It is what it is

I had just cleaned out the dog's water bowl and refilled it with fresh water yesterday when I look over and see this:

Yep - he's trying to drink like the dog. I thought he just loved to imitate Landon and I...apparently he's now taking cues from Honey. I wish I could tell you that this totally grossed me out - but 1) I had just cleaned/refilled the bowl and 2) he's a boy - having eight nephews, I can say this is nowhere near the grossest thing he will discover or do. Not even in the same universe.

I had to post these pictures (because they are so darn cute of course, duh) but I'm realizing some things as an amateur photographer - oh, and I use that term 'photographer' very loosely. I'm not even close to being considered anyone of any photographic talent. But I value good photography immensely and last year invested in a great camera that I love - though I still need to branch out of auto-mode. I'm trying to learn how to fully utilize the capacities of my camera beyond auto mode and the occasional portrait mode. Thanks to this gal's blog, I'm better understanding the different technical terms - I can even tell you what aperture is now...for real! I can explain it to you! I'm not good at using it yet in manual mode, but I can explain it.

Back to my epiphany. If you notice the above pictures have some blurring - that's because I turned the flash off. The sun was going down and though it was still light outside, there wasn't enough outside light to freeze the action like I normally like to do. So it that case, the flash comes on. But I've discovered that my love of using as natural light as possible outweighs my picky-ness over blurry spots. Of course, if I invest in another, better flash, that would help immensely and if I had more practice in changing settings to adapt for slightly less light, that would help too. But until then, I hate having that unnatural, washed out, flash-look to my pictures (how's that for professional lingo). I'm lucky to have so many people nearby that are great photographers-I need to pick their brain more.

Oh, and yes that is a pacifier in my three-year-old's mouth. Seeing as how I didn't want to do the whole pacifier-thing before Grant was born, it's quite interesting that he we are 3 years later with that still in his mouth (aren't almost-first-time-mothers hilarious creatures? we talk as if we know exactly how everything is going to work out....ah, memories). We told ourselves that we would continue to use it as long as he was getting the tube feedings - which is what necessitated the use of the pacifier in the first place - but now that he has seemingly all-of-a-sudden stopped tube feeding, it's hitting me pretty hard now that we need to get rid of it. Now a new baby is coming along that very well may use a pacifier, so just when we get the darn things out of the house, it may walk itself back in with the new fella. Luckily, he only uses it once in awhile and he doesn't at all need it to sleep. I may just have to throw them out cold turkey-he might not even notice. I get a tad self-conscious about it thanks to my 'worry about what others think too much' nature. In the end, I'm learning Valuable Mothering Lesson #249: Try not to judge another mother too harshly. Sometimes we have no idea about each other's history and circumstances.