Photos from the Past Week

After a post, yesterday, containing a modicum of critical content, I revert to my old standby: photos. Since about all that we do these days is grandkids, that's exactly what all of these photos are about. Those who read Cuppa's blog will have seen a number of them already.

For some reason I am a popular guy.

For Valentine Day, Nikki Dee received a fairy princess outfit ...

... which seemed to be a hit.

Nikki Dee has taken on many jobs. One is of chief cook.

Another is of monitoring world events on the computer.

Of course, she's also a rock star ...

... and a hairdresser (or she would be a hairdresser if she only find some hair to work with).

Meanwhile, Zachary spends some time reading ...

... at least when he's not cuddling. Partly due to his health troubles, he's requiring an awful lot of cuddling lately. Nikki Dee likes to receive her fair share of snuggles too.

When we braved the fresh air, Nikki Dee thought she saw Sam chewing on snow (it was a snowy bone) and immediately offered him more.

Then, she surveyed her Olympic task with great concentration ...

... and did very well although I'm not sure that she owned the podium.

Zach's Olympic sport was waddling, in a suit that made him look that he was as wide as tall. I don't think he owned the podium either.

Recreational swinging was more his style. In fact, he really enjoyed himself.

Nikki Dee tried to help push the boy, but didn't quite have the knack yet. She kept getting too close with the swing knocking her over. Tough logistics for a two year old to work out.

Finally, Rockin their way into your hearts ...

Opposites

When it comes to the camera, the kids are total opposites. Ninety percent of the time, Nikki Dee will do her best to ignore it. This can be rather irksome.



Zachary, on the other hand, is ready to burst in to smile whenever he sense the presence of one. While we much prefer his reaction, there are times when we would love to get a candid shot but are thwarted. This wasn't one of those times, however.


As I've already posted, neither kid has been terribly well this week, but Zach had a really bad day alone with me yesterday. I could barely put him down without him crying and fussing. It was difficult for both of us. After we left, he lost his supper and had an awful night. I am sorry for the boy but it gives me hope that at least he wasn't just reacting to being alone with me during the day. My night was interesting too; my ear plugged up, so after my whole month of an infected ear in December, I decided to go to emerg right away this time (it had to strike on the Friday of a long weekend). Got there at 1:00 and left at 1:01 after being told that the wait to see a physician would be approximately for hours. Thankfully, it doesn't hurt much; it's just plugged. The kids and I are certainly going round and round with these germs.

Nikki Dee did go to daycarre yesterday and was dessed up really cute for Valentines, so we took some pictures when she got home. Somebody at daycare changed her hair style, but she seemed fine with it. You can see part of her getup below as she munches on her afternoon snack.



Taken at the same time just into the light, these photos are less clear, but I like the effect.

First Day

Well, our first day of daycaring for this round is in the books: only 600 more or whatever crazy number to go. With Nikki Dee off to real daycare today (she goes twice a week), we were broken in gently on this initial day. Zachary had a good nap this morning and behaved well for me while Cuppa attended a Monday afternoon social event. We're tired, but some of that has to do with getting up earlier than normal and then moving into gear much more quickly once we are up. Here are a few pics from the day. Fear not, I won't recap every day in this way.

The Grands in January

We (read Cuppa, the indefatigable camera woman), take a lot of video clips as well as pictures. There are too many to post to YouTube, even if they were all good and non-repetitive, which they're not. So for January, I decided to cut and paste a bunch of clips from our various efforts into one file. For your incredible viewing pleasure, I present the month of January condensed to less than three minutes of video footage. Tada! (Although one sincerely doubts that a digital file truly can be said to contain footage.)



See on YouTube

Zach's Photo Album

"So, wacha bin doin AC? Yiz haven't bin hangin rown here much?"

Well, since you ask so nicely, I confess to being pretty busy AC: creating a photo album of Zach's first year. I had made one for his sister, and it was time to come up with the goods for the boy, and as it was his birthday [party] on the weekend, the time crunch was on.

Three years ago, when Nikki Dee happened into my life, I pretty much put her album together as her first year unfolded. She was the first grand after all and everything was new and fresh. I was in love with her, and she didn't haven't an older sibling to distract me and demand my time, so it got done.

With Zach, it was different. With his sister requiring much energy, I never quite managed to get around to making the album as the year progressed — at least that's my official excuse. But I always planned to present one on his first birthday, and as the day drew nigh, I began to get busy. Here are a few samples of what I have put together with the slideshow of the whole album below, including a link to the larger view directly on Flickr.

From week 2 ...



One thing I did realize, for perhaps the first time, in creating such albums is that a collection of head shots without lots of extraneous background makes for more pleasing composites than a group of dissimilar shots with different backgrounds. Since one must work with what's available, and since you want to show representative pictures, you can't often put together such pages, but here is another grouping of a somewhat similar style ... from week 3 ...



And a less busy collage from month 4 ...



Finally, this is the last page in the album: month 12. When lightning strikes, I may add a page or two for the party. Meanwhile, if your are family (or just curious) and want to see more, see the slideshow of the whole album is below, including a link to the large version.





Click here to view the slideshow larger.