Week 35: Cousins

What a wild and wonderful week it has been! I'm (we're) exhausted. I truly almost forgot to post this entry.

Kristi's family arrived on Saturday for a Thanksgiving visit and whirlwind tour of NYC. Our brother-in-law and niece had never been to the City before and Kristi's sister hadn't been since the early 80's. A visit was overdue, so Grandma and Grandpa brought everyone out. About a month ago we received "the list" which included Terri (Kristi's sister), Eddie (our brother-in-law) and Bridget's (our niece) list of sights they wanted to see. There wasn't any way we could see everything in the six days they were going to be here, so we asked them to prioritize - there still wasn't anyway it would all happen, but Kristi did a great job of putting together a schedule that shoe-horned most of it in. She also did a great job of keeping us on schedule! Empire State Building, Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Central Park, Central Park Zoo, Times Square, Patchin Place, The Rockettes' Christmas Show, Natural History Museum, the Macy's Parade Balloons being inflated. . . . well, you get the idea. We've seen a lot - especially with a 2 and 5 year old in tow. Today was nice - we stayed home, cooked, ate, decorated our Christmas Tree and enjoyed each others' company.

Since they arrived we've been going non-stop. We've seen many things, some of which I hadn't seen before, either. Jonah has been with us most of the time. However, I think his favorite part has been getting to play with his cousin. They have had a blast, have egged each other on, taught each other new bad habits - but most importantly, spent, I believe, the most amount of time together they've ever had. They leave tomorrow and Jonah and Bridget are already upset about it.

It was tough to choose one photo from our time together - I've taken hundreds. This, however, was one of my favorites. This photo of Bridget, Jonah and Grandpa Jerry is at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. It's my 50mm lens at f/1.6 and natural light.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

Week 34: Haircut

I hear many horror stories and funny stories about my friends' children's first haircuts. I've seen so many photos of children wailing in terror while some poor person tries to give the child a haircut that I just assumed that Jonah would be the same way. Nope.

This photo is far from his first haircut. Grandma Connie gave him his first haircut around his first birthday and he had his first haircut in a salon a few months after that. Those times and every time since, he was completely calm. Every haircut he sits relatively still and truly seems to enjoy the experience. In fact, from time to time, he requests a haircut! When Grandma Connie is in town, she typically gives him a cut and then every now and then we schedule a cut for Jonah when mom and dad are getting their haircut.

Today was the first time that we scheduled a haircut for Jonah and only for Jonah. He was excited about making the special trip just for him. We found a salon in the West Village that we really like. The guys that run it do a great job and have been so welcoming of Jonah. We started going there long before he was born, so the guys have truly watched Jonah grow up from his infancy until now. It was so heartwarming to see Jonah climb up into the chair on his own, turn around and sit quietly while Carlo got to work. It was even more endearing when Jonah started telling Carlo about his swim lesson this morning!

A haircut is such a simple part of life that most of us schedule in fairly often. I'm so thankful that this is one aspect of life where having Jonah along doesn't bring additional stress and strife. I feel for all of those parents with terrified children!

Photo: this is my 50mm lens at f/2 and all available light.

Week 33: Back to the Pool

When Jonah was an infant he absolutely loved water. Bath and his kiddie pool were two of his favorite activities. He slipped in the bath once and went under the water briefly and from that point on he was terrified.

Last fall we decided to have Jonah start taking swim lessons at the YMCA on the Upper West Side. We thought it would help. He was excited about it, but wasn't exactly focused on the class activities and we weren't exactly met with success. So long as we let him do his own thing, mainly climbing in and out of the pool, he was very happy in the water. When we encouraged him to do what the class was doing, he often was upset and occasionally even threw tantrums in the pool.

We were going to be away from home several different times throughout the summer, so we decided to take a break and revisit swimming in the fall. His fear of water was gone and he was back to loving bath, so we figured we had made progress.

We were visiting family this summer and he had a couple of opportunities to swim with his older cousin. He had a blast and was begging us to get back in the water. So, this Saturday, we started swim lessons again - completely different child. He had a great time, participated with the class and didn't want to get out. Even the teacher commented on how much better he was doing!

I have no idea what changed; perhaps it's just him being a bit older.

Photo - I find this pool one of the most difficult places I've found to take a photo. The fluorescent lights flicker and even on manual exposure and white balance, the photos vary widely. Plus, it's very warm and humid in there and, well, it's not those things outside in NYC in November. My lens fogs over every time and I have to wait for the camera to adjust. I'm getting better, though! This is my 135mm lens at f/2.