If you can’t tell already, I got a new camera. And I’m pretty excited about it. The new baby is a Nikon D90, the latest DSLR put out by the company. When I bought my D40 last November, it was a hard decision not to go with the D80. But the D80 cost twice as much as the D40 and it was nearing the end of its life. I decided to get the D40 and see if I was going to take the hobby seriously. If so, I could upgrade when the D80 replacement hit the shelves.
The picture above is a kinda close-up of Abby’s nose. Those of you who follow Post Irony can see where this is headed. The picture below is a close-up of the button we took out of Abby’s nose tonight. (And a dime for comparison purposes.)
Most people think of 9/11 as a day of infamy. Well, it is, but it’s also my birthday. I get a lot more “Happy Birthdays” since those planes flew into those big buildings because it turned out to be a fabulous mnemonic device to remember my big day.
Gina and Abby baked me a cake and gave me a couple of presents. It was great. Abby cried when Gina brought the cake out for me to blow out the candles. She doesn’t like the fire. Gina’s going to take me out to eat tomorrow night.
The picture above is a kinda close-up of Abby’s nose. The picture below is a close-up of the rock we took out of Abby’s nose tonight. (And a dime for comparison purposes.)
When Gina picked Abby up from the day care, Abby kept talking about something that had her pretty worked up. Gina thought she was saying she wanted to go for a walk, something she talks about regularly. But Abby kept saying no, a walk was not what she interested in. Gina told her she couldn’t understand her and Abby dropped it.
They came home and Abby took a short nap and then got up and Gina fixed her something to eat. Abby continued talking about something that sounded like “walk.” She was saying “rock,” as we now know, but she doesn’t say her R’s very well.
Her breathing was loud and somewhat labored, so Gina thought her nose was stuffy and she tried to use the suction bulb on her. Then she tried to get Abby to blow into a tissue, but every time Gina touched her nose, Abby would cry.
Finally, Gina asked Abby if she was saying “rock” and Abby said yes and Gina instantly knew what the problem was. I had just gotten off the treadmill and was trying to recover from what felt like a stroke when Gina came in and said, “We have a serious problem.” We laid Abby on her back on the bathroom counter, and, despite her protestations, I extracted the rock with a pair of tweezers.
My parents live on 40 acres west of Parsons, Kan., that used to be part of a larger working farm. There are several sheds, silos and whatnot still on the property, including this old-time chicken coop. This is the kind of coop that Foghorn Leghorn guarded in the old cartoons. The outside has great peeling paint and deteriorating wood. The kind of stuff we amateur photographers like to take pichurs of. I set up a couple of flashes inside so the ceiling and back wall of the coop would be visible.
Abby got her first hair cut today. Miss Aubrey first cut Daddy’s hair while Abby watched, then she took a go at Abby’s hair. I did a poor job of photographing the moment. There were a number of challenges that I didn’t foresee. The biggest was Gina having to hold Abby before she would let Aubrey even get close to her. I should have known that would happen, but I didn’t.
Friday night was girls night out for Gina, so Abby and I went to the Washington County fair with Kurt, Taylor and Will. For a variety of reasons, I didn’t think Abby would like the fair very much. And she didn’t like the animals. I had to carry her most of the time. But she LOVED the merry-go-round and a train ride that went around in a circle. She rode the train by herself and refused to get off when it stopped. I had to go and get her. She bawled for 15 minutes afterward.
It’s Abby Sunday.
A few days ago Abby was sitting at the table after dinner and she put her chin on her hands in a very cute way. I knew it would make a good picture so I tried to recreate it this afternoon. I put a flash and umbrella on the table to camera right and another flash camera left and behind her with my DIY gridspot mounted to provide a hair light. She didn’t really want to go along with my directions and this was as close as I could get to her original pose.
Two Abby stories: First, the other day we were eating dinner and she started saying, “A-B-Y” over and over. We finally realized she was spelling her name. We told her it was A-B-B-Y and she started adding the extra B. She said she was practicing it at school.
Second, this one’s kinda gross. That’s why I like it. She’s been doing this thing while eating where she tilts her head all the way back and puts food in her mouth. It generally causes her to gag and we tell her to stop it. At lunch today she tilted her head back and popped a single macaroni and cheese noodle in. It immediately gagged her and I could tell she coughed it up the back way into her nose. Then she sneezed and the noodle shot out her nose followed by a wad of snot. It was funny.
Abby and I had the day to ourselves yesterday, so we went for a little walk down to the creek to see how high the water was after the big rain. We had to walk on the side of the busy road and every time a car passed Abby would yell, “That’s the fastest car I’ve ever seen!”
As she was throwing rocks in the water she would yell “bloop!” after the splash. One particularly big rock caused a particularly big splash that got her arm wet. She said, “It blooped all over my arm, Daddy.”
Abby’s Mimi and Meemaw (I think we’ve just about used up all the cutesy-itsy names for the grandparents. We’ve also got Nana, Gramps and Pawpaw) came for a visit over the weekend. It was Meemaw’s 91st birthday and she got a pretty good haul of presents. Gina got her a purse with a light inside that comes on like when you open the refrigerator door.
Abby’s Mimi got Abby a Snow White camping set for her birthday. The set has a sleeping bag, tent, backpack and water bottle. Gina set up the tent today and Abby loved it. Abby found it hysterical when Gina would hit the inside of the tent and make it billow out. It gave me a chance to practice a little Strobistry. A put one flash inside the tent at 1/8 power pointed at Gina’s face and another flash with the umbrella reflector outside the tent at full power pointed at Abby. I think it turned out pretty well.