The Taylors

Ahh… the joys of dirt. And water. And mixing them.

Added 7/21/11 by Darcy:
Grae learned part of the alphabet by playing with wooden alphabet blocks and asking us what the letters on the blocks were, but then we bought the Leap Frog Letter Factory DVD and within three weeks, Grae knew all of the letters and sounds (watching the video about twice a week). Grae will be 2 1/2 by the end of August, so not bad. Every family we meet that has this DVD loves it, because it works! I typically try to avoid electronic ‘teachers’, because there is a lot of evidence indicating that screen time is generally not good for kids, even if it that screen time involves a game or content that is educational. However, I had met so many three year olds that were starting to read because of this DVD that I couldn’t resist trying it. Leap Frog Letter Factory is amazing! (But annoying too… that song, over and over!)

Literally :)

This is the little face that I saw through my camera lens a mere one or two seconds before a handful of sand was thrown at my head (and incidentally, the camera). I hauled Grae off to time-out and left him there crying while I cleaned myself up and made sure the camera had survived the attack. When I look at this picture, I almost feel guilty about putting Grae into time-out and making him cry. Okay, I really do feel guilty. Look at that face! He is adorable! He thought he was about to do something fun that I would think was fun too. I think this was a ‘bad mom’ moment.

Little boy heaven.

Love these things!

Isn’t she adorable?! I just love this little girl. Here are a few notes about Jules:

* born at 8 lbs 12 oz, 20 inches long
* at her two month exam she was 12 lbs 12 oz (92%), 22.5 inches long (57%)
* blue/gray eyes
* light brown hair
* has a slightly downturned left ear that we think is super cute :)
* likes to stick her tongue out
* great eater from day one
* she likes binkies, but is not obsessed with them – she will spit them out most of the time, but does like them when falling asleep
* she fusses when she has a dirty diaper, which makes me hopeful that she will be one of those kids that actually wants to be potty trained
* she was a fabulous day sleeper and a horrible night sleeper for the first month of her life; nights were a dreaded and painful thing (I frequently got only 30 minutes to 2 hours of sleep)
* she is now a fabulous night sleeper and a horrible day sleeper; she wakes once or twice to eat and falls asleep immediately – what a blessing (but usually cannot sleep unless in bed with me, day or night, so I frequently nap with her when Grae naps and she almost always sleeps with me at night)
* definitely a mama’s girl at this point – she will often protest very loudly when Chris is the one trying to put her to sleep or soothe her, but if I take her from Chris, she will calm down almost immediately (this is both endearing and frustrating)
* frequently avoids eye contact, more often when tired (very willing to look at our faces and eyes when she first wakes up, but seems to be overstimulated by it and starts to avoid it; if we try to make eye contact with her when she does not want to, she will do everything she can to avoid it and will become upset)
* has an adorable coo and will talk to us occasionally – I love it!
* we have to work hard for smiles at this point, but it is worth it :)
* she is very sweet and maybe a bit reserved; I can’t wait to get to know her better as she grows and is able to express herself

I took a bunch of pictures of Jules last Sunday and was frustrated that this was the best of the them. While my subject is adorable and was being very cooperative, all of my pictures were either too dark or too light. This one was obviously one of the ones that was overexposed and that is obvious even after it has been edited to the best of my (very limited) abilities. It looks better in black and white than in color, but if I increase the contrast so that the majority of the picture looks like it was exposed correctly, Jules’ irises become super dark, which is inaccurate – her eyes are gray/blue.

The problem is that I was taking the pictures in the shade of a tree on a sunny day. I really wanted pictures outside, but the sun was too bright and either created harsh shadows or resulted in Jules closing her eyes and squirming. But when in the shade, Jules’ face was underexposed without a flash (or maybe just monotone, no light highlighting her face) and the entire picture was overexposed with a flash, even when I reduced the flash and exposure to -2 and taped a piece of paper towel over the flash.

So, photographer friends, do you have any suggestions for taking pictures in this kind of lighting situation (very bright out, in the shade with bright background)? Is it a matter of switching to manual mode instead of using aperture mode (all I use)? Do I need a better flash? One of those fancy add-on ones that can be connected by a cable? Or is this one of those scenarios when a reflector would be required?

The strange thing is, I have had this same thing happen out on a beach in bright-overcast conditions as well: face too dark without flash, picture almost completely whited-out with the flash, even when the flash is set to -2 (the most that it can be reduced) and the exposure set to -2 (also the most that it can be reduced). I have wondered if the flash-reduction is actually not working, because I feel like I have never had this problem before. I have reduced my flash many times in the past to deal with situations where I needed just a bit more light on a face. I am stuck.

This recipe is my version of the Oh-So-Good Oatmeal Raisin Cookies recipe from Whole Foods Market. I never add the wheat germ, raisins, or pecans that the original recipe calls for, and I use coconut palm sugar instead of evaporated cane sugar (palm sugar is available at Whole Foods Market and is a low glycemic sweetener). I also reduce the salt a bit, because the cookies have turned out a bit too salty a couple of times – this might be dependent on the brand of butter used.

I have made these cookies many, many times and love them :) I think they are best when left slightly underbaked in the center.

This recipe makes 8 large cookies.

Ingredients
4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) butter, softened
3 tablespoons canola oil
1/2 cup coconut palm sugar
1 egg
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1 cup old-fashioned rolled oats

Method
Preheat oven to 375°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper; set aside. (I use stoneware, so using parchment paper or sprays is unnecessary. I preheat the stoneware with the oven).

In a large bowl, whisk together butter and oil until completely blended. Whisk in sugar, egg, vanilla, salt, and baking powder. Mix in whole wheat pastry flour and oats. (You could also add raisins and nuts if you want to; see the original recipe for quantities).

Drop 1/4 cup scoops of the cookie dough onto the prepared baking, spacing them about 2 inches apart. Bake until golden brown, but still slightly moist in the center. I usually bake them for about 9 minutes on the preheated stoneware (play around with the baking time to get a texture that you like, the type of pan you use will affect the baking time required).

Enjoy!