caught up

You may have noticed that I am now caught up in my Naruto watching. Am now waiting like everyone else for episode 211.

Hmm mmm umm... dum dee dum... la lah...

sour... say sour

T eats a blackberry.

"Me like that." Said while making a face, which means she doesn't like it.

"What's wrong with it, honey?"

"It's too shivery."

What a cute way to say something is sour... it makes your mouth and face 'shiver' when you eat it.

Lately, she will come up to me and say, "What are you DO-ing, Daddy?"

Yesterday she looked at something and said, "Hmmm, IN-teresting..."

When she saw a Christmas tree lit up she said, "Stars!"

music

So when I went out to get my Cars DVD (which I still haven't had time to watch yet...) I also picked up a couple of CD's that I had been meaning to give a listen to: John Mayer's Heavier Things, and Coldplay's X&Y. These are now in my "in car" rotation, along with other notables like Diana Krall's The Look Of Love and various and sundry children's CD's (Veggie Tales, Sesame Street, Sharon Lois & Bram, Pooh). There is a great ritual over who gets to choose the music for the car ride. For a while it was J in the morning, and T in the afternoon, with Saturday being a free for all, and Sunday was mommy's day. Before that it was whoever buckles up first gets to choose. Anyhow, on one of the rare occasions that I got to choose something, I played a "grown-up CD" for them, Coldplay's "Fix You". I was expecting J to complain that she didn't like it, but instead she listened intently and didn't say anything until we got home. "Did you like it?" "Yeah Dad, I liked it!" It now has become her favourite big person CD.

Another time I had John Mayer playing as I went to pick them up, and left it on as we drove home. As we get home, I turn off the car, and T pipes up, "Me like that one, Daddy! Me love that song!" She now says that whenever I turn off the car when the CD is still playing, so I'm not sure that it's just John Mayer she 'loves', but she doesn't seem to mind it. At her age, J would cry and cover her ears if we played something she didn't like! So we're making progress, I think... :)

Aaaaaaaaaaaahh...

9:23PM: the house is quiet. Bedtime is done, living room is tidied up, dishes are washed. This is a good thing. Reflecting on this day and yesterday, I definitely had moments of insanity. There were moments where I was really wound up, and there were more than enough times where I raised my voice or yelled. Too many times.

Dr. Phil talks about finding your kids' currency. That is, you need to find the things that they really care about, so that if they misbehave, and those things are withheld, they matter to them. If you don't know what it is, they you really have very little you can motivate your children with towards good behaviour. I often wonder with J whether the things I thought had currency with her, now seemingly don't. The one thing she does still treasure is stories. If around bedtime she isn't getting ready and dragging her feet, or misbehaving, losing the story is what gets her motivated right away. Last night T went to sleep early, because she had only a 30 minute nap. So I brought J up after saying goodbye to Dennis (thanks Dennis!!) and gave J her bath, and after we got dressed, wouldn't you know it, she goes running down the hall, and crashes into their bedroom. Luckily I caught the door before it made a big bang. I grabbed J, hauled her out of there, and I said in my anger and frustration... "You just lost your story, little lady!"

Now, I don't think I've ever said "little lady" before in my whole life. Who says "little lady"? Nobody talks like that. It was the strangest thing that came out of my mouth all weekend. J of course bursts into tears. I sat her down on our bed, and she's crying, and she says, "Why did you use that voice? I'm sorry... do you still love me?" And I grabbed her and gave her the biggest hug I could, and said "Yes I love you. I aways love you." We talked more about what made me so upset, and gave her a second chance to get her story back if she could show me good behaviour. So it was ok in the end. I wonder if the most important part wasn't the discipline, but the "I love you." It usually is.

one night down, two more to go

well, it's 9:12, and I'm sitting down in front of my laptop with a cup of tea, brownie cookies, and ready to write. I've got a message to finish up tonight, made all the more pressing because I'm on my own for this weekend. Yup, that's right, N is away at a conference in Calgary, and won't be back till late Sunday night. So I NEED to finish this up tonight, or I'm not going to be very happy.

a photography update: I got accepted (finally) by iStockphoto. I'm ambivalent about this, because the return on the images sold is miniscule, but I'm proud that I got accepted after numerous attempts and a stern LAST CHANCE warning. If anyone has gone through the process, you know that they are very picky about quality and technical excellence now, so you can't just submit anything. Anyway, between the time I first applied (May) and now, things have changed. I changed cameras, I inherited a strobe flash, I started paying attention to 'sharpness', I calibrated my monitor (^_^) but mostly, I've learned more. I've learned to suck it up and keep trying. I've learned that failure is a great teacher. I've learned that when things come easy to you, you don't appreciate how much there is to improve. I've learned that with hard work, I can become the greatest ninja in Konoha! (OK, too much Naruto)

ok, i'm weird. time to get to work! see ya!

I Kumbaya'ed them to sleep

J: "I'm not comfortable!"

Me: "Hush little baby..."

J: "I don't want THAT song!"

"Ok, how about a new one?"

J sits up. "What?"

"Lie down and listen."

J lies down.

"Kumbaya my Lord, Kumbaya..."

"Someone's singing, Lord, Kumbaya..."

"Someone's praying, Lord, Kum..."

J: "What does Kumbaya mean, anyway?"

"Come by here. We're asking the Lord to come near."

"Someone's sleeping Lord, Kumbaya..." (that's MY prayer right there...)

"Someone's resting, Lord, Ku..."

J sits up. "Why do we want the Lord to come near when you're resting, though?"

"J, we want the Lord to be near us in every situation, don't we? OK, no more questions. Just lie down and listen, alright?"

"Someone's crying Lord, Kumbaya..."

"Kumbaya, my Lord..."

J: zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Current Fave Bedtime Song

Now, imagine J (and T) singing this at the top of their lungs (and not completely in tune, either):

Because of who you are, I give you glory
Because of who you are, I give you praise
Because of who you are, I will lift my voice and sing
I worship you, because of who you are

Jehovah Jireh, you're my provider
Jehovah Nissi, Lord you reign in victory
Jehovah Shalom, you're my Prince of Peace
And I worship you because of who you are

must be a worship leader's kids...

how much to charge

Legend has it that Pablo Picasso was sketching in the park when a bold woman approached him.

“It’s you — Picasso, the great artist! Oh, you must sketch my portrait! I insist.”

So Picasso agreed to sketch her. After studying her for a moment, he used a single pencil stroke to create her portrait. He handed the women his work of art.

“It’s perfect!” she gushed. “You managed to capture my essence with one stroke, in one moment. Thank you! How much do I owe you?”

“Five thousand dollars,” the artist replied.

“B-b-but, what?” the woman sputtered. “How could you want so much money for this picture? It only took you a second to draw it!”

To which Picasso responded, “Madame, it took me my entire life.”

I had my fourth photography gig today. When I sat down to plan out my pricing structure, I took all my experience in the studio and applied it to a photography business. Don't undervalue yourself. It's hard to raise your price later if you start into it at a really low price. Your rate must have more than just your wage built into it, so that you can cover: rentals, assistants, post-processing time, client facilitation time, phone time, administration time. It's not likely that you will be able to separate all those things out and bill a client for each of those jobs. These must be reflected within your pricing. If they aren't you will eventually become bitter and will find that you are working for next to nothing. Don't flinch when you name your price to your prospective clients either. In your mind, you must believe your price is fair, and that is what you are worth. In no way shape or form am I comparing myself to the great Picasso, but artists need to be equally bold to stand up to the incessant forces of downward price pressure and insecurity/low self esteem.

Which brings me to the point of this post: pricing prints. As of yet, I have not sold a print to anyone. I haven't tried. I have been working on a strictly commissioned basis. A recording artist commissions me to provide photos for their publicity materials or their CD artwork. I take the commission, and produce files ready to be used in print or on the net. So when, recently, I was discussing the possibility of doing a family portrait for someone, she asked me how much a print would be, I had to admit that I hadn't gotten my pricing together for that yet. At that point I probably lost the job. But who knows, we'll see. She told me a horror story about the Sears portrait studio... anyone have a mall portrait studio horror story?

But I digress.

I guess print pricing is for the "fine art" photographer, the ones who produce gorgeous landscapes or unique macros. For me, I haven't had to come to terms with it yet. I rarely print anything. When I start, you'll know.

T and bananas... not so much

Hmmm... it seems that T is still reacting to bananas, just not in the way she used to react to foods. sigh... it feels like a setback, but I guess we got our hopes up a bit. In any event, we are navigating our way through safe food, and so far we've been relatively successful. Eating out will become increasingly difficult this year, as T is older and more aware of being left out. That's why we like Swiss Chalet so much, because she can have actual food there. At Chinese resto we can only really get rice and plain veggies. Or cucumber maki, as you saw. Everything else has a sauce, which all usually have wheat.

Oh well... eating at home is healthier anyway... (^_^)

Cars...

DVD released today! Pixar is the bomb, you must own every DVD they release... repeat after me... :p I haven't seen Cars, so I'm looking forward to what Ben Witherington called a not so thinly veiled critique of "auto eroticism in America".

I'll let you know.

I go buy now.

please test out my new website

I recently launched my photography website, please check it out and test it out for me! Thanks!

E

Oh yeah, it's the first link on the right there... eugenehuophotography.com

Hortons... H... H...

T: "Timportans! Timportans!"

N: "No honey, 'Hortons, Huh, Hortons!"

T: "Hortons?"

J: laughing "Yes, Tim Hortons, not Tim Portans!"

N: "You used to say that too, Timportans!"

J: "I did? But now I say 'Tim Hortons'"

T eating Sushi

Thanks Kow Kow for the video! Heavily compressed by me using Quicktime. Hosted on Google Video.