Busy busy

I've been sick and busy and strangely without things to say recently.

I'm a bit disappointed too, because I found out a good friend form back home is pregnant, and I'd love love love to give her a gift of maternity and newborn portraits but... my new little one will only be about a month old when she has hers so I don't know that I can make it work. I can't travel in the last month of pregnancy, and I don't know that I want to fly with a one month old.

I've been taking a lot of studio type portraits recently. I got this great candid of my daughter earlier today.


So how's everyone else doing this December?

A little setback...

Why oh why would my child, who has been leaving the cat's water bowl alone for months now, suddenly decide it is an ideal and allowable place to play?

For a while, about once a month would come the time when she got re-curious about it. Then she'd be set for another month. The last week it has been daily. Come to think of it, she has also started banging on my laptop again, and won't leave the remote controls alone. I hope this isn't a permanent regression, but I'm not holding my breath!

Trouble

I've been busily messing around with my new light setup and trying to make a go out of photography. Since I've gotten some great ones of some of the kids in my moms group I was thinking "I can do our family photo no problem."

First day I tried, I got so mad at trying to work with the timer I gave up.

Today I went and got my neighbor and asked her to snap a few for us. I had to assure her that everything was set up and all she had to do was click. She got comfortable with it pretty quickly. Then Lorelei decided she was completely against the idea of portraits.

We finally got a passable one of the card, but it definitely was NOT what I was going for.

At least it made for a good photo montage...

By "good" I do mean ridiculously silly.

Halloween Costumes anyone?

I got them done, and I think they turned out pretty well. Unfortunately there's no full picture of my dress, which I think was the most impressive thing, plus I never got a good full body shot of Lorelei because she wouldn't cooperate for me. I got at least good looking pictures of her dad and I both though. (sadly, no family picture)


My boyfriend, the garden gnome. A neighbor kid actually told him to watch out for boots.

Lorelei's costume had a headband with flowers and flower appliques but she wouldn't leave them alone. Oh well, still a mighty cute fairy, if I do say so myself!

Growing up so fast

This morning my little girl just actually said "Good Bye" clear as day.

Her daddy was getting ready to leave for work and she insisted on being picked up and gave him a big hug. I gave him a hug too and she pushed me away, hugged him tighter and said "good bye" in the saddest tone ever.

It brought tears to my eyes... but it's probably just the pregnancy hormones. Hah.

Vaccine information...

It's rare that I post about anything that could be controversial but articles about the skyrocketing rate of people not vaccinating their children often stun me with their misinformation. While I do vaccinate I have a healthy skepticism about vaccines, and choose not to get the flu vaccine for a myriad of reasons I am not going into right now.

Here's an example of the misinformation:

From Wired magazine http://www.wired.com/magazine/2009/10/ff_waronscience/2/
"...while nonprofit health care provider Kaiser Permanente reported that unvaccinated children were 23 times more likely to get pertussis, a highly contagious bacterial disease that causes violent coughing and is potentially lethal to infants. In the June issue of the journal Pediatrics, Jason Glanz, an epidemiologist at Kaiser’s Institute for Health Research, revealed that the number of reported pertussis cases jumped from 1,000 in 1976 to 26,000 in 2004. A disease that vaccines made rare, in other words, is making a comeback."

What they do NOT mention is that part of the reason for the comeback is the vaccine itself. You see a few years back my college health center informed me that I probably had pertussis (aka whooping cough) when I said "No, that can't be right, I had the vaccine like every other kid my age" they informed me that I was wrong. Not that I didn't get the vaccine but that it didn't protect me. The outbreaks had been happening as a result of people travelling and picking up whooping cough in countries that do not vaccinate as much. The reason that travelers are picking it up? Because the vaccine "wears off." They are finding that many vaccines do NOT confer lifelong immunities and actually need boosters throughout adulthood. Not enough research has been done to find out how often people need boosters but the best guess is every 5-10 years.

This article is from the American Academy of Family Medicine, but there are many more like it http://www.aafp.org/online/en/home/media/releases/newsreleases-statements-2009/whoopingcoug-adults.html

Just what is my point here?

Arguments for vaccines need to be written without this kind of misleading information. You want people to get vaccinated, leaving this sort of things in there will make some people discount the whole article. Why aren't the editors catching this sort of stuff?
Argue away about the necessity of vaccines, but please pick your arguments wisely people.

Technical Difficulties

I'm still working on Lorelei's costume.. slowly but surely. Bodysuit and tights dyed, silk for her skirt dyed, some little flowers for embellishments made, wings made...

I'm having a bit of trouble with the wings though. The trial run revealed a droopy problem.

I didn't think about the fact they wouldn't stay up as well on a onesie as they would on a dress, or maybe they are heavier than they are supposed to be? Who knows.... I think I will be sewing some ribbon on them and tying them on that way along with the velcro.

She still looks awful cute though even with the droopiness!