Diggy with Granna at the playground in the forest. Too much fun in one sentence…presence of playgrounds, forests AND grannies all in one place…lucky boy.

As usual we got about 10 foot away from the carpark. Is this typical for pre-schoolers? I don’t want to wish my life away but I am looking forward to going for walks with the boys, rather than just shambling from the car park, inspecting every stick and stone within spitting distance for a few hours and then going home again. Small children live life at a different pace. Fact.

]]> http://www.spudballoo.com/2010/08/photo-a-day-dont-let-go/feed/ 0 http://www.spudballoo.com/2010/07/solo-swimming/ http://www.spudballoo.com/2010/07/solo-swimming/#comments Thu, 29 Jul 2010 19:46:18 +0000 spudballoo http://www.spudballoo.com/?p=1659
Mr Diggy, a smidge under 3.5, learnt to swim totally solo this week. He’s been swimming under water for a while but, you know, sometimes you have to come up for air and swim ON the water. And now he can.

I’m so proud of him, he’s only had 3 lessons and he refused to stay in the pool for most of the second one. So now I have two solo swimmers. Role on confident/reliable solo swimming so I can start to breathe normally when they are near water.

He looks so funny motoring along the pool, little arms and legs going 20 to the dozen, a mile of curly hair slapping about his face and comedy goggles. I wasn’t sure if they were tears of pride or mirth that were ticking my eyes as I watched him.

So today I got him a swimming hat in the hope of him being able to see where he’s going when he’s in the pool. He’s very keen on it although he insists on wearing it the wrong way round which makes him look more than a little peculiar.

He wasn’t that keen on having a photo taken though. He wouldn’t stay still (hence out of focus shot), then a little melt down began…you can just see it in the set of his mouth in the above photo. It quickly descended in to the following sequence…I don’t think it needs words…don’t you love how he looks like a cross between an egg and a frog….a very CROSS frog/egg…

Oh how I laughed. For the last 10 days or so I’ve been itching to get a poppy field shot.  The field I snapped last year is covered in white daisies this year, but another field just a short drive away was absolutely magnificent. Probably the biggest poppy field I’ve ever seen and in a gorgeous position for an evening shoot. But I couldn’t get near enough to it without trespassing, and there was nowhere easy to park. I’d just about given up on it when I happened to meet the landowner at a party and asked permission to shoot. By the time I got there to shoot the poppies had, inevitably, gone way past their best. Weep.

Yesterday MrSpud spotted ‘something orangey red’ about 3 fields away from the house. Quick trip down the fields ET VOILA! A wonderful, wonderful poppy field….right on the doorstep. And it’s absolutely at its best right now. My photographic happiness is complete.

I bribed the boys to sit still for a photoshoot. They weren’t that keen at first…

Threats were added to the bribes…

Once they were off there was no stopping them…

I can’t imagine there are many years left of them being so unselfconsciously loving towards each other. So, for now, I’ll let my heart melt a little bit each time they kiss and cuddle each other. And take a million photos and a make a million memories. xxx

Enjoy! Oh, those ‘buckets’? I bought them to stash yarn in. They lasted about 10 seconds before those Megaboys appropriated them for Boys Chores.

I’m visiting my Dad and his wife as part of our Christmas round robin trip. Today we braved the cold for a run around the beach. Brrrrrrrr….

Hoorah. It snowed for real and the country came to a standstill as usual. MrSpud stayed home and we didn’t budge from the farm all day. Instead, we sledged. We staked out our run:

We sledged solo

There was quite a lot of trudging back up the hill of course

We worked in pairs (not shown…me and MrSpud sledging a deux…didn’t trust the boys with the camera, funny that)

And then some showoffs worked as a trio

Didn’t end too well though…

And then it got REALLY silly. One of our number decided to indulge in Extreme Sledging whilst videoing himself in the process. Alas I am married to this person. He’s 38 by the way. Not 8. I just thought I’d point that out…

Ah MrSpud. It’s lucky you are so devastatingly good looking (although would you GET a haircut?)  and charming and wonderful and such a good father and funny and supportive and don’t bother arguing with me too much because it isn’t worth the hassle. Otherwise I would sneer and deride you as an utter neerdy geek. Oh..wait…

A couple of months ago I read a wonderful and very poignant post on the Pioneer Woman’s blog which suddenly made me so aware of how few photos I have of me with my boys, or MrSpud for that matter. That’s the downside of having a camera stuck to your face 24/7; no one dare wrestle it off you and attempt some snaps for fear of scorn and ridicule.  Plus, many of the photos that are taken with me in them are deleted as I don’t like how I look, or it’s not a ‘perfect’ moment in some way or another…no make up on, hair looking like a bird’s nest, mountains of laundry in the background, not wearing fancy dress etc etc.

But Miz Booshay makes an excellent point that, in the future, the viewers of your snaps won’t care on jot about such details…they will just see a lovely moment in time, preserved forever.  I have very few photos of me with my mother, who died many years ago, but the ones I have are so precious. So, since I read that post, I’ve been trying to ‘get in the shot’ for some portraits and also trying to get some ‘snaps’ of us just hanging out, doing the normal ‘stuff’ of life. It’s harder than it sounds, and it involves MrSpud getting regular ear bashings for ‘GETTING IT ALL WRONG….AGAIN’ (mostly for out of focus shots, sigh, how hard can it be?).

But slowly, very slowly, there are some photos of me with the boys. I can’t go back and get the shots that are missing, notably any shots of me with both my boys when Diggy was a newborn, but I can try to make sure my thick necked, speccy twat face sneaks in to a few shots going forward.

So, I challenge you all…if you’re the ‘family photographer’, then start getting in the shot. Get in there with your partner, your children, your pets, your friends, your neighbours…anybody who is important to you. YOU might not like the way you look, or handing over your camera (especially if you are a Nikon owner…Canon? Not so much, it’s no big deal for you…tee hee)…but if you don’t do it, the people who look at your photos in the future will be so sad that you’re never in the shot.

So get in there.  And when you have, come back here and post a link for me so I can have a good nosey. I neeeeeeed to seeeeee you!

Bertie...often mistaken for 'Betty' as he is a bit girly..clip doesn't help?

Julocha’s very funny post today about her learner driver buddy named ‘Snow’ got me thinking a bit about names, specifically the huge responsibility that we have when we name our children. It’s so tough…interesting but not to whacky, popular without being ‘too’ popular, meaningful, easy to spell, goes with your surname etc etc etc. And then there are all those people who can’t resist sticking their noses in and giving their unwanted, unasked for opinion of your choices. A friend of mine named her son Barnaby..her mother in law rang her when the baby was a few weeks old to tell her she was, ‘Coming round slowly to the idea of the name Barnaby’. WTF?

When I was expecting Bertie I made the mistake of telling my cousin we liked the name Celia for a girl. She launched in to a major rant about what an ugly/old fashioned name it is and that I would be cruel to name a child Celia. I was rather hurt but put it down to her being completely off her face slightly tipsy at the time. But the next morning she sat me down, with a hurty head, to tell me again what a vile choice Celia was for a girl. Then she added insult to injury by adding that her chosen girl’s name was Lucy, our grandmother’s name…which was my second choice for a girl’s name. Two lessons learnt here: (1) NEVER discuss your name choices with other people and (2) bagsy family names quickly.

On which note, ‘Celia’ turned out to be a boy and we named him Albert, but he’s known as Bertie. Albert is a family name on both mine and MrSpud’s side: it’s my grandfather’s name (although he’s known as Bert) and it was MrSpud’s grandfather’s middle name. We thought it was a fitting choice and that everyone would be so touched at our thoughtfulness. Oh…how…wrong we were.

My grandfather’s reaction? “Bertie? Bertie? No, I don’t like that, not at all. No. Bert is a good name. You should call him Bert”. Hmmmm. And MrSpud’s grandmother on hearing the news that her recently departed husband’s name would be carried on? “Bertie? As in Albert? Oh darling, Grandpa HATED that name!” Lesson three: do not depend on family to be pathetically grateful for naming your child after them.

Another tip, check your chosen name isn’t a traditional dog’s name. We chose Digby (always known as Diggy or Diggers) for our second child because we love the name. No other reason than that. But sooooo many people say, “Digby? What, as in ‘The Biggest Dog in the World’” Gah, I’d never come across that film as it’s not on The Approved List. Ah well.

Finally, the acid test for all names should be ‘Does it pass the rock star/prime minister/president test?’ i.e are you saddling your child with a name which will preclude them from pursuing their chosen career without ridicule and scorn? Can Bertie be a rock star, probably not but his initials are ART which kind of works. Can Digby be Prime Minister? Yes I think so, although he’ll have to quit the tantrums.

Not so the two children I came across recently. I know, I know…you shouldn’t criticise other people’s name choices but these were SO ridiculous that I don’t care. If you are reading this, mother of GYPSY and PIRATE, then you are a cruel woman. Pirate? Pirate? Who on earth told you that was a good idea? Long John Silver?