I should be working.

[kv0925]

But I don't wanna. My boss is visiting a call center in Jamaica, mon, so I'm being an egregious slacker. As if that's unusual. Anyway.

What to update about.. I took our kitten in to get spayed yesterday. All our other cats were shelter cats and fixed when we adopted them, but this one was a feral kitten who showed up at the back door while I was away on a trip and made herself right at home. And it was just after another of our cats died, so it seemed like uncanny timing. She's been a pretty good cat, but she hit puberty and started going into heat, and that's just not a pretty picture. So the time had come. It seemed to go well, I dropped her off in the morning and picked her up in the afternoon, and the girls have been keeping her in their bedroom with a towel and little toy teacups with food and water. It's cute. :)

Speaking of bedrooms, we really need to figure out how to kick Amy out of ours. As with all our kids, we took the front off the crib and set it up as an extension of our bed, so she could fall asleep with us and then sleep over there for the rest of the night. But that was only supposed to be for her first year or two, and it is getting old, especially when she interferes with, er, marital relations. :) Currently the older girls like to sleep together, and the idea was for Hermione to move into her own bedroom and then Amy would move in with Hallie. But no one wants to put this plan into effect. Hermione doesn't want to sleep alone, Amy doesn't want to leave our bedroom, and Hallie probably prefers Hermione to Amy anyway. So it's a fight on all fronts, and so far we haven't pushed the issue because we like sleep. But something's gotta give! Ideas, anyone? Just force it? Bribery? Tranquilizers? What?

I know I mentioned Hallie's love of Indiana Jones. I've been having fun scouting eBay for bargains on the retired LEGO sets. So far I've picked up 4, which are currently on the way. They're all used and missing pieces, but hopefully whatever's missing are things I already have or can replace, so I'm not too worried about that. And the prices people ask for unsealed in-box retired sets are insane. Out of curiosity I did a search for the Green Grocer, one of the nice big modular buildings. New it was probably $200, maybe $250. The cheapest used/open one I saw was $475, and for new-in-box? Anywhere from $800 to $1,500. One person had that and another nice one, the Cafe Corner--$2,750 for both. But hey, free shipping! What a deal! I need to get into the LEGO reselling racket, methinks.

I'm sure I have things to say on the political front--Syria, the DC Navy Yard, the upcoming game of government-shutdown chicken. But to hell with it, it just ticks me off.

Working to set up that newborn photoshoot for this weekend, and then next weekend I have an engagement shoot (I think--need to drop her a line to make sure!). Had an inquiry for another family shoot too, hoping to make that the following weekend. Then I'm clear until the weddings in November. Need to try to book a couple more now that the weather is getting nicer, though. I should try an ad for vacation photos, but I don't know how many visitors think to look at CL. I get a lot of that sort of business, but I think they just find my blog/website. That usually picks up around Christmastime, anyway.

Okay, gonna try to actually do some work. I hope everyone is having a good week!

Comments

[fiberguyr1.livejournal.com]

I would force it, but I also have no experience on this particular parental front. The wife and I had a rule that there would be no kids sleeping in our room after they were infants. Most of my three were sleeping in their own rooms by the time they were 6 months, and before then they never slept in the bed.

Now my two girls are in the same room in bunk beds, and my little guy is in his own room. I find it kind of funny when one of the girls goes to a sleepover, and the one still at home complains about having to sleep by herself. I always have to remind them that their 5 year old brother is the only one in the house that should be able to complain about sleeping by himself, but he's never known any different. It's the one thing that he doesn't complain about.

[cp.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I know this is one of the arguments against cosleeping, the inevitable struggle over ending it when the time comes. But we think it's been worth it otherwise, especially for the first year while the baby's nursing. The wife could just roll over, nurse the baby, roll back over when done. It was tough to get the oldest out of our room, but the middle one was easy since she was happy to move in with her sister. This one's proving to be more stubborn, and it doesn't help that her sisters don't want to change the status quo either. I keep telling the wife we just need to force it and deal with a few rough nights to get over the hump, but so far the desire to sleep peacefully has won. :)

[scriptdelalune.livejournal.com]

No idea on the kiddy sleeping situation - I always feel we got lucky when Evan just decided he liked his room better, no parenting techniques to be seen here! It's hard when you want some adult time, though, so I hope something gives soon. I hope your kitty recovers well, too. It sounds like she's in the finest care :)

[cp.livejournal.com]

Our nightly routine is to go up to bed and read for about a half an hour before we turn out the lights, and usually she'd fall asleep while we're reading or right after lights-out. But lately she's wanted to stay downstairs playing with her sisters for a while, and then when she comes upstairs she's still a bit amped and restless. Last night she took like half an hour to wind down and fall asleep, and we were both anxiously awaiting that moment if you know what I mean. :)

Hallie was so easy, she decided she wanted to sleep with her sister and out she went, no fuss at all. Amy just seems to prefer staying in our room (and her sisters want her to stay up with us too), and frankly with the restlessness thing I hesitate to put her in with her sisters anyway since she'd probably keep them from sleeping too. I dunno, maybe we need to try letting her fall asleep upstairs and then move her down to their bed. I'm sure she'd wake up disoriented and crying the first few times, but she'd get used to it eventually and hopefully decide to just start out down there at some point!

[girlspell.livejournal.com]

Are you a professional photographer? Fascinating if you are. I have two others on my flist that are professional photographers. Both are Russian.

Don't know what to tell you about extra babies and bedrooms. I only had one, who always had his own room.

o/t Since I hate politics but love to read, there is a book I highly recommend. It's called the Other Typist. I just finished it and I loved it. That actress Kiera Knightly optioned the book and it's going to be film starring her. Don't how in the world they are going to do it, but the book is amazng.

[cp.livejournal.com]

Ooh, love the Clara icon! Where do you get the awesome gif images in your journal, do you make them yourself?

Well, sorta on the photography. I only do it on a very part-time basis, mainly just as a way to get my gear to pay for itself and so I can justify buying more. :) The only way to really make a living at it would be if I focused on weddings, and those are just exhausting and repetitive and not a lot of fun. So I do a few weddings per year for the money, but mainly I do families and couples and the occasional high school senior. I try to keep it simple and fun, and so far so good. My main problem is that I know I undercharge, but as my own worst critic I don't think my skills are quite good enough to charge more than I do. Ah well, it works for me!

We're generally proponents of cosleeping because it's been really convenient. Especially for me, since my wife was the one who had to wake up to nurse. :) But bringing that chapter to an end is definitely not easy. We'll get her evicted sooner or later, I'm sure.

That novel does sound good! I'm adding it to my want-to-read list, thanks!

[girlspell.livejournal.com]

No I don't .....wish I could, but I don't have anything other then a measly computer. Don't have photoshoppe or animation etc. I love animation! In photographs I love....drumrolll....cinemagraphs. I love a still photograph with a small detail moving.

The Other Typist is set in the mid 1920's in a typing pool at a police station. They type down the interrogations, etc. That's all I'm going to say about that!

Here is a great collection of cinemagraphs

http://imgur.com/r/Cinemagraphs

[cp.livejournal.com]

Aha, nice to have a name for that effect! I agree, it definitely adds a lot of visual interest. I'll have to look into how those are made, might be fun to try now and then. :)

[girlspell.livejournal.com]

Here's one.

(http://imgur.com/LaKuLmf)

[cp.livejournal.com]

I do really like that effect! Some of the ones in your journal are really mesmerizing too. :)

[girlspell.livejournal.com]

The guy took the photo with his I-phone. There are tutorials on how to make them. They've come in the past few years.

[audamy.livejournal.com]

My mom had a hell of a time getting me to sleep by myself when I was a kid so I have no solid advice for you because I think I basically just woke up one day when I was like 4 and decided I wanted to sleep in my own bed.

Ugh. The government shutdown stuff makes me crazy. The majority of my friends back home have federal jobs because they live in the DC metro area and it's such a nightmare for them.

[cp.livejournal.com]

Yeah, our oldest slept on our floor for a while because we kicked her out of our bed but she didn't want to leave our room. She did fine once she was out, though! We'll figure something out, we just need to make a plan and actually stick with it.

Ugh, the GOP are a bunch of complete lunatics these days--or, at least, the ones that aren't lunatics are too damned afraid to stand up to the ones that are.

[audamy.livejournal.com]

It's definitely tough so I wish you luck :)

You nailed it. I'm pretty sure all of them in NC are just total lunatics though.

[midnightmadness.livejournal.com]

Oh, you don't have to tell me about the Lego sets. I Have about 60 or 70 myself. Licensed properties are the worst. You basically HAVE to get them while they're still in stores. Lego rarely re-releases sets, and usually not at all for licensed stuff (even the Star Wars ones they've re-issued were new sets with different builds, not direct reissues of the old sets. I do Space, Star Wars, Exo-Force and Pirates, but I usually only get the sets I like in each property because I like doing things like eating and paying my mortgage. The Pirate ships shoot up the second they go out of print (literally will double their retail price inside of a month). I'm still kicking myself for not getting the two Pirates of the Caribbean sets that went out of print last year because I just couldn't swing the $100 each at the time - now they go for $3-400 :-(

[cp.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it would add up fast if I bought all the sets that look good to me! I liked the Indiana Jones sets, but when they were in stores the girls had no idea who he was and didn't really care. Figures they'd get obsessed with him 4 years later. :) eBay isn't so bad if you don't mind used sets with a couple missing pieces--it's the mint-in-box sets that people ask the crazy prices for. We got into Harry Potter and I had pretty good luck scoring a couple big lots of HP sets for reasonable prices on eBay. Patience is the key. And last-minute auction sniping, of course. ;)