Movin On

Carson went to bed tonight without a "bed-time" bottle. *GASPS* He ate a ridiculous amount of food for dinner and I gave him a sippy with milk in it after dinner and then instead of a bottle, we just read books before bed and he laid down really with way less issues than I thought he would. He was a little pissed off but once he had his pacifier he was ok. That will be the next to go, but not quite yet. I'm hoping by 18months.

Dave bought me lights for Christmas. We picked them up last night since I'm doing some family photos for my friend Kate and then a co-worker of hers. I need a little practice before I can feel confident to take them with me. It's a little harder to coordinate than I thought it would be. Using studio lighting forces you to take the camera out of any pre-set or auto modes and do everything in manual. I know what the settings do for the most part but I've never had to rely only on myself to get them right! So I'm really going to learn my camera. I'm really glad. I took some pictures of Carson in the bath tonight...just to practice some of the other settings and I'm really proud of the progress I've made. Here is an example...

Here is a few bathroom shots that I took with pre-set settings on auto-mode with flash:

Yes, the water looks super cool but Carson looks like a ghost-baby! His natural skin-tones and colors are so washed out from the flash. This was taken in August.

Here is tonight's bath:

I love the 2nd picture...he was "yelling" at me but there's so much personality in his little face! They're not perfect or anything but I'm making definite progress. I love how I can really compare the differences. By the way, anyone notice how much skinnier Carson is getting? Haha, he's losing so much of that baby weight and looking so much like a little kid.

Dave's working late tonight which is a bummer. I'll be in bed long before he gets home. Hopefully that means this weekend he'll get some time off. Who knows, his job is so up and down that it's hard to count on anything most times. I know Dave doesn't like missing being home with Carson in the evenings.

In AWESOME news, my work just figured out where our new headquarters is going to be. It's an under-construction site so we won't be able to move in until 12/2008 so a whole FULL year but it's still exciting. We out-grew our first building and my department got moved to this horrible pit of a building and just knowing there's a light at the end of the tunnel is making it all worth it! Here's a link: NEW AWESOME BUILDING

Ok, before it gets too late I've gotta get some practicing in! Have a great night everyone!

Some Favorite Pictures

I finally got around to uploading some pictures from my camera. It's been almost a month since I've pulled any off. I think that's officially the longest I've gone! Here are a few of my favorites:

Dude I'm excited

My class at National Camera was FANTASTIC! It went over some pretty basic stuff which I already knew and really only touched on some of the more basic functions of the camera but those things I did NOT know and I feel like I've gained so much knowledge already! I have the more advanced class next week and I just can't wait now!

Here is my example of what I learned! I give you, my messy bathroom:There is plenty of light in the bathroom where you don't need to use a flash. Everything is in focus and nice and crisp. HOWEVER it's soooo yellow. I had this trouble when trying to take pictures of Carson in the bathtub. I didn't want to use flash because it washes his facial tones out so much but if I didn't, then everything looked so yellow. Ok, here's what I learned in class...a minor adjustment to the camera and:

Look at the difference!!! I'm standing in the same spot, it's the same stuff I just made an adjustment and look how much more "normal" and less yellow/orange it looks. The colors are truer to what they should be. Dang, now I'm excited to take pictures of Carson in the bath and see how those turn out!

Carson had his 1 year check up at the doctor yesterday. He's weighing in at 24lbs and he's 30 inches long. He's in the 50% percentile for both head circumference and for height. He's in the 70% percentile for weight. He's finally "evening" out. Haha, he's always been at about 50% for head and height but usually about 95% for weight. Now that he's moving around so much more, he's slimming out a bit. They say babies will triple their birth weight by their first birthday which he did exactly!

I took him to my work to visit after the doctors office. I was debating if I even should since he had FOUR shots and a finger prick. Poor baby. But he was a perfect little ham for everyone. He was smiling and flirting with all the ladies I work with. You gotta love that!

I read this review yesterday and now I'm even more excited for the movie Juno. One of these days, Dave and I will go see a movie in the theater! The problem is, we have very different ideas of what we should go see lately. Dave wanted to see Beowulf and I wanted to see Lars and the Real Girl. Not that either movie is superior to the other, it's just that we have very different taste and I sure as heck don't want to pay money, find a babysitter, and drag him to a movie that he doesn't really want to see in the first place. And vice versa.

We've recently re-started up our netflix membership. That way the movies come right here, granted we have to wait a little bit longer to see them, but oh well. At least we don't have to find a babysitter!

Well, Carson and I are going to see Santa today I think. Dave is working today. I will put up some pictures later!

Welcome to my Cube

Tee hee! A candid look at me at work! Haha, I found this on our "intranet". It was the day we had a carnival in our conference room...I was working instead of carnivaling it up. So here is a tour of half my desk. Yes, I have two computer monitors. It is wonderful and if they ever try and take the second one away it will be a sad, sad day. The black binders on the shelf are files for each of my doctors, basically their whole professional life is in the binder. There are 6 in the picture but I have since been handed one more. And yes, my desk is always this clean...I'm soooo not a fan of clutter!

This will probably be a short update...sorry I don't have a ton to say today! I have a camera class tonight at National Camera Exchange. I'm excited! It's an introduction to DSLRs (Digital SLR camera is what I have the SLR stands for single lens relfex(I think hahahah!)) Anyways, I'm taking a class tonight and then one next week, next week is supposed to be a little more advanced and into the technical settings I can make use of on the camera. I'm excited about that.

Dave and I were supposed to go to the Wild game last night. I haven't been feeling well all week so Dave took my sister instead. I haven't talked to her yet today but I think she had a good time...well I mean, how could you NOT enjoy it? It's a blast watching hockey at the Xcel. I went to bed early and today I'm finally feeling better. I have my voice back for the most part which is good...it's no fun when people can't understand you!

Carson has his one year check up tomorrow at the doctor. I know there will be shots on the agenda :( poor baby! I hate having him get shots. Hopefully it won't be bad. I'll have to ask the doctor about turning the car-seat around to face forward. I know you're supposed to wait a year but *should* you wait longer? Like just to be safe? I feel like I'll have such a big kid when he faces forward in the car. *tears*

Ok, I gotta get Carson fed before Dave comes home because I have to get going to the class right after that! Talk to you all soon and hopefully I will have some more updated photos soon!

Happy Birthday Carson!

Wow, can you believe it? Carson is a year old today. In one year from this:To this:It's crazy! Carson's party went better than I thought it would. We only had about 1/2 the turn out because of the weather but what can you do? Carson still had a great time. The stupid grocery store made us the wrong cake. It was supposed to be Baby Einstein but ended up being a generic birthday cake. I got it for 1/2 off but I still cried the whole way home. Then, once I got home and was unloading the car...I accidentally spilled the cake onto the garage floor. Luckily there was very minor damage otherwise I probably would've cancelled the whole day! :) I realize now that the cake wasn't as big of a deal as I made it out to be originally but I still think it was important. I will be speaking with the manager at the grocery store some time this week. The nice thing was, we got a free mini-cake for Carson to dig into. He had a extremely messy blast!

On Sunday, we had our family Christmas party. Carson was so tired from the night before...so he was kind of antsy and irritable and we didn't end up staying too long. Carson got to see Santa for the first time. It was funny because there was an 11 month old that sat on Santa's lap before Carson and he cried and cried so I thought Carson would have a similar reaction...but no! I guess my kid just has no fear of strangers at this point. I guess that's a good thing for now. He was smiling while sitting there! Super cute. We didn't get too many good pictures because I didn't set the camera right for Dave to take pictures...dang. Oh well, I might just have to take him to see a mall Santa to get a good picture.

After the family party, we went to my parents house for another MN sports day. We watched both the Vikings and the Wild win again! Yay! It was a good time. As the day went on though, I started losing my voice. I've been feeling under the weather and my throat has been sore but now my voice is completely gone. I took the afternoon off from work and came home and slept for a few hours before I had to pick Carson up from daycare. He got sent home with some great new toys from the daycare lady and then the mom of the little girl that goes there. I love that it's such a small daycare, I really feel like Carson is loved by everyone there.

Dave and I are supposed to go to the Wild game on Wednesday night. I hope that I'm feeling better by then. Otherwise I might have to send him onto the game with my sister or something. I can't imagine going with no voice. It would be the most frustrating thing EVER. It would be like getting to order any dessert you'd ever want but not being able to eat them. Haha.

We got some good video from Carson's party of him devouring his cake. I'll post that as soon as I get it uploaded to the computer. Probably sometime tomorrow night. I'm sooo tired and we're totally going to bed early tonight. Dave has got the sore throat too but he's still got his voice. Carson is the one that got us sickly but he seems to be feeling better for the most part.

See ya later! Can you believe how big he looks?!