Bella's first flight

As you may have noticed, we've been a bit absent. We're on our East Coast 2009 Meet the Bella Tour. I'll have tons of photos to share soon. A birth and babies and friends and family and tons of great stories I can't wait to share! But I felt bad neglecting my blog for two whole weeks, so I thought I'd mention our journey that renewed my hope for humanity.

We got to the airport with a fair amount of time to spare, and I'm no stranger to flying, and I had no intention of checking a bag so I packed very efficiently for the security lines and that went well. We were playing, so we missed the first call for the family boarding, which was just as well since another half hour on the plane was the last thing we needed.

I didn't know what I was going to do about breastfeeding a squirmy toddler in a middle seat. The poor young woman smushed into the window seat had Bella and me next to her, and a little 4 month old in front of her. She pretty much kept to herself the entire time. She was quite sweet though, and during the middle of the flight when I was catching a cat nap and Bella was wide awake, she played with her. She never once complained about Bella invading her space or kicking or dropping cheerios all over her luggage (whoops!).

The high school kid next to me was about eleven feet tall and spilling out the aisles and we were one big cozy tangle. Bella was tired and started to fuss when we took off and so I popped her on right as the boy looked over at me. He didn't even flinch. Could I have asked for better traveling companions? He just kept right on chatting and didn't mind for a moment that Bella was half on him while nursing. While Bella napped we shared cameras and photography and I told him what was outside the window (we flew right over my town, I would have liked to have just parachuted down to save some time) and it was one of the best flights I've had in a while.

We walked up and down the aisles, caused a few traffic jams as people cooed over her shoes and she tried to adopt every grandma on the plane. Unfortunately, we were the second to last seat in the plane and had a very short connection. By the time we got off, we had 20 minutes til our next plane took off on the farthest opposite corner of the airport.

With Bella and bag on my back and my luggage in tow, I literally ran through the airport. What a sight we must have been, harried mother running around with a baby giggling hysterically on her back. We took a wrong turn at some point and ended up outside of security, so we had to go back through the checkpoint.

I can't even say how many snafus we caused and dodged all at the same time. Apparently in Pennsylvania they want the baby in arms to have a boarding pass. What? They let us go with a few sighs but no ticket. We started waiting in a very long check line and I was pretty much in tears asking the first security guard if he could tell my plane I was on the way. He assured me in a most unsympathetic manner that he had no means to do so and I could only skip in line if the people in line let me.

I'm sorry, I'm all for democracy but how much more pathetic did I need to look begging to gyp in line? A sweet (female) guard offered to open up another x-ray machine for me and as it was warming up I heard last call for my plane. I'd never been this close to missing a flight before (though I have completely missed flights before), and I did not want to sit around an airport with a baby.

As we finished the security check (and did I mention no one asked me to take Bella off so they could scan my mei tai?) the nice guard told me to run and catch a car. When I thought my lungs would pop, I found one going the other direction. He asked his passenger if he minded turning back around, and to my immense relief he didn't mind. (hmm, should have thanked him. oops.)

When we got to my gate the doors were closed. I waited for the announcer at the next gate to finish boarding calls (while the rest of those passengers stared at me huffing and puffing...) and asked him if he could contact my plane. Luckily it was a small plane without a boarding tunnel, so he just whistled and hollered and sent me out onto the tarmac. Woot!! It was surreal, as I got closer and shouted, "is this the plane to Harrisburg?" Hah. Watch me get on the wrong plane. Indeed I was in the right place. The plane wasn't even full and the flight attendant ushered me on and moved some passengers to get me my own row. (They balked until they saw I had Bella on my back. People are so much more accommodating when you have a baby, haha.)

I laid my head back to catch my breath. We made it! (Thanks to 10 million awesome people.) Bella watched the world grow smaller out the window, and then I started nursing her to sleep. I was starting to relax and scowled at the ding donging in the cabin speakers. "Flight attendants prepare for landing." Wtf? Oh, right, it was only a fifteen minute flight. Well, at least we didn't miss it!

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Another ordinary night

Scene: 9:30pm Tuesday evening. The family has just finished a farmer's market dinner of fresh radishes, raspberries, and peanut butter fudge.

Adults are at their respective computers chatting over the day while Bella plays with toys on the floor.

Sirens and helicopters sound outside, yet another attempt to put out an untimely fire taking over a neighborhood just blocks away.

Shawna (knitting, at last, and cursing her computer for restarting itself randomly yet again): Dave, my dearest, most wonderful husband who has worked so hard and actually made money today, I know this is a lot to ask, but would you bring me the potty? I just sat down and crashed and all this knitting and tweeting about the fire is so tiring that I can't move five feet to get to Bella's potty, but it's time for her to go.

Dave heaves a loving sigh of resignation as he considers getting up.

Bella (whose favorite game recently has been walking back and forth handing Mommy bits and pieces of things from the floor) hands Shawna what we assume is an old piece of bread. Here!

Shawna (subconsciously sniffing the air and considering Dave's slow response time) looks down at her hands. Poo!! Dave, omigawddave!, Bella just handed me POOOOOO!!! Omigawd where did it come from?? Omigawd it's on the floor! Omigawd it's on her feet!

Omigawd initiate disaster protocols! Lift her off the floor! Strip her clothes! Throw her in the tub! Quick!

And ten minutes later, we're all back to normal. Helicopters notwithstanding.

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savoring: you had to be there

Happy Fourth of July. It fell on a weekend, thus I worked. And because it was so warm this weekend, I didn't bring my camera with me. What in the world? Guess I didn't want to lug it around.

I had intended to go home after work and sit at the computer (hence I'd have time for my 365 shot), but I was in such a horrible mood (re: useless customerless day at work that ended in me unclogging a toilet that I had cleaned just minutes before). When I called Dave to tell him I was off work, only to find out I hadn't even missed the barbeque, I hightailed it to the other side of town for a pick-me-up. Of course, sans camera.

So what follows is a savoring post without photography. Next year I'll have fun shooting the fireworks. This year I did my best (really, I tried) to enjoy them the way I used to.

Gardening in the dusk to ground shaking blasts and staccato flashes of color.

An entire town whizzing, popping, and banging from every direction.

Night time at the dock, happy faces glowing in the smokey campfires.

Bits of purple fire melting into their reflections.

Chirruping frogs filling in the silence between each firework.

A full and smokey moon rising up over the invisible mountain.

Little voices shouting out the colors in the sky as loudly as possible.

Echoing thunder as the sounds bounce back and forth between the mountains.

Bella reaching out to touch the sky, cheering on the sparkling show.

A satellite gently drifting through the explosions like a lost ember.

Bella clapping all the way home, shouting yaaay!

A sleep drunk baby to excited to sit still, running around tipsily til the very moment we strapped her in the car seat and she went out like a light. A high strung, fidgety, did I hear another boom, I can't miss another one! light.

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while walking is still exciting

I initially started Project 365 to challenge myself to take a picture every day, to stretch my limits. Some days the photos are good, and some days they're just uninspired torture. And often, even when I have a day full of great pictures, I end up putting the plain ones in my 365 series.

Why? Because I try to capture the moments that I love now, and those things don't always happen in good light and good settings. But I know that in one year or twenty, those are the captures that will make my heart ache, regardless of how bad the focus or framing was. They are quintessentially Bella, as she was that day.

These are the moments that represent her today: learning to walk on her own.



More often than not, these blocks are in her hands, and they make me smile every time.



And still, she needs a hand, just because.

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Glowing MJ!

(So that father's day post was scheduled to go up on Tuesday. And Blogger never sent it! So now you'll get two posts in quick succession, hope that's okay!)

MJ finally let me take pictures of her beautiful belly. Her husband was grungy from a bike ride, but hopefully we'll have a chance to include him in a few before MJ pops. She's due in a few days and I'm ridiculously excited about it.

I had so much fun taking and editing these. My camera and I were in a tiff the day we took these, and so I'm amazed at how many I like. I felt like I had all the settings wrong, and I always had the wrong lens on for every moment. And as for editing, man I need practice. Not to mention since my computer can't read RAW files it's a very elaborate process involving two differently calibrated monitors on laptops, so they change their color depending on the angle anyhow. I can't imagine what these will look like printed out.

Luckily the subject is so outstanding that it doesn't matter! My favorite thing about taking photos of MJ (which I do frequently since she's good friends with Bella, and a beautiful confident subject, and simply because she lets me get away with it) is that she and her home are so colorful. Who can resist such amazing colors around every corner?

So, without further ado, MJ:



As soon as I got to MJ's, I noticed the evening light fading out of the nursery. I rushed MJ to sit under the window before the room ran out of light. In no time at all MJ will be rocking in this chair with her baby.



And of course, with a knitting mama, this boy will be decked out in the best knits.



Then we headed out onto the deck for a cuppa tea, where of course the light was nice again.



See? Didn't I tell you she's beautiful? She is the definition of glowing.



And then we popped indoors for a minute, where I made MJ pose with baby's first outfit.



When MJ saw all the photos of her hands on her belly she was surprised, not knowing that she unconsciously did that. I think all mamas get used to petting their bellies.



Thanks for always letting me take your pictures, MJ! (And yes, your belly is totally already bigger than in this photo!)

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