It just makes more sense for me to put everything together in one blog, as everything is merged together in my life.

That is all.

Kiona

I have just uploaded two weeks worth of the World through Nolan’s Camera Lens. As you’ll be able to see, he’s broadened his horizons a bit, ventured into other people’s houses, and taken a few quality shots from the safety of his booster car seat.

At this point, his favorite subjects appear to be

• smoke detectors
• the door to Daddy’s office
• ceiling light fixtures
• Sasha’s crate
• his lap
• his own face
• his bowl of cheerios in various places

Yes, that would be my rear end. Interesting how things look from his perspective, no?

He has also been experimenting a bit with either blocking part of his lens with one or two fingers as he takes a picture, which takes me to the second experiment; adding grease spots to his lens for a very interesting partially blurred effect.

If you ask me, he is merely paving his way to great photographic heights and stardom. I hope you, as I, are excited and inspired by the journey.

Sincerely,

the mother of a photographic genius.

It’s pretty crazy to me that kindergartners are required to do homework, but they are. Fortunately it’s only 15 minutes, 4 days a week, and it helps us to get involved with the things Nolan is learning at school during the day. Kindergarten today sure isn’t the kindergarten I went to 25 years ago. The times. They are a changing. Fortunately Nolan has started to enjoy his homework. But I often think it’s more about the rewards than the homework.

After his homework, one of his rewards is that he gets to watch this little youtube video of a man named Michael Rosen performing his own version of “We are going on a bear hunt.”

Shortly after starting kindergarten this was a song he came home with, and he wanted me to sing it along with him. I had never heard of it before, so I searched the internet for the words so I could do it with him. That brought me to the video mentioned above. Nolan about peed his pants the first 10 times he watched it, and he’s been addicted to it ever since. I took the picture above as he was watching it again a few days ago. Here is it is below so you can see the magic for yourself.

Pretty fantastic huh!
Also, in the picture above you can see the camera that never leaves his side anymore. It’s been like his third arm the past 3 days. Every day he’s been taking more pictures, and every day Greg and I love going through them all and seeing all the things that he deemed picture-worthy that day. I will upload the last two days to picasa before the day is over today.

Nolan got a hold of my old camera yesterday, after weeks of harassing my current (nice aka expensive) camera with no luck. After he got his hands on my oldie-but-goodie camera, he quickly named it ‘Nolan’s camera’ and then ran around the house for hours announcing all the things he was taking pictures of.

From 9-23 By Nolan

It was by far one of the cutest and most heart warming things I have even seen him do. For him to run around this excited with something other than a car or a vacuum was really exciting for me. I quickly noticed that he was methodically taking pictures of all his favorite things. Mommy, daddy, Sasha, Lucky, Sasha’s ‘house’ (her crate), the smoke detector, his red vacuum, his yellow vacuum (yes, he has two now), the microwave, the oven, the stove, his bed, and on and on. I loved going through it and seeing the world from Nolan’s perspective.

From 9-23 By Nolan

To see all of the magic, check out them out on picasa. He just now retuned from school yelling ‘where is my camera!!’ so I imagine by the end of the day today it will be filled up with today’s images too.

Lately Nolan has really gotten into complimenting people on their clothes. I don’t really know where he got this. I don’t really think Greg and I go around all day complementing each other on our pants and shirts. But I have to remember that often with Nolan all it takes is one time, and it’s ingrained for eternity, to be suddenly revealed and repeated a year and a half later. A few weeks ago I heard him do it for the first time when he told a random little girl his age that he liked her ‘pretty purple shirt’. Last week he also started noticing my clothes, it went a little something like this:

Nolan- Mom, I like your pretty green shirt!

Me- Thanks pal! I appreciate it, that’s so sweet of you to say!

Nolan- You’re welcome. I also like your pretty brown skirt.

Me- Wow, thanks again buddy, I am glad you like them

(silence. nolan has a thoughtful look on his face, and suddenly drops to his knees, and scoots closer to me, his head low to the ground, and looking up)

Me- Nolan, what in the world are you doing?

Nolan- Mommy, are you wearing any underpants?

This one is from today, after he successfully completed the 6 timed minutes on the toilet by himself I had required him to complete as part of our still ongoing battle to get him full potty trained (yes, you read that right). We were very excited at the completed task, and jumping and cheering (it takes little to get us excited in the bathroom) and I asked him if he’d prefer to put his underwear back on, or if he’d like to continue playing ‘aux naturelle’ if you will. He excitedly responded in return;

“And then I can have the donuts on my peepee!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

I have absolutely no idea what he meant, but whatever it means to have donuts on your peepee, it’s a VERY exciting thing.

We spent the weekend in Wilmington this past weekend. I had a two day show in downtown, so Nolan and Greg came along to hang out at the beach for those two days, and then we stayed an extra day so I could get in a day of fun in the sun and sand too. I uploaded a bunch of pictures of the time in flickr, so check them out there.

There are few things Nolan likes better than being outside. Today I took him for a walk at the Arboretum which we started doing last year this time too, and it’s fun to slowly  see some color and flowers starting to dot throughout the dry and brown winter landscape.
Nolan spent most of the time running around and ‘being a race car’ and fondling the daffodils while he was there. All the while ofcourse also doing a whole lot of talking.

Unfortunately you can’t really hear what’s going on here, but I will tell you. Nolan LOVES to play his Jack Johnson Curious George CD in his bedroom over and over and over again. Naturally, as he does, he is starting to remember the lyrics to the songs, and started singing one of the songs while he was eating dinner a few days ago. Typically he sings songs he learns at preschool from his beloved “Mrs Lou” and we know that he is singing her songs as they are always coupled with extensive arm and body movements to go along with the song.

Now as he started singing this particular song I initially figured is was one of those songs that he had recently mastered in class as there was also some considerable arm movement happening. But suddenly it started to sound a whole lot like some lines in the Curious George song ‘Jungle Gym’, which also meant he had been coming up with his own arm movements to accompany the song! This kid, I tell ya. He’s got talent.

What a year it’s been. A new house, a new dog, Nolan in preschool- it just keeps on getting better. And I love that I am taking so many pictures along the way so that I can go through a year like this, and remember all the things we’ve done. I know I can’t rely on my memory as I’ve realized over the years that my memory is simply not my strong point. In looking through all of these pictures, and seeing all we’ve done, I also see what I wish we did more of. I started the year off great with being outdoors, and talking walks with at least the boy, and enjoying some of nature. But due to my hermit tenancies, and I am sure the unbearably hot and humid summers, that didn’t last very long, and I regret that. I hope that when I look back on 2008 I can see a great increase of that. I am not a person of new year’s resolutions, as I’ve learned that when I do, I am simply setting myself up for disappointment, however- I do enjoy thinking of the things I’d like to improve in the near future, and then I curiously check in on the progress as I go along. Some other things I’d like to see improve in our family life are simply time spent in the back yard, walks through our (or nearby) neighborhoods, and an even better balance between business and pleasure. That and winning the lottery so we can travel to our heart’s content.