Swing Into Spring

I want to do a thoughtful post on Easter and what it means to me, because it is my favorite Holiday, but we've been too busy enjoying the great weather and celebrating.  But just so you know, Christ is Risen...He is Risen Indeed.

Sweet Pea has been loving her swing.  I have a year supply of swing photos.  These are just from yesterday.

She just makes so many great expressions.  We love it and she loves it.

When she slows down she starts to count.  1, 2, 3...GO!  Today for the first time she used 2 and 3 fingers for the 2, 3.  Her verbal words don't quite sound like 1, 2, 3...but we know what it means:  Give me a big push!

She loves going high and fast.

With the wind blowing in her hair...

And I love counting with her, giggling with her, shrieking with joy with her (which when I do it always makes her giggle), and taking lots and lots of pictures.

The others enjoy taking their turns in the swing next to her just as much as she loves her swing.

I just don't stand in front of them with my camera for long.
The boys like to jump off onto the ground (which I did as a child and never hurt myself...but internally I'm completely opposed to it; externally I allow it).

 This is my life and I love it.

 

Asia Pacific New Years Celebration

We probably shouldn't have gone.

She was behaving a little more cranky than usual this morning, but she seemed fine after a short nap in my arms.  LOVE that she is getting more cuddly, relaxing with us even more.

But even when she looked like this she was tapping her feet to the music.

And the performances were fantastic.   We watched the dances of the country featured this year -- Taiwan.  It started with a traditional Lion dance preformed by a local-ish Chinese school.  They also went around and handed out red envelops with candy in them.  Sweet Pea clutched hers for quite awhile.

She only gave it up for some food.  We sat and watched some more dances while we ate potstickers, steamed pork buns, sweet muffins, and Asian almond yogurt with fruit.  There were many different Asian cultures represented by the food booths.

She is 18 months and has several molars now, but she has always been enthusiastic about eating her potstickers.

She let Huckleberry feed her some steamed bun, too.

Almost out of food.  Sunflower wants to know where the coconut milk is but we remind her we were not planning to buy any this year that is why we have water bottles.

Then we are off to make paper lanterns at the Korean Buddhist Temple booth.  This is our third year making them, but the first time we saw most of the chairs filled with adults instead of children.

Sweet Pea and Huckleberry decided to walk around rather than fight the crowd.

 But SnapDragon and Sunflower finish theirs with Daddy's help.

And after Sunflower preforms a little dance with hers we go back to the stage to watch the Chinese Christian School do their preformances.

But the children (and parents) start to lose it a little.  Sunflower wants coconut milk still; Sweet Pea wants more food (even after the strawberry delights); and SnapDragon starts crawling on the floor -- "I'm getting the water bottle from the stroller, MOM!"

Okay, so home we go, and we miss the Dragon Dancers and the rest, but we did see them last year.  But maybe next year.  And it is a good thing we went home when we did...

...as this is the best photo I got of her outfit as soon after her nap at home an unhealthy diaper made it need a washing, and all the children are now in bed with bowls by their side.  Still no fevers so hopefully it'll all pass quickly...and sorry, public.  I promise we would have stayed home if we'd known...no matter how much I wanted to celebrate our first Chinese New Year with our Sweet Pea.
 

Getting Down Low -- Sunday Snapshot

I know I like the composition better of a photo if I get down low to take it.  The problem is that outside right now that means I get really dirty and inside...

...it tells my subject: "Time to climb on Mommy!" 

No matter how far away she is.

And since she is moving and getting closer, it makes focusing difficult until she is too close to actually focus on at all.

But who doesn't love their daughter running to them?  Plus time for a group shot, right?

Okay, not so right.  (I have one where we are in focus, but Oak says I have crazy eyes in it and Sweet Pea looks like she is trying to escape.)

So let's set-up the other camera and see if we can capture what our play looks like.   That'll work, right?

 Except, Major Awesome's camera on that cool tripod trumps climbing on Mommy who is lying on the floor.

It is a good thing to learn how to get down low for the shot now before you are 18 months old.  That is better than Mommy's idea for a portrait together.

I guess we won't call it Major Awesome's camera, or even Oak's camera, or the Point and Shoot...it is now officially Sweet Pea's camera...though it will still be primarily used by Oak and Cedar. 
  
 

Sunday SnapShot

Tomorrow is our 6 month post-placement visit.  Sweet Pea has only been here a little less than 5 months, but the social worker visit has to occur now.  It is astonishing to me that given how many pictures I have it is hard to find a good cross-section to give to the social worker (she needs 8-10 photos that shows Sweet Pea doing things or with her family.)  Oak thinks I'm over-thinking it.  Perhaps he is right, but Sweet Pea agrees with me.
It requires some concentration.

After all...she has a lot of family...

All of whom love her very, very much...

And one of whom is not often in the photos...

And then how to pick from the hundreds and hundreds adorable shots of our beautiful, fun, amazing Sweet Pea?

Altogether I sent 16 photos to be printed.  Oak can narrow it down from there!

 

One of Each

I really do have four children, and except for school, we usually do spend most of our time together as a family...though I had the blessing misfortune of missing the last Costco trip.  Oak said it all went just fine.

But I still do not have a decent photo of the four of them together...even if we were all at the same park.

Sweet Pea:

Sunflower:

 (What?  You don't all wear your Chinese outfits to a random afternoon at the park?)

SnapDragon:

Huckleberry:

You may be able to guess the main culprit of why our group shots have not been panning out.  I didn't even attempt it this time.  Maybe next time.