Toadfrogs and Elephants

Alex discovered all kinds of new things today. The remote isn’t just for chewing:

It is possible to walk and push at the same time:

Toys can make Mommy laugh:

The basket doesn’t just hold toys:

Madison plays tug:

Climbing stairs is fun:

I tried giving Alex small pieces of an apple for lunch. I guess he liked the color, but not the taste. He kept putting them in his mouth and then spitting them out. After lunch I let him carry around an apple wedge and he chewed on it for a while:

Then it was back to the couch and the lens cap:

I didn’t realize how perfect the Cranky Pants were when I got Alex dressed today. After not sleeping most of the night he ended up with a total of 1.5 hours worth of naps. (His typical day has 3-4 hours.) All of this made for one unhappy little boy.

He did pretty well at our Gymboree class with all of the other kids to play with. The only two other things that made him happy were the ice cream carton in the recycle bin

and his bath:

I put him to bed extra early and then tried a new recipe.

Dinner was awesome! I highly recommend Almond-crusted Chicken (recipe from Better Homes and Gardens)

4 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves
1 egg, lightly beaten
2 Tbsp. buttermilk
1/2 cup finely chopped almonds
1/2 cup panko
2 tsp. snipped fresh rosemary
1/4 tsp. salt
1 Tbsp. canola oil
1 shallot, chopped
8 cups fresh spinach leaves
1/4 tsp. salt
Freshly ground black pepper

1. Place one chicken breast half between sheets of plastic wrap. With flat side of meat mallet, pound chicken to 1/4- to 1/2-inch thickness. Repeat with the remaining breast halves.

2. In shallow dish whisk together egg and buttermilk. In another shallow dish combine almonds, panko, rosemary, and 1/4 teaspoon salt. Dip chicken breasts, one at a time, in egg mixture, turning to coat. Allow excess to drip off, then dip chicken pieces in almond mixture, turning to coat.

3. In 12-inch nonstick skillet cook chicken, half at a time if necessary, in hot oil over medium heat for 4 to 6 minutes or until no longer pink, turning once halfway through cooking. Remove chicken from skillet; keep warm.

4. In same skillet cook shallot in drippings 3 to 5 minutes or just until tender, stirring frequently. Add spinach and 1/4 teaspoon salt; cook and toss about 1 minute or just until spinach is wilted. Serve chicken with wilted spinach. Sprinkle pepper.

A typical morning at the Burch house:

Alex wakes us up around 7 am:

We have to make sure to get all the required blankets out of the crib:

Every reachable toy is pulled out:

Then Alex checks out Madison:

After breakfast, Madison checks Alex to make sure his mouth is clean:

Next up is a morning nap – thank goodness. I’m always worn out at this point.

Alex has finally mastered the sippy cup (goodbye bottles). He’s been drinking out of one for a while, but had to be on his back. In the last few weeks he finally understands that he can drink sitting up if he raises the cup at an angle.

As for the next picture:

You thought it was an Oreo didn’t you? It’s actually the lens cap to my camera.

I’ve had a lot of work to do this week and some of it was due today. Alex took a 2 hour morning nap – thank goodness – but I had a little work left to finish. It turns out the gun to my Area 51 game is endlessly fascinating. I can’t wait till he is old enough to play!

Monday means Mothers Day Out, which normally means we are rushing to get out the door. Today was nice and leisurely. Alex was dressed and happy to pose for some pictures:

I have mentioned Alex’s current love of his Angel Dear blankets. Here is what I see most often when looking at Alex:

We started off the day with Birthday muffins – a Harper family tradition.

Alex joined in and provided quite a bit of amusement. It took a little bit for him to figure out what to do with an entire muffin:

We got home from church, put Alex down for a nap, and then it was on to presents:

We spent the evening with church friends and then sampled a new cake (Banana Split):

Happy 31st Wade!

Holly wanted me (Wade …. her husband) to write this post for her because a lot of folks have been making the same comment.

“Your photos are not nearly as bad as they used to be. What happened?”

As it turns out Holly and I both used to like photography a lot. I worked in a darkroom at the college newspaper for quite a while and Holly shot a lot during her international travels as a teenager. Then we got married and forgot about hobbies that didn’t include repairing old houses. In fact the first 4 years of our marriage were documented by a variety of low quality point and shoot cameras which worked fine for us. But when Alex arrived Holly wanted to have nice pictures for her blog and to share with our family far away. So I got the job of buying a camera…

I had a Canon Digital Rebel with a decent lens but it was old and had some issues with the sensor. Luckily we had a photographer friend who was upgrading her gear. So we ended up buying her secondhand Canon 5D (not the newer 5D Mark II). It is a digital SLR camera which means you can switch out the lenses. The 5D is a nice camera which has lots of fantastic features that we are only beginning to learn. But the real trick to getting it to take nice pictures it to invest in a high quality lens.

Most consumer DSLR cameras come as a kit which include a few low end lenses. These lenses usually have a high f-value, something like 3.4-5.6. Generally speaking the f-value is the amount of light a lens allows through to the camera sensor. Lower numbers allow more light in. The benefit is that pictures can be taken in lower light without a flash. They have richer colors. And at very low f-values you get a shallow depth of field which means your subject is in focus and the background is nice and blurry. These type of pictures can look really great.

So along with the 5D we purchased a Canon 50mm 1.4f prime lens. A prime lens is one set to take pictures at a particular zoom. So if we want to get a close up of the boy we have to move the camera close to him. Although this is a drawback, the 1.4 f-value makes for some wonderful images especially indoors without a flash.

We have loved this camera and lens but there are times when it is difficult to work with. Shooting at a low aperture setting (f-value) results in a very shallow depth of field so often times parts of a picture are not in sharp focus. And if something is moving during a dimly light shot, the picture gets motion blur. So for Christmas Holly and I got a Canon 580EX Speedlite. This is a flash that mounts to our camera body and has been great especially for indoor shots.

Next up we are planning on getting a Canon 24-70mm 2.8f lens. This is considered one of the best all around lenses. And best of all we can finally zoom in and out!