Another Kind of Self Portrait

Though Cody isn't usually as excited or cooperative about letting me take our picture as Kate is, he does still participate on occasion! I wish I had more pictures of the two of us just like I do with Kate, but until I can figure out the camera's good ole timer switch, here are the sort of pics we have for now -- and something is definitely better than nothing :).

The Art of a Self Portrait

The art of a self portrait shouldn't be taken lightly. It takes quite a bit of skill to hold your digital camera out far enough to get your face in the frame and snap a picture while trying to coax your daughter into smiling at nothing more than your hand pressing the picture button.

I want to make memories with Kate as she grows and to help her look back on those memories later in her life by documenting them with pictures. But, as the one who is 99% of the time behind the lens, I'm not usually actually a part of her memory making pictures - so I decided on a solution long ago: the self portrait!

As you can tell, over her short life Kate has learned to love the self portraits and become an expert self portrait picture subject. The only downside to my self portraits is that I usually can't get my arm far enough back to get much more in the picture other than us -- I need to find a way to get more background in order to better preserve these memories for Kate. Maybe sometime soon I'll take the leap and try to figure out how to set my camera's timer mode so I can get some longer than arm length distance between us and the lens... stay tuned to see how it goes!

Lubbock Pics + Blog Lurking

During our trip to Lubbock this past weekend we had so much fun! Kate absolutely LOVED the hotel - especially the indoor swimming pool. We also went to a Lady Raider game, Chuck E Cheese, a variety of our favorite places to eat in Lubbock, the mall, Smyer to see Mamaw & Papaw, and more.

While we were in the mall I saw a set of familiar faces. Normally when I see someone I know I would wave or acknowledge them somehow, but this time was different because I knew them without having ever met them: I "know" them because I read their blog. We definitely live in a technological age that brings us closer in many ways, but it also turns our normal methods of relating into something different than ever before.

This is sad to admit, but I'm a recovering blog lurker. Only in the past few months have I felt brave enough to start leaving comments on blogs to let the writers know I'm reading - and I'm still working hard on being comfortable commenting on a blog when I don't actually personally know the person whose blog I'm commenting on! I love to check out the links to other blogs people list in their margins. If the blog they've linked to is interesting, I subscribe to it - and after a bit of time I forget how I even stumbled upon those blogs. This is the case with the couple I saw in the mall. Someone I know has to know them and have their blog linked off theirs in order for me to have found it, but I have NO IDEA who that person is.

What is appropriate blogger etiquette in those sorts of situations? Because I'm a recovering lurker I felt the urge to identify myself in the mall, but because I'm embarrassed to know so much about their lives without ever meeting them or knowing how I found them I chose to step back into the shrouds of my blog lurker attire for that moment. And even if I wasn't embarrassed to identify myself as one of their long, lost blog readers, how would they have responded to having some strange person come up to them in the mall, call them by name, and ask them how one of their personal life situations was going?!?

This exact scenario is why I was hesitant to start blogging myself. The idea that there are people reading my blog that I'm unaware of is a little unnerving yet exciting to me! Especially when I think about the fact that I could be walking with Kate in the mall and someone see us and realize they know us from my blog!! I'm typically a very private person - as my friend Carrie likes to say: I'm content to introduce myself as Amy from DFW and leave it at that. So blogging is a major step out of my comfort zone, but it's something I'm glad Cody kept encouraging me to do until I took the plunge and started doing it!

So my basic communication today is this: if you ever see me in the mall and you only know me from my blog, please feel free to approach me and say hello. It may catch me off-guard, but in order to make this technology a bit more personable I'll swallow my uncertainty and marvel at how we can build relationships with people we wouldn't have otherwise had an opportunity to meet!

Or if you aren't ready for that type of face to face interaction, take a smaller step: emerge from your blog lurking shadows, click the comment button below this post, and leave me a little note so I'll know you're there.

BeeBee

There's absolutely no question about it: Kate's BeeBee loves her and Kate loves her BeeBee. BeeBee means so much to both me and Kate. Her constant love, listening ear, soft shoulder to lean on, compassion, ability to make awesome sour cream and chicken enchiladas, quiet strength, and so many other traits make us infinitely blessed to have her in our lives! Yesterday afternoon I said something to BeeBee and I made the mistake of calling her by her real name. I didn't even know Kate was paying any attention to our conversation until she said with conviction: "Brenda?!? No, mom, her name is BEE-BEE."