The Canon Capers -- A "Rebel" Fairytale

Once upon a time, there was a beeeeaaaauuuutiful queen (What? It's a fairytale, OKAY?!?) who received a Canon Rebel Digital SLR camera from her dear husband, King Ricardo. She knew she had deeply desired this camera for a long, long time, for those around her who had one like it took very excellent photos. She knew that in order to use one of these fancy cameras to its fullest extent, she would have to practice a great amount of time. Lucky for her, she had the perfect little Princess right in her own castle to pose as the most interesting subject in all the land. And although Queen Danielle missed her very simple and tiny "point 'n' shoot", she was determined to learn what all of the bells and whistles on her new giant camera were all about. She knew that with hard work and dedication, she would not only be the fairest queen to rule the kingdom of Torresia, but also the most accomplished photographer for all to admire. THE END

WOW. Now that was an amazing story. I will only answer to "Moms Christian Danielson" (Get it?!? Hans Christian Anderson? Oh forget it.) from now on. As with any folkloric tale, the interpretation of its value as an art form is relative to the eye of the beholder. And so without further ado, I would like to present my latest attempt at an art form with my new cool camera. Things that my point and shoot could never do. Things like this:

And this:

Poor Alessandra, trying to eat while Mamarrazzi is hovering over her, practically blinding her with the flash. Oh, and P.S., ask anyone in Photography 101, the law is that all awesome photos (ahem..."Portraits"), have to be in black and white to be taken seriously. Okay, I made that up, but they are still pretty awesome, aren't they?!? Of course, I am the beholder of my own eye.

What else have we been doing with our spare time, you might ask, while not taking photos? Oh, climbing. Why would you need this?:

When you have this:

This:


This:


Or this?:
The world IS Alessandra's jungle gym!! And you might ask why oh why do we let her climb on all of our furniture, and Eli too? Because if we scold her and pull her down from wherever she is, we have just made it that much more interesting to her. So we sit and wait for her to maybe fall and crack her head open, or maybe not. All the while pretending we don't have a care in the world that she's 3 feet above the hard wooden floor. All of my parenting books tell me better to ignore these mountaineering sessions now and let the novelty wear off at 3 feet off of the floor as opposed to later when she's stronger and bigger and using stools to climb onto countertops and countertops to climb onto refrigerators and refrigerators to climb onto...Oh wait, she's not a cat, but you get the idea.

When we're not climbing, we're DANCING! Ricardo's dad left a CD of traditional Mexican music in our CD player and Alessandra LOVES it! She stomps her feet and dances around and around in circles until she gets dizzy. Normally, hearing this music over and over again would drive me crazy, but even I found one that I really like! I play song #1 and dance with Ali every night when I get home from work. KUMBIA!!! Ricardo likes to dance with her every night to the slow love songs. He says that all of his tias and tios dance like this if they are REALLY in love:

Senorita Ali Pants looks head over heels...(Insert facetious font here.)

Well, that's it for now! Hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving!!!! Ali will enjoy her first one where she actually gets to eat grownup food. Man, does my girl like to throw down! Her permanent station is in her high chair!

I give thanks for Alessandra, Ricardo, my family and friends, good food, lots of love and even more good fortune. Thank you God!!

Love, RAD

Happy Hallow-BEE-n!

My priceless works of art, all aglow! Of course, currently they sit in the same spot looking more like how we three will appear in about 90 years or so; All shriveled and brown. Never you mind, since this is the first year that we have ever carved and then subsequently LIT pumpkins since we've lived here in Minnesota. It truly, truly did make me feel like a kid again. Plus, I baked pumpkin seeds, so it was the whole shebang as far as I was concerned. Very befitting now that we have a kid in the house to go all "buggy" over. Enter my favorite honeybee:

One word: Yay! She was so cute. Since she is still our little larvae (if we're talking insects), she was too young to go Trick-or-Treating so we ended up going the Mall of America route. Mommy and Daddy had to get some shopping done anyway, so we killed two...ahem...bees with one stone! (Thank you very much.)

None other than Grandma and Grandpa Torres were here to partake in the festivities.

And where there's grandparents, there's COUSINS! Alessandra got to visit with her two cousins Isabella and Alexis who we rarely get to see anymore since they moved out of town a couple of months ago.

And speaking of cousins, a few of Ali's that we MISSED for Halloween but still got adorable pictures of:

Gabriel (Squanto) and Gianna (Belle) with their daycare provider (Witch...but not really!) :)

What if there were 101 Marleys? I think my brother might go crazy!

In toddler news, our daughter has definitely earned her status as such. Her favorite thing to do lately is stand up and jump off the couch onto the floor below. Since most 14-month-olds are not equipped with full landing gear, we've definitely been nursing some crash and burn faceplants thanks to her newfound bravado. Somehow, her recovery is instantaneous and she is back at it immediately after. Most often, she'll afford a quick glance our way to ensure that there are no gasps or terrified screams and when there is no reaction elicited from us, she knows she's unscathed enough to attempt again. And again. And again. And again.

Below is just one example of the wild daredevil I've come to know as my child.

Speaking of again and again (and bumblebeees)...Have I mentioned how I'm tired, so tired of singing "I'm bringing home my baby bumblebee, won't my mommy be so proud of me, I'm brining home my baby bumblebeeeeee..." and also, "Itsy bitsy spider" and any number of songs accompanied with hand gestures that were adorable at first but now are not my favorite. And if I refuse to sing it after she asks me to, say during a midnight waking when it's the first thing she thinks of as soon as I enter her room, this is what happens:

Oh yes, my happy camper has figured out the wonders of manipulation. It is a very handy tool, especially when you have a sucker for a mom. (Dad is a little bit better, but not by much.) I am happy to report that she is, however, going through a "Mommy Phase" which means she doesn't like to leave my side. Maybe my "softness" is paying off. Mommy loves cuddles from her baby!!!!

On a productivity note, Alessandra is exhibiting signs of a future in the culinary arts. Another favorite thing to do as of late is "cook" right alongside me. She gets her very own assortment of pots, pans, spoons and spatulas and very methodically (there goes that word again!) stirs each pot, moving from one right to the next and makes sure that each and every one of them is being attended to.

MMMmmmmm....Looks good Ali!

And food, oh food. She is SO our daughter. Ali is a card-holding member of the Clean Plate Club and I am pleased to announce that she is willing to try just about anything I give to her. Unlike someone ELSE I know (rhymes with Schmischmardo.)

That's okay, I am LOVING on Mr. "Schmishschmardo" even more than usual this week since he bought me a VERY generous gift. I have been PINING for a digital SLR camera so that I can take even better pictures of Alessandra. I'm in the process of reading a "Canon Rebel for Dummies" and am currently only sorting out what all the bells and whistles are for. In a few months though, look for some vast improvements in the photography department on this blog. Look out Annie Leibovitz!!

'Til next time!

RAD