Chasing the birds

We're back from our 2.5 week trip in China and haven't quite processed our photos, thoughts etc. It was quite an adventure that I'm sure I'll write about in more detail. I wanted to jot down a quick thought however before it gets away from me. This weekend we were at the park where I noticed Logan huddled by a bush. He was really focused on it, so I cruised over to see what was going on. He was watching these little birds that were hiding in the bush and was so excited about it. He was doing the sign for birds and making a "tweet tweet" sound to tell me what he saw. A little later, he was chasing some pigeons around with the biggest smile on his face. He was so thrilled to be able to get close to them and then cause them to fly. The thing I love the most is seeing that wild look of abandon and discovery in his eyes. Not looking where he was going, just running with his eyes to the sky and a huge smile on his face. He was so thrilled. I love that.

Painting finished

Here's a painting I just finished for the upcoming group show at TAG. The show starts Oct. 1st, so I had to finish it before we leave for China next week. . .

New Found Freedom

In just a few months, Logan has gone from having a melt down if I got a bike helmet anywhere near his head, to saying "bike" and grabbing his helmet and putting it on himself. The other day he wanted to wear it around the house and also of course demanded that I have mine on too while doing dishes. :)
Anyway, he loves to go on bike rides now. He'll do the sign for "more" if I stop at the house before he's ready to get off the bike. I'm really enjoying the time with him, riding by the ocean, singing songs, talking about the birds, feeling the wind in our faces. It's great to be able to ride with him in front of me in a seat between me and the handlebars. He can hear me easily and I can see his expressions when he turns his head to try to talk to me. The only thing that it tricky about him riding there is that he wants to put his hands on the handles and does not want my hands there. Obviously there's no way I can ride without holding on. We've come to an agreement that I will stop at some point during the ride and let him have the handle bars all to himself. We'll sit there for a few minutes until he gets bored with not moving, then we'll take off again with me holding on. He seems to get it now, and doesn't fight me about it anymore. It's so funny how he just needs a moment to feel like he's the one driving. Here's a couple of photos, of us stopped in negotiation of who gets the handlebars. :)

Play Doh bracelets

LT is really getting into play doh lately. It's relaxing for me too, being creative and sculpting shapes and playing with Logan at the same time. We made some bracelets yesterday. I was laughing when I took this photo. The rolls on his wrists are a repeating design element to the rolled up play doh. ;-)

Pushing some paint around

I haven't painted in a while so there's nothing like a deadline to get me going again. Trying to do a painting for an upcoming TAG show called 12 X 12. All the members are going to do pieces that are 12 X 12". Feeling kind of rusty. It always kind of bugs me to have a deadline when painting, but the reality is, I don't take the time to do it if there's not one. Hard to have "guilt free painting time" without feeling like I'm flaking on work or taking time away from LT.
It does feel good however to be pushing some paint around, listening to some good tunes and feeling more like myself somehow . . .
In progress . . .

A little table

We recently got Logan a little table and chairs that are just his size. I was surprised at how much focus he has when he's sitting at it. He's really into it. Yesterday he was spending lots of time sitting there putting crayons in the little holes in a board toy he has . . .

Good time at the park this past weekend . . .

I love the parks where everything is just the right size for a one and a half year old. LT loves this place . . .

Ahhhhh new camera

Our digital camera has been out of commission for a while now, and we finally replaced it this past weekend. I've been taking photos of Logan like crazy since.

Concerts in the Park

Went to Veteran's park last night to see if Logan would like the music. He was interested more in the playground next to the band shell, but still did a couple boogie moves. Here's a photo . . .

The earthquake made me start a blog?

I'm still not sure why I'm starting a blog. I'm not a great writer and I don't have loads of free time. I guess I've kind of been missing keeping a journal and a sketchbook lately, so I thought this would be a way to do that. This first entry feels a little like scribbling on the first page of a brand new sketchbook to mess it up a bit so it's not so intimidating.
The 5.6er that we had the other day wasn't that scary, it just made me think about the important things to me in our house (aside from people and animals of course) that I would miss if we somehow lost everything. There's not that many objects that I couldn't live without. My hard drive full of photos bubbled up to the top of the list, which can be easily backed up in cyberspace somewhere. :) The other things are notes and journal entries about Logan growing up. Maybe this blog will contain some of that.
Nothing like an earthquake to "shake things up" a bit . . . .
See . . . I told you that I'm not a writer. ;-)