Pony Rides

Last week Owen's school, St. Marks, had ponies brought in for the kids to ride and I was fortunate enough to get some shots. Owen was so excited - when he was getting on the pony he was smiling at the handler from ear to ear. They were so cute (the ponies and the kids).

No more Nuks - Woohoo!

I am happy to report that it has officially been 2 weeks since we got rid of the nuks (pacifiers). I made up my mind one weekend when Shaun was going to be out of town to toss them. We actually made it a big event. I talked to Owen all week about "mailing" them to "the baby" because the baby was going to be here soon and he really needed nuks. I used Shaun's cousin's, Mel, baby. I showed him a picture of her with her cute belly and explained that the baby was in her belly and would be coming soon. On Friday afternoon we put them in a Ziploc back and walked them to the mailbox. He opened the mailbox and put them in himself. The whole week I also explained to him that this meant he would not have them for nap and bedtime anymore, to which he shook his head acknowledging that he understood but I knew it was going in one ear and out the other.

So Friday night came and it was time for bed. We walk upstairs to his room and he begins looking for them in his bed. I explained again that we mailed them to the baby. He was very upset at first but then I was distracting him, changed his clothes, picked out a stuffed animal to sleep with, and he was doing ok until he thought about it and he would start to cry again. It was so sad. But then I explained to him again what we did, to which he said "I a baby". I told him he was a big boy and then we continued our nightly routine, read to him and said a prayer. I told him I would rub his back until he fell asleep and that really helped. He woke up about 3:30am so I just brought him in bed with me. Ever since he has done great even with his naps at school. Every once in a while he'll ask for them but I just tell him we mailed them to the baby and he's good.

This was a big decision for me since this is the only thing I've ever had to wean him off of. I already had a back up plan that if it didn't work that weekend I would wait until spring break when he wasn't in school. I decided to do it now because we will be driving to St. Louis this summer and that is a good 18 hr plus trip, so he would definitely get is nuk in the car which would start a domino effect. Once he gets it outside of his normal use he thinks he can have it anytime and so it would be a constant fight. I'm just glad it went a lot smoother than I thought.

Bye, bye mr. nuk.

New Lens

I just want to thank everyone who contributed to my Christmas camera lens fund. I was so excited when I finally got it. I got the Canon 50mm 1.4 which is an awesome portrait lens. A friend of mine has the same lens and all her pictures are amazing and that's when I decided that was going to be my next lens. Here are a couple of pictures I've taken with it -


And here are some I took for Valentine's Day -


Can you tell what my favorite subject is?
I LOVE this lens.