ILP rolling photo quarantine 2

awwww. babies are awesome. look at those cheeks!

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2555/3994144846_c680b687fa_b.jpg
one more from the same session

Ack! His (?) gaze follows me around the room!

er, missed the fine print. HER gaze. sorry.

haha, yeah there's a little bit of this in that last shot
http://www.tableandhome.com/prodimages/8391.jpg

I love the way you are slowly warming her to Jazz. ;-) Sylvia is such a sweet name. And she looks sooooo sweet.

Two years!!! Don't say that! I'm hoping for the magical 3 month mark.

A bit of hyperbole. she slept through from 14 months or so. Before that it was pure hell. For the longest time she woke up EVERY hour. After that it was actually Ophelia and Elisabeth taking turns waking up. :-) Funnily enough our employee delivered her second baby a month before and also had a hellish time. Every morning we would open the shop and lament over how little sleep we had. :-) Im pretty sure that if Elisabeth had been first, I would have waited with a second child. But y'know I didn't and I'm VERY happy: they differ only about 21 months in age.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3522/3933121933_f4ec07c8d6.jpg

Sylvie, Ophelia and Elisabeth are all very cute!

Chloe has actually only woken us up once per night for the last three nights in a row now. Pretty good! Of course, as I type this, I realize I'm totally jixing myself.

Jinxing myself, that is.

Went to Maui last week. Here are some from the Luau...

Ben:
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2446/4000903171_47f02307b9.jpg

Owen:
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2460/4001663998_622d9a6290.jpg

Owen gets on stage and steals the show:
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2465/4000892581_a9d5241a48.jpg

Whoops - that's Ben on the stage!

Sylvie looks so happy and cheeky!

Aidan decided the other weekend that he didn't want to go for a nap in his bed, 'sleep sofa mummy!'

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2596/3997982746_7f1b917078.jpg

Wow, look at that purple sky in the Maui pic. Just like in the movies. And Magnum, P.I.

Jeff Koons' 53-foot inflatable silver bunny came to Covent Garden and the girls went nutso...

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2456/3999524752_90bb23d684.jpg

aw, they look so happy!

wow, congratulations to the new parents!!!

Bed naps? What are they?

Sofa
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2517/4008104070_310f58950b_m.jpg

Floor
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2424/4008104174_c14058c697_m.jpg

Mid-sandwich
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2458/4007337693_a087ac6eea_m.jpg

Oops small version links.

Ha ha! The last one is a classic.

Bed (caravan)
http://lh3.ggpht.com/_Q2cuqOo8v8M/SraS5OZoVwI/AAAAAAAAMio/zEtGGa5_c5M/s800/IMG_0172.jpg

Bed (parents')
http://lh4.ggpht.com/_Q2cuqOo8v8M/SraW4kDrefI/AAAAAAAAMqM/5_XC0KfA1qU/s800/IMG_0229.jpg

Sofa (with daddy)
http://lh6.ggpht.com/_Q2cuqOo8v8M/StTLSvxzZsI/AAAAAAAANb4/mafxLFVwj1s/s800/photo.jpg

my mom almost pulls a jack-o...

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3486/3989389590_4bd4b2b682.jpg

<3 the sleeping kids pics. i've developed the creepy habit of staring at Sylvie while she sleeps. Probably therapy-fodder for later in life.

and since I'm here
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2623/4012290043_d1131798b0_b.jpg

Oh man. So beautiful.

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/30/90138698_43f9937cfc.jpg

Ophelia almost four years ago. WTF

awwwwww

Cute! Love the name Ophelia, by the way ... Here's a vid of Sylvie enjoying herself this weekend. I've watched it a lot!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FZsmt-0JVhI&feature=player_embedded

omg sylvie! Way to make a girl broody...

I keep looking at this pic as a corrective now winter's drawing in:
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2513/4007337761_451ce41595.jpg

These photos of babies reminded me that I never really did that "first year" collage I was going to do; well, Picasa makes it easy, if it doesn't exactly make it very flexible or good-looking...

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2653/4029530247_c061f1f80f.jpg

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2569/4023677568_4d8c7a597a_b.jpg
sylvie meeting her cuz for the first time

Here's a collage for Tallulah's first year. Not as active as Ava...

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2481/4030597488_05baf2091e.jpg

Cool! So that's just a template on Picasa?

Yes, there are various collage options. For the most flexibility you should probably go with "Picture Stack" (or whatever it's called) and then just drag, reorient and resize your images around, but this is "Mosaic", where you don't have much control over the size, placement or order of anything. Just whacked them in there, added text and there you go.

It's just struck me how the leap from 8 months to 10 months seems quite significant, physically. Faces mature quite a bit in that period, it seems.

(And note how Tallulah - only 5 pounds at birth and incredible-expanding-baby thereafter - fits into that ye-ye dress at half the age her sister did!)

It's incredible how Ava-like and Lulu-like they both look from the very start. Tallulah totally wins on comedy expressions, though (still the case, I think).

Yep. Ava is earnest and (often) sweet, Lulu is just a total goon.

Both Ben and Owen wanted to be DJ Lance for Halloween.

Ben:
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3510/4040197755_9cb3778180.jpg

Owen:
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2754/4040946120_674fb2b2da.jpg

Fantastic!

uh oh, did Ben chip his front tooth?

Michael, your daughters are so gorgeous!

OMG!!!!! those costumes are incredible, schwantz!

http://lh6.ggpht.com/_Q2cuqOo8v8M/SuoAJw64R2I/AAAAAAAANdU/nk31wncgR0M/s800/photo.jpg

Archie gets to grips with a bit of mushed carrot!

He has also reinstated a night feed <yawn>... and has two teeth, and no compunction about using them while feeding <ouch>

autumn boy

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v335/gypsyfrocksbedlam/IMG_2922.jpg

aw!

The girls as spiders for Hallowe'en...

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2788/4062901728_efd084f7f1.jpg

After a lantern-lit walk around the local rec ground in the dark, Ava and three friends head back to the house...

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2488/4062860166_645ce89cdd.jpg

those costumes!!!

yeah, those are great. we went with a $10 off-the-rack outfit from kmart that he picked out. last year he didn't really want to wear a costume at all, so we were hoping that by letting him pick one he'd be more into it. which worked pretty well, he did actually go trick or treating for a while. the whole thing still sort of weirds him out tho -- he was excited but also sort of unsure what he was supposed to do and why.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v335/gypsyfrocksbedlam/IMG_2989.jpg

Hallowe'en isn't really a big tradition in the UK (getting bigger though), in fact I think there's a fair amount of resistance to it here as it's perceived as an imported US notion and it's only 6 days before Guy Fawkes' Night. But Pam is American and she's been determined to pumpkinize London one postcode district at a time since 1998. Tallulah's birthday is Nov 2, so that's close enough for a spooky party as far as we're concerned. Two years ago I think only three or four dressed up - this year was full-on ghosts, skeletons, witches and kitties from the SE19 clan. And Pam's spider outfits of course.

Trick-or-treat is simply a four-stop pre-planned sweet-swop in the immediate neighbourhood. No candy until Thanksgiving now.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v165/noodle_vague/DSCF8225.jpg

Drag Me to Hull

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v165/noodle_vague/DSCF8292.jpg

Hallowe'en isn't really a big tradition in the UK

when i was in manchester in 1991 i remember on oct. 13th seeing a group of kids trying to trick or treat. they rang the buzzer at one house and this pakistani guy came out and listened to their spiel and very patiently said, "we don't celebrate that, because we're muslim. but also, i think you have the wrong night." and the kids were all indignant -- "no, it's halloween!"

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3521/4068649985_3370609910.jpg

Second time on the merry-go-round. :-)

Ben:
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2701/4061618500_bdbddf46cc.jpg

Owen:
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2436/4060874343_187ccbe9b4.jpg

Ben looking all J Crew:
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2455/4061611570_fa797cf42f.jpg