Hallelujah

July 10th. A day like any other. Except...Joshua started walking.

We were able to capture video of this phenomenon moments after it first manifested. The motivation for this burst of gross motor skills? A mini kit-kat bar held by daddy.

Of course, since this day, Joshua has decided walking isn't really for him, but we hope he reconsiders his position. Please excuse his naked legs.







And if you didn't get enough, here's a second video without Elora's interference. Don't worry, its short.




FYI- before we took these videos, I asked Joseph to please pick up Joshua's toys so they weren't all over in the background of the film. His solution was to pile everything in one spot- directly where I was filming. Good job.

Portrait #5: The Sister

Previous Portraits in this series: #1, #2, #3, #4


Upon viewing the photo for portrait#5, I noticed some similarities in features and clothing styles to another of the previous portraits. I soon learned that indeed this was the sister to the girl in portrait #3, even though their eye color is very different.

I started one drawing and scrapped it before it was finished; this one is okay but it is a little large on the paper. (I'm just glad the main purpose of this series is to go into someone's family history, not to look nice grouped together on the wall...though they may very well end up there eventually.)



This girl has brownish-blonde hair with lighter highlights, and stunning blue eyes. I started with the eyes as usual, and while they look dazzling, they are probably a little too intense. (Has anyone seen/read Dune?)




She had a great transparent white bow in her hair that I really wanted to include. Unfortunately, her head is so big on the page that I kind of scrunched the bow up to fit in the drawing, and it doesn't look as cute as the photo. It will probably be cut off if this gets matted. I only used solid white around the edges to keep the transparent look. I also erased some of the dark blue out of her eyes and replaced it with a blue gray. They are still a little surreal though:



She has some really cute freckles in the photo, but I will wait to put them in at the end, once all the other colors are established in her face. But I am putting a lot of bronze-yellow across the bridge of her nose, which seems to imply the freckles even though they're not there yet.
I'm a little worried about her mouth- as I've mentioned before, teeth need to be placed fairly accurately in the mouth even if they're not detailed, or it will look wrong. Her teeth are at a slightly different angle than her lips in life. I think I got the angle right, but I'm not sure her smile is big enough.
Notice that the blue background really bumped up the white in the bow, without my doing anything to it:



At this point I pulled up the photo on the computer to compare, because the print-outs I've been working from have proved to be lacking in detail in the past.
I noticed tons of stuff I needed to fix: her mouth needs to be wider on the left- but the teeth are okay, her hair is too light (as usual), her nose needs to be a tad wider, and I need to define the bulgy (is that a word?) shape under her eyes a lot more.The bow is more transparent than I thought, but I won't worry about that right now. I think I should lighten the eyes more as well.

These small changes to the mouth and eyes really made her look more like the photo..the added colors and freckles helped too. I didn't want to do the freckles too dark and have them look like some kind of blemish, but I hope they're not so light that they're not true to life:


While I finish her sweater I will continually look for any more little things to fix on her face..like how her lips look a little too outlined. But for the most part, I think this looks better than the other two girls I've done so far.
Maybe all this practice is helping me to get back to the skill level I was at in college?

Her sweater started out a little too dark with all that blue, so I tried to warm it up with some orange and brown, while keeping the blue for the shadows. There are still things I could nit-pick over, but I decided I'd done enough:



Not too shabby.

Sleeping Angel

Elora has a daily morning routine.
She comes into my room as soon as she wakes up, be it 6:00 AM, or 8AM, and she climbs up into my bed. There is plenty of room now that Joseph has to work early in the mornings; sometimes Joshua is already there too, but not always.
I used to get mad at her for coming in, but she has learned that she shouldn't come in before the sun is up, and she is very good at being quiet and laying down. One morning I held her hand to show her I wasn't mad at her, and she gave me the biggest grin I've ever seen. Now I hold her hand almost every time - she still grins.
Last week she happened to still be asleep after I woke up, and she looked so sweet in the early morning light that I just had to capture the moment.
Looking at these pictures of my little girl reminded me of a greeting card I sent my sister when her daughter was born; I liked it so much I kept a copy of the 'poem' for myself:

Someday, she'll be a famous pianist.
Or a high school science teacher.


She'll settle down, marry,
have a couple of kids.


Maybe she won't.


Someday, she'll help millions of people
all over the world.


Or maybe she'll travel
Send letters from Africa
Or phone you from Rome.


Someday, she'll be a strong, confident, woman.


...But you'll always remember
The first time you held her in your arms....


Someday, she'll have her own
hopes and dreams


Not knowing that once upon a quiet time
You closed your eyes


And dreamed to have her in your life.

Wiggly Toys and Romantic Trees

We found a new park recently, where we've spent a few evenings as a family. Elora calls it the park with the wiggly toys..I suppose because it has several curvy slides.

It might be more appropriately called " The curvy climbing thing park":





The hanging upside down park:





Or the intense workout park:


Feel the burn!!


Of course, if I were the one naming it, I might go in a different direction. The toys were nice, but what I love about this new park is the trees. Anciently towering, mysterious and shady: this is why I like coming here. Oh yeah, theres a pretty nifty stream too, crossed by a quaint little bridge. Maybe I'll call this place "Romantic Tree Park":





Or perhaps The Rock Skipping Place:


(note my glasses. Stupid allergies.)



How about The Park With Perfect Lighting at Eight in the Evening:

I swear I'm not annoyed. I just look like this.


I've got it. I think I'll call it, "Beautiful".