The sweetest blog reader Ali, sent this link to me, and thought it would be perfect for me. Um, yep! PERFECT! Interestingly, one of the early cage mock ups looked exactly like this cage. So here ya go John, here’s a birthday idea and I think it’s in your price range. 😉 I wonder if I’ll start seeing bird cages everywhere now…

While I have your attention I thought I would share Miles showing off his hat (and his necklace, he’s suddenly discovered accessorizing) this morning.

I mentioned earlier this week that Miles has totally embraced two lately. Good gracious, the guy is going through an emotional and physical growth spurt lately too. Oh, and his curiosity has just peaked to a whole new level. With all of these changes I feel even more pressure and worry that I’m raising him to be a good, polite little guy. I doubt myself at times when he completely throws me off with something wacky. We were at story time the other day and during the craft activity he grabbed two pairs of scissors and TOOK OFF running. My eyes bugged out of my head and for the next ten seconds I got to experience the awesomeness that is chasing your son through a book store while other mother’s look on. Twice. Oh, and again at the doughnut shop afterward. As I’m chasing him in public, my inner video camera clicks on and the experience is worsened by the fact that I can see in my minds eye how completely stupid I must look since I am usually bent over running with a bag in my hands so I look like a penguin. Depending on how much stuff I’m holding at the time, there is probably a degree of waddling going on too. So it’s an extra penguin-ish run. Lovely. So he’s in this exploring phase (please say it’s a phase) where I also worry I’m going to accidentally dislocate his shoulder by holding on despite his tugs away.

Well, for now, I have to give myself a break and take a clue from him that perhaps story time and making a craft isn’t the best choice for Miles right now. For now on, we’ll just go to the Y, where running is acceptable and encouraged! The story time will be there when he’s 3, or maybe if I ever have a girl.

I will say too, that this whole stage comes with a new found need for him to snuggle and be close to me too. So even though I’m enduring public embarrassment with the running, I get the payoffs of his story time snuggles. He also loves to sing and make up the craziest sentences. His brain is such a sponge! Wow, two isn’t so much terrible, it’s just for us it’s so unpredictable. Perhaps it’s because we are so new to being two.

Ok, I”m babbling. I wanted to say too that I got totally surprised with some stuff here at home this week that kept me away from my inbox and actually my computer for a large part of the week. (A hard place to be away from the week I release my new branding. Ugh!) So if you have emailed or commented, please know I got your message and THANK YOU so much!!!!

One more thing; today was not only the first day of spring (yippeee!) it was also the kick off of my year of shooting with my first portrait session. I’m FINALLY out of hibernation and back behind the lens. AHHHHHHHH. I wasn’t sure my camera worked on anybody except Miles, John or myself. 😉

Gotta run, tomorrow is a big day (always is with Miles) and another shoot so I have a hot bath calling my name.

P.S. Photo tip of the day based on the above photo. Set your child’s chair in good light. Keep your camera out, and when they check the new placement of the chair out, that’s when you spring into action. You’ll get natural expressions since you aren’t forcing your kid into a photo shoot. You tricked them into one! 😉 What is the great light? A sliding glass door (like above) or large window with the sun pretty high in the sky. Bad light is when the sun is shining in during the late afternoon and it blinds your kid. I suppose this works for pets too, since there seems to be a never ending supply of people the love to photograph their cats and dogs. (Myself included.)