facebook challenges

I am rewarding rgonzalez photography referrals by giving away referral points. To encourage traffic to my facebook page I am hosting photo question challenges worth 1-5 referral points (worth $1-5 towards session costs). The winner of the challenge gets the points and the person who referred them also gets the points. Todays challenge was "Lucy gave herself a food facial tonight... what is her beauty secret?"

getting geared up

People mention to me that its Friday... I feel the excitement for others as I know its break from the work monotony that consumes them thru out the week. I'm lucky that I even know what day it is. Andy has got my old PDA charged up from when I worked as a paramedic. Since being a photographer requires that you actually know what day it is... I've surrounded myself with reminders, calenders, books... email notifications... Im doing my best to stay on top of it.

My mom called me this afternoon and told me that Lucy must be walking by baby Saturdays...which is tomorrow... I sent Lucy the memo... and shes walking now. WEIRD!! Max is a little speed demon on his bicycle... and I think that Katy at the ripe old age of 3 is PMSing. Good grief...can we talk more about the drama?!?! On a lighter note...here is a picture of our little princess in her favorite outfit EVER. Any doubt what her favorite color is??

Anyway... I've got get back to my milk and brownie! Goodnight!

"Dont yell at me, Im just a kid"

(this is a photo I took yesterday of my close friends sweet girls)

So its been a tough couple of days... I think a compilation of cabin fever, no structure and colds. My patience has been questionable. I try not yell... once that approach is put in motion...it seems to all landslide. Its like... they have ear plugs in... I could be standing right in front of them saying there names and they completely ignore me. ArG... Katy called me out when she told me "Mommy, don't yell at me, Im just a kid"... wow that was way bigger than her years. Definatly put me in check for the rest of the day.


We went to story time at the library today with the girls..Andy and Max had a boys day. I think it was due... Max tends to act out if he goes to long without some intense one on one... thinking of it... I tend to act out too when I don't get enough one one one :). At the library today Lucy took her first couple of steps....YAH LUCY!!!

Thanks for the imput!

Thanks for the input everyone... it seems that most mama's here are going or have gone thru something similar.

Its really a rather gross day today... I have a laundry list of things that need to get done, to include finding the motivation to get this stuff done. I'm letting the kids vegetate in front of the TV while I do... well... absolutely nothing. Hey, I'm entitled every now and then :)

I made Jam for the first time this week... Fresh picked strawberries, some frozen blueberries and black berries... organic raw sugar... and lemon juice. No pectin in this recipe so it was a little loose... but soooooo delicious. We put it on our pancakes yesterday instead of syrup... mmm mmm mm.

Max and Katy have been spending a lot of time playing with Lucy these days. Its really cute and they are very good with her. Katy got VERY jealous yesterday when Max told her that he wanted to play with Lucy without her :( ... didn't see this one coming.

I guess I should probably get something productive done now.

come see some of my recent projects at http://www.rgonzalezphotos.com/ I would love your feedback and suggestions.

Please don't take my boob away!!!

What do you mean the boob fairy isn't real???, originally uploaded by RGonzalezPHOTOGRAPHY.

So I spoke with a lactation consulatant on the phone yesterday... she suggested a few things to help... lansinoh cream... I was using already... a prescription nipple ointment... pumping at a lesser strength suction so that I didn't bleed or cause more damage... (this was to help get my left side milk production back up). Or because she is such an excited nurser... start on the Left side... until she calms down, them move over to the damaged side now that she isn't so agressive. I've been doing the last option + loading up on lansinoh ointment. And so far...so good!! No bleeding at all today!

I haven't even concidered quitting. I know certianly its an option at this age... but we both still love it and I would wan't to because of "readiness" not because of this circumstance or another roadblock.

Anyway, thank you so much for your links and suggestions!!!!!

Monday already?? Midnight marathon and the $10,000 baby

We got home around 9pm from Sunday dinner at Nana and Papa's house tonight. Dad made split pea and ham soup from last weeks Easter Ham. Yum Yum! We had a great time... the kids are starting to feel like themselves again. GiGi, took a look at I thought was a crochet disaster... ended up being not too far off. I only have to rip out about 20 rows. My sister Ali informed me that parenting magazine is doing a cover baby contest and the winner gets $10,000.00 big ones. Hmmmm... takes pictures of my sweet babies...maybe make some cashola?? DUUUUUH! So I think I will be snapping a few off in the next month or so... perhaps you can help me pick the best ones to send.

Its 12:30 and as I'm typing Lucy is crawling up a bald patch on the playroom carpet. Apparently the cat nap on the ride home was enough fuel for Lucy's midnight marathon. She's been crawling for a few months now but only today has she realized the full potential of mischief she can get into. Look out world! Shes in 4 wheel drive... full time... all the time. Its fun, but wow... I forgot how exhausting this phase can be. ....wait... whats that??? Lucy you're ready for bed... GREAT! Off I go too... tata for now! HUGS!

rough week baby

rough week baby, originally uploaded by RGonzalezPHOTOGRAPHY.

We are slowly coming out of the sick woods...I know my past few entries have been a bit whiny...sorry... Max seemed to get hit the hardest of everyone. We spent the last night in the ER for suspicion of meningitis. Hes had high fevers, vomiting, severe headache and Sunday was the first of "sore neck" complaints. I took him in around 10pm ... it was the earliest I could get him in...Andy was held over at work until that time. They gave him an IV, drew blood, xrayed his chest... sedated him and gave him a spinal tap... this poor kid has been rung thru the ringer. He's acting a bit traumatized today...very skittish of being touched...and really jumpy if he doesn't know your going to touch him. His back is very sore from the spinal... no kidding... have you ever seen the size of the needle they use for that procedure...oh my goodness.

Anyway, I just wanted to up date you on why its been so quiet in crunchy monkey land. I have a few videos I need to upload to YouTube for Adventures in Baby sign language...hopefully I will get to those tomorrow.

Cheers to a quick recovery for us 5 crazy's. Thanks! HUGS!

Oh yeah, BTW not meningitis...turns out to just be an evil EVIL virus...and nasty ear infection.

What goes down must come up!

Okay, so...not a fun week. Never quite expierenced this much ill chaos in my house before. It started Last week with Lucy's stomach bug...then Tuesday night with Andy spiking a fever and feeling some bronchitis coming on. Then Wed night it hit me...vomiting...the whole 9 yards. So Andy and I were completely laid out Thursday ... who took care of the kids??? They are alive and well, so it seems we managed some how. Then Lucy started back up again, Katy then yesterday and Today Max. Wowza...not fun. I'm feeling better, but I feel like I have hang over.

On an up note...I may have scored my first official photography gig. A girlfriend of mine does print design and needs someone to do some product photography for a client. I am excited about the opportunity. She also discussed with me doing some firework photography and then later on down the road possibly photographing an assisted living facility. I never even thought about web photos or commercial photography as an option...but I totally think I can do it. Now only if I can figure out how to build an inexpensive DIY light box... Drea...Jenn... anyone..Ideas??

Sick today

Its been a down time these last few days... I've been hit with a double wammy...a lovely breast infection and a stomach virus. I am feeling a bit better tonight. The breast infection came from a boobie boo-boo.. cracks and dryness from a recent infection of thrush that Lucy has. Ever had that?? Its like nursing razor blades. I bite down on her paci and after the first 5-10 seconds the worst is over. Any suggestions other than using her thrush meds on me...what I can do to help this heal faster??

sleep sweet Lucy

sleep sweet Lucy, originally uploaded by bundleboo.

Lucy was watching "crack for baby brain" or "baby einstein" last night... I think her ears may still be bothering her. I came in and she was asleep half off of the couch. To my credit I do put a body pillow on the floor next to the couch. The exposure was about 2.5 seconds to get the picture bright enough. How sweet is this tho... (Mon, the camera that I use is a canon rebel xsi...love love love it!!!)

(almost)A Week in Review

So Im back, I cannot believe what a disaster my house was... yes I made myself a mommy todo list 2 pages long...and vowed that I would behave until a reasonable amount of it was done. I even put a sign on my office door to myself that said "STOP go back and work on your list" ...lol. As with many multiple child households laundry was the biggest tackle. I HATE LAUNDRY!!! But its in my "job description" as a stay at home mommy....whatever that is. Mom, I know what you're thinking... and yes my clothing situation was out of control again. Not for hoarding issues, but because all children right now are in between sizes. So we have double the clothes. This situation is coming to a close...(clothes...hahahaha get it??...I know im dumb) I tried to increase the px size so you can see the image better...didn't turn out great but here is a before and after shot of the girls room. The laundry baskets were all clean clothes that needed to be put away.

This was my sweet helper for the afternoon...

Then of course I had to remedy the dirty laundry situation and while I was at it...clean the laundry room. What a difference huh??

I still have quite a bit to do...a mommy's job is never truely done...but at least my family doesn't have to revert to nudism to get there point acrossed that something needed to happen soon.

So what happened while I was on blog vacation?? Lucy got her 4 top teeth in finally. Thank goodness!! Now onto the next Im sure.

Katy has really found an interest in sign language. She has a really REALLY uncanny knack of remembering signs after only being told once. I have to usually reference with her If I forget. I tried to do a video tonight but Katy was in a really foul mood. ICK...she is gracing 3's very much like her big brother did. Who ever came up with terrible twos must have been a spectator. 3's are FAR worse!

And Max, well....

Just kidding, hes been great! I really see a difference in his overall attitude. I think he just decided to quit and pass the baton to Katy. Thanks buddy!

Adventures in Baby Signing week 7

Yes, Yes I know...Im a paci pusher! And they are both in disposibles... Katy is almost done night training... and Lucy goes thru one diaper a day... so I saw less hassle with disposibles...and felt it wasn't that great of an impact on the enviornment.... we do still use cloth on occasion.

Adventures in Baby Sign language week 6

paci fairy...I let them do what??

So, tonight I had a little talk with Katy about the paci fairy... I told her that one day when she decides that she is ready, we can mail her binky's to the paci fairy so that babies in the world who don't have paci's can use hers. In return the paci fairy will leave her a gift overnight to thank her. The catch...she won't be able to use her paci's anymore. She seemed on board...but wanted to make sure that I wasn't mailing off her paci's now because "mommy, I still need it!". In addition to the paci...she has...drum roll please... pink, green, fuzzy pink, brown (blankets) and dinosaur. Her bedtime routine usually consists of me scouring the house for her wardrobe of comfort blankets...lol. (can you tell my roburger is a princess...her bedroom is blinding me with pink.)

(lol...it looks like katy is stuck to the wall)

Yep, you guessed it...my kids are jumping on the furniture. Usually I take the cushions off of the couch and let them jump on the floor. Nope, I had a crazy bone tonight and let them go bananas!... I know, what was I thinking right?

Max has about had it with the camera in his face... He was mad at me for not pushing him on the swing.

105.3 fever!!! Adventures in babysigning week 3

So it just doesn't stop here with the illness... UGH... I officially had my first "freak out, hyper mommy panic attack". Two nights ago Lucy woke up as usual about 2:30am...I went into her bedroom blurry eyed to pick her up and bring her into my room for her late night snack. When I came into her room she was panting and whining. When I picked her up her body felt like it was on fire. I immediately knew something about this fever was different. Over the years my lips have become an accurate fever gauge...I can usually get it right on or very close by just kissing their little heads. This time my mommy senses went banana's because I have never felt a baby that hot before. I got a nasty scared pit in my stomach and tried to focus on what to do for her but the the "OMG, OMG, OMG, OMG!" ringing in my head was drowning out all rationale. I had to wake up Andy to get him to bring me back down to the planet... Andy took her from me and got a temp... 105.3... WOAH... I was right to freak out a little. Needless to say, she went to the ER at 3am in the morning. I stayed home with Max and Katy as I was too worked up to drive. The ER docs gave her some Tylenol on top of the Motrin I gave her at home and that brought the fever down... the diagnosis... double ear infection. Strange I had just taken her to the peds that morning for a fever follow up and she said her ears looks better than before....is it possible that her ears got that much worse since 10am??? They changed her antibiotics to something stronger and we are trying to stay ahead of the fever with Motrin... right now she is coming down from a 103.2..poor thing...hopefully this gets better soon.

As far as today's signing... I will post a video later when Lucy is feeling up to it. Off to the library :)

goofing off...first words...bathtime camera fun

Yesterday was 50 degrees...today its snowing again. Can someone fix the thermostat here? Everyone is taking a nap right now... really it doesn't happen that often. I think that because of our routines being thrown off (if you asked me what my routine was I really couldn't tell you) because of illness and Max's first sleepover...they are all a little worn out. Ha...nevermind...I spoke too soon!

Lucy started saying DaDa yesterday as well...I know, I know ... its just a noise right now...but she seems really proud of herself for saying it. I think this poor child is going to resent me for being the most documented child on the planet when she gets older. I was just as gaga for taking pictures of the other two as babies as well... the time simply goes by too fast. I was emailing back and forth with a friend from Germany... (Its looking like shes going to join the blogging network soon!!)...she mentioned that she has taken over 10,000 pics of her children since they were babies. They are not much older than mine! Wowza! I thought I had the shutter bug.

Anyway, It just occurred to me that I haven't eaten anything today and its 1pm already...yes I have fed my kids. If it were up to them they would live off of PB&J...what can't your kids get enough of??

baby signing week 2...sleepover...croup

Happy Friday everyone!! Although as a stay at home mommy Friday isn't any different that the rest of the week...I'm sure most of you other stay at home mommies Friday means that Hubby is home for the weekend. I'm posting this weeks Adventures in Baby sign language. Lucy has croup so it was a really "clingy" and quick video. Poor thing...our bedroom looks like a hospital bedroom with humidifier, nebulizer, bulb syringe, tissues... I mentioned the steroids that they have her on in my video. Has anyone ever had to give there children steroids for anything? In my experience its made my kids crazy. Katy had an extreme behavior reaction making her bang her head on the floor and walls screaming for up to 3 hours... Lucy had her first dose yesterday and was awake til midnight all amped up.

Anyway, Max had his first sleepover last night...believe it or not it went really well. No tantrums or sassing from either 4 year old. They had a ton of fun... its nice to see Max developing close relationships. Its really neat to see how he interacts with other children in such a "big kid" way. here are the kids the night before and eating pancakes this morning.

Potty Pause...Katy ART

So as I've mentioned before we went ...I should say Lucy went thru a "potty pause" where she has been too busy to tell me that she needs to go and has had quite a few...misses... particularly pee misses. I had her in diapers and I don't think that really helped the quest to keep her diaper free...kind of defeats the purpose of having a diaper free baby if she is in diapers...lol. So we have replaced looking for "Cues" for now...with frequent pee breaks... This was Lucy in the laundry basket on her potty...it was great for keeping her still long enough to go while I put away laundry. I've worked so hard to get her this far along...as long as she is willing to cooperate one way or another I'm not going to give up.

Okay, so this is totally the best Kid art ever!!! I can't believe that she just turned three and is producing something that actually looks familiar...my child must be a GENIUS!!! lol...I know...shut up.

sink bath...man rules???

So today my mom sent me the funniest email ever.... titled "man rules" totally hit the nail on the head as far as what I know of men. Here it goes... they are all labeled one for a reason :)

1. Men are NOT mind readers.

1. Learn to work the toilet seat.
You're a big girl. If it's up, put it down.
We need it up, you need it down.
You don't hear us complaining about you leaving it down.

1. Sunday sports It's like the full moon
Or the changing of the tides.
Let it be.

1. Crying is blackmail.

1. Ask for what you want.
Let us be clear on this one:
Subtle hints do not work!
Strong hints do not work!
Obvious hints do not work!
Just say it!

1. Yes and No are perfectly acceptable answers to almost every question.

1. Come to us with a problem only if you want help solving it. That's what we do.
Sympathy is what your girlfriends are for.

1. Anything we said 6 months ago is inadmissible in an argument.
In fact, all comments become Null and void after 7 Days.

1. If you think you're fat, you probably are.
Don't ask us.

1. If something we said can be interpreted two ways and one of the ways makes you sad or angry, we meant the other one

1. You can2 0r either ask us to do something
Or tell us how you want it done.
Not both.
If you already know best how to do it, just do it yourself.

1. Whenever possible, Please say whatever you have to say during commercials..

1. Christopher Columbus did NOT need directions and neither do we.

1. ALL men see in only 16 colors, like Windows default settings.
Peach, for example, is a fruit, not A color. Pumpkin is also a fruit. We have no idea what mauve is.

1. If it itches, it will be scratched.
We do that.

1. If we ask what is wrong and you say 'nothing,' We will act like nothings wrong.
We know you are lying, but it is just not worth the hassle.

1. If you ask a question you don't want an answer to, Expect an answer you don't want to hear.

1. When we have to go somewhere, absolutely anything you wear is fine... Really .

1. Don't ask us what we're thinking about unless you are prepared to discuss such topics as Rugby League Or Cricket.

1. You have enough clothes.

1. You have too many shoes.

1. I am in shape. Round IS a shape!

1. Thank you for reading this.
Yes, I know, I have to sleep on the couch tonight;

But did you know men really don't mind that? It's like camping.

Pass this to as many men as you can
To give them a laugh.

Pass this to as many women as you can To give them a bigger laugh !!

lol...I love it!!!! By the way Lucy was so cute in the sink tonight...she wont fit in there much longer.

Happy New Year!!!...Modesty

Happy new year everyone!!! My new years resolution this year is try and balance my hobbies...I seem to be jumping from one interest to another to another... I think its because I get bored quickly working on one thing...or reading from the same book...so I switch it up often...it drives people around me crazy ...lol. As you can see this weeks adventure is photography...although I have jumped into it with both feet...I feel that it will hang around for a while. (I take pictures every day for this blog...and it really feeds my cravings for creativity)

Last night I brought in the new year with close friends. The kids were with me...and awake until 1am in the morning. A little out of sorts today but it was fun! Andy stayed home by himself, he wasn't feeling well or up to staying up late...I don't blame him, he has to get up at 4:30 in the morning to work everyday.

I had a discussion with one of my friends last night about her job as a 4th grade teacher. It scares the crap out of me to think that Max will be in public school next year. Grade school children just aren't as innocent as they were when I was that age. The topics of conversation and vulgar sexual gestures towards one another AND the teachers is just outrageous. She made a very good point in mentioning that the children that were "sheltered" from nudity, private talk and were given the short end of the stick when it came to raw answers to curious questions...these children were the ones seeming to be the most vulgar and disgusting when it came to "family life" conversations with peers and vulgar antics.


I have questioned myself recently on how to define modesty for my children AND enable them with body confidence and awareness. I think that if we enforce a don't show, don't talk about, don't touch rule when it comes to body etiquite... I fear that they will think that naked means "dirty" as a result... naked means "sex" (later on down the road)... I want the two things to be TOTALLY seperate as far as they are concerned. Anyway, do you get where Im coming from? I want my kids to go to grade school and hear these comments and see these gestures and think....SO WHAT! No big deal... you're not so cool...and have good body awareness and confidence to not fall into the vularness of it all. (I could go on and on)


I am thinking of coming up with a fun "hobby" photograpy name...something cute I can stamp on the pictures to mark them as my own. Any ideas of a name...or design? More pics here from today.