually, all the stuff that I'm attributing to Gammie is from both Gammie and Graddy. But it's easy to just give credit to my mom, considering that I doubt my dad could name a single one of the gifts they sent to Jocelyn - despite the number/size of boxes from them being enough that our mail carrier asked me if someone was moving. Umm, no, my mom just really loves Christmas gift-giving! Thanks, Mom!!!)
From December 2009


She has played with this art set and her Play-Doh set every day since Christmas, which I consider the true test of a good gift. Definitely not forgotten!
From December 2009


And here is Robs (maybe on the day after Christmas, I think, due to all of us wearing different clothes) opening his puzzles! If they look familiar ... well ... that's because I went shopping for many of his gifts in our attic. No need for new stuff when I have plenty of Jocelyn's old gender-neutral toys stored away!
From December 2009


(However, methinks that I'll need to get him his own stuff when he reaches Jocelyn's current age, since I'm not a fan of my Little Man rocking the princess gear!)
From December 2009


I'm not sure what's happening here, but I like it. Jocelyn seems to be playing with Robbie's puzzles, Robs seems to be taking an interest in the piano, and I seem to be perplexed about life in general. Hmm, Jocelyn's claiming Robbie's stuff, Robbie's getting distracted, I'm confused ... seems about par for the course!
From December 2009


Reindeer Daddy and daughter!
From December 2009


"Look, Mommy, I have a kitty present! Hmm, he doesn't seem to be too happy!"
From December 2009


"Yet he must like me, Mommy, because he doesn't run away!"
From December 2009


"So I'll just play near him."
From December 2009


Meanwhile, big sis realizes that antler can double as a tail!
From December 2009


And off the [umm, insert your name for a creature with antlers as a tail here] goes!
From December 2009


And, finally, I'll leave you with the Noah ornament that Jocelyn claimed "looks just like you, Mommy." Uh, thanks, kid. Merry Christmas to you too.
From December 2009