Imitation of life

Has anyone noticed I've been blogging more frequently? I feel like Roo when he accidentally fell in the stream, "Look at me swimming! That's called swimming, what I was doing!"

Look at me blogging!

Incidentally, when we were reading that story this week, Harper stopped and demanded to know if Roo was actually swimming, and, if so, how old he was. She has gotten a little insecure about her lack of swimming ability. A few weeks ago, we went swimming at the B's house and their neighbor, who is only 4, came over, and she immediately began offering him a noodle or a floaty because he was, after all, ONLY four. She then realized, much to her dismay, that he was already a very accomplished swimmer who needed neither floaty nor noodle, and who could actually leap into the water with abandon and get himself quite proficiently to the side.

Well, I've tried to practice a little with the new camera. My main goal is The Fuzzy Background, so I read in my manual (thanks Robin) and realized The Fuzzy Background has something to do with Aperture, so I fooled around with that a little and accidentally took this one, of A Creepy Cicada Shell (Empty) on Leaf:

and then I got this one of Helena on the swing:

One of my complaints about the old camera was that I would see something and try to replicate what I was seeing and the result would be very disappointing. With this camera I'm already finding that I can better reproduce what I actually see.. Jamie would be glad to hear that all of the kids are very impatient with all of the photography, and that, in fact, just as I took the above photo of Helena, she said to me, and not very politely, "Camera go INSIDE! Right now!"

Something else funny that Helena started saying this week: When I ask her to do something, for example, "Helena, can you wipe your nose?" She answers, "I can't! I can't wipe my nose. I'm busy!" She also, if one of the other two asks her to do something she'd rather not, for example, go play in her room so they can do cannonballs on to the couch cushions on the floor, will say, "Because Mommy said NO!"

Here's all I got of the other two:
Surly face. Blurry background!



Slightly blurry Harper. Blurry background!

Room for improvement, definitely. But closer to the real thing.