Photo A Day - Day 31 - i.love.these.two

It's been raining all day... it's steamy and humid... and I really wanted a photo of my 2 favourite people in the world for my last photo in the photo-a-day series.... I tried to get some photos of the two of them outside on the grass... but that lasted all of 5 minutes before it started raining... but I managed to capture this cute moment between the two of them just outside the front door... She's giving her Daddy a "dinosaur kiss" ... :)

And here concludes my "photo-a-day" project for Jan 2010... and I have really enjoyed the journey the last 31 days has taken me... but as much as it has been, fun, I'm also really looking forward to having a break now!

But... I'll still be blogging for February... I still have photos to share... the advantage of doing photo-a-day has been that there have been out-takes (you don't seriously think I've taken a single photo to get these shots do you?)... There have been some funny ones, some ridiculous ones, so good-but-not-good-enough ones ... so this next month, I'll share some of these photos with you... stay tuned!

Photo A Day - Day 30 - Iphone Junkie

Phan's latest new toy, his iphone, has in actual fact become Beth's new toy... She loves it... thinks it's the best thing ever... She mostly likes to play educational games... there's a puzzle game and a tracing alphabet letters game that she adores playing... and then she likes listening to an interactive version of the Little Red Hen story and Old McDonald and Incy Wincy spider... And there are some drawing games that she thinks are pretty fun...

She also is pretty good at playing a free game called "Traffic Rush", which is highly addictive (I'm addicted... trying to beat Phan's high score at the moment)...

One more day of photo-a-day... I can't believe I've lasted this long!

Photo A Day - Day 29 - After The Rain

Woo hoo... only 2 days of photo-a-day to go! I'm getting a bit over the photo a day... I think because we had another long day at kindy daycare today and I'm tired and totally lacking inspiration. Today kindy went down as well as it did yesterday... Beth did some craft, played dress-ups and some puzzles and she did her very first show-and-tell... She brought her "Flower Bear", a bear we got for Daffodil Day a few years ago... and there was a lot more showing than there was telling since she's still learning and ropes and is still quite shy... but for her first time, I was rather proud of her... I thought it was just amazing that she got up in front of all the other kids (10 kids today) without me having to prompt her... she was excited to stand up there, but just got shy on the talking part... baby-steps... but I think she's doing really well. We stayed for nap at her insistence (trust me, I would have been more than happy to leave before the nap if she had wanted to!) But she was excited about lying down on her own bed with the other children... After nap time, she had afternoon tea there (and was sitting at the table and talking and laughing with the other children) and I had planned for us to leave, but it started bucketing down with rain!!! (and I mean really bucketing!) Elizabeth still wanted to stay and play anyway, so I thought we'd wait until the rain subsided a little... Half an hour later, the rain stopped a little, but she had just started playing and interacting with some of the other little girls, so I relented and we stayed a bit longer... We had one small hiccup when she got overwhelmed when there was a group of 4 kids suddenly surrounding her as they were playing some pretend game... I think they were making her lie down and pretend to be a baby and she didn't want to or something... but a few tears and hug from the carer and a big cuddle from me and she was fine and back playing with the other kids again... Finally convinced her to leave and said we would come back again next week and as we were leaving one little girl even said to Elizabeth "You're my friend" and gave her a hug... it's so nice to see her starting to interact with the children ...
So we didn't get home until after 3:30pm! An hour later than yesterday!

So once again I'm quite tired from my very long day at kindy... and I just wanted to get my photo-a-day out of the way, so with fading light, I wandered outside to see if I could capture any natural raindrops... (I confess now, my previous photo of the dewdrop on a leaf was completely staged and I purposely dropped waterdrops on a plant which I placed in my bathroom to get the best light... :p) I think I did alright to capture some natural raindrops clinging to these leaves...

Photo A Day - Day 28 - Too Much Fun At Kindy Daycare

Today we had our first ever day at kindy daycare... :) She was quite excited about the prospect of going and was kept telling me "I'm going to kindy... and I take my Little Miss Sunshine bag..." (yes we have a little miss sunshine backpack which she loves!)

She's going to be going 2 days a week and today I stayed with her for the session so that she could get used to the new environment and the carers and get a feel for what kindy is like... I actually only planned for us to stay for the morning and leave after lunch (so from 9:30am-12pm)... but nap time goes from 12pm-2pm and she didn't want to go home (I asked her and she really wanted to stay) and insisted that she wanted to stay and lie down on a bed (they have little mattresses which they bring out for all the kids)... so we stayed for the whole 2 hour nap period (during which she had no intention of napping, she just lay there and looked around the room and at the other kids and then read books to herself for the last 1/2 hour of nap time... I was *VERY* bored for those 2 hours!!!). Then we stayed for afternoon tea that followed the nap and a little bit of extra play. Then I asked her if she wanted to go home and she still didn't want to go! I only managed to convince her to leave by telling her that we would come back again tomorrow... and by that time it was approaching 3pm when we left! So what I planned to be a 2 hour visit with her there, turned into a 5 hour event! I'm glad she liked it so much (although I do wish I'd brought a magazine or something to read!)... planning to stay with her again tomorrow just so she can keep getting used to the idea of it all (and bringing myself some lunch and a magazine in case she decides she wants to stay again for the nap time!)... And then ease her into staying there by herself next week for an hour or so each time until I can leave her there for a whole day. I'm feeling much more at ease about the whole kindy daycare thing now that I've seen it all in action... the carers are lovely, they have a great structured program and the other children are really well behaved and just lovely... so I'm really happy to

Anyway... as a result of the huge amount of excitement and not napping during the day, Beth crashed out on the couch in front of Playschool at about 4pm for about 45 mins... she looked exhausted from her fun day! And yes, I know I've already taken a sleeping photo of her earlier in my photo-a-day journey, but I'm seriously lacking motivation having been deprived of my own afternoon nap... and since this cute sleeping moment arose, I captured it... I love sleeping kid photos anyway... :)

Photo A Day - Day 27 - Perfect.Sweetness

I can't believe how more and more grown up she is looking these days... We decided to muck around in her room this afternoon (I have tonnes of out-takes)... She actually loves me taking her photo these days and always asks to "have a look" at the LCD camera screen after I've taken a photo... We've come a fair way from the toddler that constantly avoided looking at the camera! Only problem is I get a fair few silly, crazed photos now... but I genuinely love spending time with her taking photos and asking her to "pose"... and I use that word loosely... it's more like me asking her to do one thing, like lie on her tummy on the bed and then I get her rolling around on her back on the bed in fits of laughter... so silly... so funny...

Photo A Day - Day 26 - The Jewellery Box

This is a jewellery box that Elizabeth got from her friend Veronica for her birthday last year... it came in a set of nested 3 boxes and it's soooo shiny and sparkly... what more could you want?

It's so hot and humid today that I was lacking in inspiration and motivation to do anything that required a lot energy for my photo-a-day... My lack of energy may also have something to do with the fact we decided to do something typically "Australian" and went to the pool this morning and spent 2 hours there frolicking and swimming in the water and now I'm totally knackered!!! Beth had a total ball as usual!

Happy Australia Day to you all!!!

Photo A Day - Day 25 - Watermelon Days

Elizabeth is a watermelon fiend... She has always loved it since she was about 12 months old ... and has always managed to eat copious amounts of it (a gene that she has inherited from her Daddy!)... Anyway, there's nothing better than kicking back on a hot summer's afternoon with a great, big slice of juicy watermelon... Also, for those who are photography-inclined... This is the first time I've actually swapped lenses within the same shoot... so most shots taken with the 24-70mm, but the close-up of her eating is taken with the 100mm macro... Just thought I'd try something different... and have discovered using the macro on a wriggly, fast moving child is somewhat of a challenge because of the slower focusing... but we'll get there.. :)