My photo mojo was lagging for a while, and in the process of getting it back I think I have made myself insane.  I am learning so much from books and forums and so on, that practicing what I learn is getting really discouraging.  It’s a darned good thing I have such a cute subject.  But seriously, how do you keep from getting frustrated when you can see what is wrong but not how to do it right?  Or, say, when you see a different photo edit that looks a million times better, but you can’t get there from here?  I know, I know, it’s one of those patience and learning blah blah blah things.  But it is a pain in my butt lately.

Anyway, that is a long preface to explain why I’m overly critical of my pics this week.

I love this one, but I feel like there’s a gray film over the photo. I think theoretically better Photoshop knowledge could make it gorgeous, but that would involve having the knowledge.  And the Photoshop.

These two have a double whammy of me stupidly putting her in a white shirt and therefore blowing out the shirt exposure trying to get her face exposed enough, and orange reflections on her face from the pumpkins. I don’t think I could have predicted the orange thing, but I knew darned well not to dress her in white. On the other hand, I didn’t have any other clean long-sleeved shirts that fit her. So there’s that excuse…

The stupid Chicago Public Library apparently takes weeks to send books from one branch to the other, but hopefully soon I’m going to get this book and make some progress.

More Best Shots here.

In non-photography news, we had our big ultrasound last week. Everything looks good, the baby is still a boy, and he yawned on screen which is pretty disgustingly cute. That also means I’m over halfway. Holy crap.

Dorrie is rocking the musicianship lately.

I had been looking forward to the Hideout Block Party all summer. Neko Case, the New Pornographers, Tim Fite, Robbie Fulks, Rhymefest, all in a family-friendly street fest atmosphere? There is no downside.

And it actually ended up being just as good as I had anticipated.

Especially since the Cubs clinched the division before we left for the Hideout. Dorrie’s reaction:

Then we checked out the tasty food (and actually skipped the food there to go to a little Mexican place):

Dorrie and her Dada went up to listen to some music (at one point during the New Pornographers set she wouldn’t even let him come back to where I was sitting because she was too busy dancing on his shoulders):

At the end of the night she went to sleep in her wagon and we pulled her around until we left.

Then the next day, we got there in time to play with the fun artsy stuff at the kids area and Dorrie screen-printed a tote bag.

And played with the chalk until she was a huge mess.

If you didn’t go, you missed Robbie Fulks (alt-country) doing a tribute to Michael Jackson culminating in kicking the set over to Rhymefest (hip hop) in the middle of Thriller. You definitely missed out.

More Best Shots here.

My photo mojo has been MIA for a bit now, but I think I’m starting to get it back. It helps to have a painfully adorable subject, though, as well.

See more best shots here.

Dorrie was a little freaked out by my 11.5 week ultrasound. I hadn’t realized it would be scary for her, so I didn’t think to prep her at all. Then when we went into a tiny dark room and I climbed up on a table and a stranger started messing with my stomach, she got scared. This time we discussed it beforehand - how she would sit in a chair and mama would lie down on a table and a nice lady would use a special camera to show us pictures of the new baby. She LOVED the idea. In fact, yesterday morning we dropped my husband off at the train in the morning due to the pouring rain (thank you, leftover Gustav remnants), and when I pulled back in our carport she had a huge fit, screaming “NO I WANT SEE BABY, I DON’T WANT GO HOME, I WANT SEE BAAAABY!!!”

We got through that eventually, and left for my appointment in the afternoon. She was totally fine with the ultrasound concept this time - she even told me to lie down on when I got up and sat on the table.

We got to see an adorable little foot with smoochable little toes,

a cute zombie/skill face shot (braaaaaaaains, delicious braaaaaains), and then…

Dorrie’s favorite part - finding out that she was right all along about the brother/sister thing.

My husband got his dream toy (and birthday/anniversary present) yesterday, and Dorrie loves and adores it beyond all reason. I’m a tad scared, though not so much that I can’t appreciate the joy emanating from the two of them.

Dorrie and I went to the zoo last week. She loves the zoo, and asks to go there a lot. She talks about the “hotopopus” and the monkeys and the gorillas and the giraffes and the zebras and so on and so forth. But we had never gone on the carousel before. I couldn’t really see the point - $1.75 for a boring ride that the kid doesn’t even know they’re missing? No way.

But this time she saw it. And asked to go. And I figured hey, what the hell?

She loved it. Adored it. Every time her hotopopus went up and down the whole time she went, “Uuuuuuuuuuup! Dooooooown!” I have really rarely seen her happier.

$1.75 well spent, apparently.

The little sibling is still doing well - I’m hesitant to talk about the lack of annoying symptoms because it will jinx me. So just assume that no news is good news. When I get kidney stones again, I’m sure you’ll hear plenty of whining about that, so we’ll just go with the whole don’t-talk-about-it theory for now.

See more Best Shots here.

Dorrie got a birthday extravaganza since we had to make her family party a week after her actual birthday. She loved it!

Her favorite part is the part where everyone sings to her.

In fact, she ate half her cupcake and then tried to put her candles back into it to get everyone to sing to her again.

And everyone else at the party seemed to have fun too. And got to hear the news…

More Best Shots here.

Yesterday Dorrie and I got into the car and I turned it on.  The Cubs game was still on the radio from before we had gotten out, and I started pulling out of a parking garage while only half-paying attention to the game.  (Parking garages and I don’t get along.  I have to concentrate really hard or else I run into things.)

Then I got out of the garage and started listening to what Dorrie was saying in the back seat.  Apparently she had been listening to the game better than I had…

“Foo-koo-doh-me!  HITS DOUBLE!  Mama, he runs and runs and runs!  HIT BALL!  Go CUBS!!!”

Yep, my barely 2 year old can not only do baseball play-by-play from listening to Pat and Ron on the radio, but she can also pronounce Fukudome’s name better than half the people in Chicago.

Dorrie turned two on Saturday. Her birthday party isn’t until Sunday, but she got presents from us and a little cupcake to blow out two candles.

Which she liked.

More Best Shots here.

I don’t know why but I’ve been in a bit of a photography funk. Sarah wrote some about hers here, which helped me decide that I should suck it up and try some new stuff.

Which, of course, I did by taking picture of the most photographed landmark in the entire city of Chicago. Hmm….

Dorrie really liked Millennium Park. The 2 minutes she saw of it while she wasn’t napping, anyway…

More best shots here.
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