goodnight fluffy!

About a year ago, Andy started getting into stuffed animals. He would play with them during the day but never slept with an animal or doll. But then one night he wanted one. One grew into two and two into three and now we have 10. (I wonder if we will have to add one more when he turns 11 next month?) I have to say goodnight to them all, in order. We start with Fluffy. He is a cheap dollar store dog he got from one of his bus drivers. One of the ears fell off but I don't sew. Then there is Kenny. He is a dog we got from Build-a-Bear. Kenny barks and Andy covers his ears but I still have to make him bark before I go on to Cat. That's short for Cat in the Hat. Another one Build-a-Bear. Cat is quiet. We like Cat. In Cat's lap are Thing 1 and Thing 2. No noise from those two delinquents. Next comes Bird, Big Bird to those who are not on friendly terms. Again from Build-a-Bear. He has four random phrases. Three of them are OK but when he says "Let's Play!" I have to tell him it's time for sleep. That makes Andy giggle which is always important. On to Felix. He is a sea turtle we got from the zoo. I do not recall how he got his name. Then we add George and Harlan. They sit in Kenny's lap. Yes, they are both Curious George monkeys but we can't have 2 Georges. I think Ryan came up with Harlan's name. Finally, there is Boo. Remember her from Monster's Inc? She doesn't say much except for "Kitty" and "Mike Wisowski." Actually, I have to make her "talk" in a baby voice. Andy hasn't asked for that in a while.

After all that, I have to give Andy kisses. Ten of them since he is 10 years old.

Goodnight, sleep tight, I love you.

Turn off the light when you get sleepy.

Stay in bed until 6 o'clock.

See you on Thursday!

Whew! I am tired and ready for bed now.

shutter speed 1/13 @ f3.2

ISO 100 ~ 27 mm

PP crop, hard light @ 40%

owl

Who knew these guys could be so popular in the scrapbooking world?! Kind of goofy if you ask me. This was taken last month at the zoo, the only place I can find any animal unless you count the kids in the neighborhood.

shutter speed 1/25 @ f11

ISO 100 ~ 128 mm

pp: cropped, intensified colors

Regarding yesterday's post. I was a little embarrassed by all the fuss. Gail died in 2001 and Duffy died in 2006. Years apart and years ago. Seems so matter of fact to me, I wasn't looking for sympathy. Thank you for all of the nice comments.

duffy

Animals! This week's theme is animals! We don't have any animals. We had a dog but he died almost 2 years ago. The boys do NOT want another pet. Every now and then, I wonder where he is when I come home. He used to come to the door and wiggle his little cropped tail so hard that his butt wiggled. My DH used to call him "wiggle butt." He was a good dog. He loved to go to the cottage as that is where he was born. (This photo was taken at the cottage in 2002.) He was the youngest of 3 but ended up being the biggest. He was a large Brittany.

After Gail died (my DH), he started barking a lot. And he got frightened of fireworks and thunderstorms. He used to shake and pant and run around the house looking for a safe place. He used to stay close to the cottage until he got older. Both Gail and Duffy died of the same cancer. Common in dogs and rare in humans. Weird.

shutter speed 1/160 @ f 2.8

ISO 80 ~ 5.44 mm

cropped & color adjusted

road thoughts

Yesterday Ryan was willing to pose. I knew he wouldn't be today so I had to sneak up on him. He was looking at his atlas, memorizing more facts about US roads.

I figured out the gradient mask which is how you blend photos. I also screened the textured and reduced opacity to 40%. Once I knew how to do the gradient mask again, I redid the photo from yesterday. It was in Scott Kelby's book, The Photoshop CS2 Book for Digital Photographers but the same lesson was not repeated in the CS3 version. And I had given away my CS2 version to a friend when I upgraded to CS3. I guess I didn't use it enough to have it memorized.

shutter speed 1/250 @ 3.5

+.3 EV ~ ISO 100 ~ 54mm

thoughtful (edited photo)

I got a new lens today so I had to try it out. It is much brighter which is good since I hate flash. I had Andy stand against is awful dirty wall which is dire need of a paint job. So I decided to work with the dirt and tried to grunge it up. I still need to work on textures and layers. This isn't exactly what I was going for. Maybe it's the bright red jammies that throws of the deep thinking look. But did you notice that Andy got a hair cut last night?

shutter speed 1/400 @ f 6.3

ISO 800 ~ 51 mm

CS3 Pioneer Woman's Hard Light Trick, added texture

have a ball

Years ago when when the boys were first diagnosed with autism, they went to speech therapy. One of the things they did was play with a therapy ball. I don't remember exactly what they did, but my boys loved them. I purchased a bunch of them in a range of sizes. We had them all blown up and there were all over the house. Eventually, Andy would take out the plugs and let the air out. I got tired of filling them back up and let them dwindle down to three, to two, to one. They didn't seem to miss them.

Present day, the boys like to use my laptop which sits on the coffee table. Yes, they have their own with internet access but isn't a laptop just cooler? They sit in a wood chair. But they can't sit still. I remembered that the therapy balls are good for that. They can move their lower body and keep wiggling while their mind is free to concentrate on what's happening above the table. I blew up one ball then the other boy wanted one of his own. Sigh. Luckily, I found 2 plugs so they each got their own. You see here that Andy chose the big blue one which is too large for the coffee table but is the right size for his desk. Ryan chose a yellow peanut shape which is the right size and the peanut shape can be straddled for more stability. Andy is still removing the plugs and letting air out then putting the plug back. At least he is not chewing them anymore.

shutter speed 1/10 @f 5.1

ISO 800 ~ 31 mm

cropped to remove the mess that is his room

beans in blue bowl

Nothing new or exciting here. Just a nice blue bowl full of starburst jellybeans. Who was it that posted about them recently? I just had to get my own. Who knew there are now several varieties including sour? I mixed a bag of sour in with 2 bags or original. Fun to get that pucker up flavor without expecting it. I knew I wanted a photo before I ate them all. My boys don't like them. Weird kids!

shutter speed 1/125 @ f 5.3

ISO 100 ~ 36 mm

Itty Bitty Actions/Color WOW

gotcha!

Don't you love those accidents when you weren't even trying and your got the shot? No editing required.

Ryan hadn't worn his for several weeks but I didn't know it was because he didn't like the hood. He never mentioned a thing. Andy broke the zipper on his jacket so we had to replace it. New jackets arrived yesterday. I wanted a pic since I liked the bright colors. Of course Ryan wouldn't cooperated. He kept ducking behind me. So I positioned the camera behind my head and clicked. This is what I got. It says it all.

shutter speed 1/160 @ f5.6

ISO 100 ~ 42mm

sooc

Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night...

... will keep this dedicated boy off of his bike. Isn't that why raincoats where made? Even with the wind howling, he still had to ride. Silly kid. Rewind to last summer when it starting sprinkling while the boys were swimming. They didn't like getting their heads wet (from the rain) and would dive under the water to escape. Oh they entertain me.

shutter speed 1/100 @ f8.0

ISO 100 ~ 37mm

CS3 ~ Itty Bitty Actions/Urban Intensity

feet in the morning

On a normal day, Andy would wear socks and tennis shoes to school where as Ryan will only wear socks if the temperature is under 60 degrees.. It's been getting warm so Andy decided to wear shorts and sandals. Ryan likes to be contrary and decided to wear pants & socks. In the middle is Hank, my dad. He is wearing the same style of shoes he has had for the past 20 years. One day he will wear brown, the next day he will wear black. Hmm... anyone see a connection?

shutter speed 1/250 @ f4.0

ISO 100 ~ 40mm

CS2 played with colors and added a vignette

hose pot

Heck, I don't know what else to call it. It's where I keep the garden hose. These week's theme is cropping! Yep, I cropped it wonky. I don't normally do angles. I feel like the pot is going to tip over and break.

shutter speed 1/80 @ f5.6
32mm ~ 400 ISO
CS3 Itty Bitty Actions/Urban Intensity

Thanks for the comments on the storyboard yesterday. I went simple and called it noisy boy. I also fixed the border.

noisy boy

Andy got this voice changer for Christmas. He loves to make noise and I encourage him. It helps that most of the noise he makes is not discordant and I usually tune him out. We had a cold spell this last week and I was almost too chilly to rode bikes. (I know, 55 doesn't sound cold but it is for us Floridians with thin blood, it was darn ride freezing!) Andy was the only was about and I made the suggestion he get his voice changer. That was a huge success and he talked and made noise around the neighborhood. He talks to close so you end up with a lot of feedback and can hardly understand what he is saying. I think he might have been repeating various speeches from Disney/Pixar movies.

Today was warmer and he was back to riding his bike then remembered his voice changer and got that. He stood on the bike ramp for a stage. He looked like some kind of bike cop trying to keep the crowd under control.

I think all my creativity was used up trying to make this storyboard. Then as I am posting this I realize it is white and my blog is white the the edges are blurred. I'll fix that when I can think of a good title for this. Anyone got a good suggestion for a title?

zephyr park

I took a play day. OK, not really but I had to get some service done on my car. Since I was up in Dade City, I thought about taking some photos. I remembered my camera but then didn't feel like taking any photos. After lunch, I went looking for a park. My GPS system took me to a county park that was less than interesting, empty playing fields. Then to a park that is closed. So I went to the city park which I have seen many times from my car. I was quite surprised by the amount of activity going on. What I saw from my car was just a small part and rather boring. There is a walk around the lake, a playground with a merry go round (didn't they get rid of those years ago?), lots of daring squirrels and water fowl.

I got some good pics of the squirrel but he was only interacting with a nut he found. Later on, a guy walked by and tempted the squirrel. I got some pics but they aren't very good. I was hoping for some pics of birds in flight but now realize they would have been crap because I didn't use my tripod.

There was a band practicing in the park. Some sort of celtic group with bagpipes and drums. I did take some photos but they aren't very interesting. So to sum it up, the interactive photos are boring but the interesting photos are not interactive. Oh well. I like the leading lines of the horizontal branch in the pic above. That's a Live Oak and they do sometimes grow along the ground.

shutter speed 1/125 @ f8.0
40 mm ~ ISO 100
+ .3 exposure
PP B&W conversion reduced opacity to 60%

what nerds do for play

Just don't tell them it is homework. I got these manipulatives to help Andy with his homework. I didn't even know what manipulatives were let alone being to pronounce the word because it's not really a word but some "new math" term. Anyway, Ryan thought these were cool and then proceeded to guide Andy through an hour or so of problems. (Yes, Ryan is the younger one.) The problem is that the little "ones" are small and pop easily in the mouth. Soon I found these critters all over the house and only a few left in the box. And of course you cannot buy just the "ones" but have the buy the whole set again. We stopped using it. Which then just outs me in that this photo is not from today. But I am still working on reorganizing my photos in Lightroom. I thought I had over 22,000 but have whittled it down to under 8,000 once I got rid of all the duplicates, triplicates and quadlicates (OK, I know it's not a word.) that iPhoto made. I still a few hundred to figure out dates for and made a couple hundred to find originals. What a mess!

potato head halloween party

How interactive is this! Ryan still plays with his Mr Potato Heads. Not everyday but enough. He made these up and said that they are Halloween costumes.

shutter speed 1/160 @ f 4.0

74 mm ~ ISO 100

sooc

cooperation

It's not often that we see our kids cooperating without being threatened to do so. But this makes me so happy. They got the ramp from me on Christmas Eve. They want it out each day when they ride their bikes. I told them they had to get it out. And they do. Though Ryan usually disappears before it's time to put it away, he does help Andy get it out each day.

shutter speed 1/160 @ f4.0

40 mm ~ ISO 100

sharing a secret

It looks like they are sharing a secret. Or maybe thinking of ways to get in trouble. But most likely they are just moving along at the same place and time and I happened to capture it. What you need to realize is that this photo was taken in 2002 when they did not interact with each other or many other people. My boys have autism and although they are high functioning and improving every month, they still tend to parallel play. So getting photos of them interacting or even looking like they are is something rare. I love this photo because it looks like 2 brothers sharing a thought.

Photo was taken with my first digital camera, I think it was 3.2 mp.
shutter speed 1/320 @ f4.8

12.82 mm ~ ISO 80
Itty Bitty Actions/Vintage & Crack

nintendo ds

For me, the DS means don't sleep. I play way to many rounds of klondike solitaire(hey my average is 49%!) or Tetris (I can beat it in Catch mode.) For Ryan, DS means Don't Speak (to me) because I am playing too hard to notice anything you say. It also means Don't Share. Even if I am doing something else you may NOT use my DS. And also Don't Shoot! (I don't care that you want to take of photo of all 3 DS', I can't let you take mine for a minute!!)

For Andy, DS means Darling Son who will share with mommy. (Just don't ask for my iPod.)

This is as interactive as my boys got today.

shutter speed 1/13 @ f5.3

35mm ~ ISO 100
Itty Bitty Actions/Old Chrome

gable

One more shape for the week. (Seems I can start on theme but 7 days is too long for me of little attention span.)

scrubby boy

shutter speed 1/80 @f 5.6

42mm ~ ISO 100

Another one from our trail walk. In the background is saw palmetto. It is scrub and grows to about 6' in height. They burn it every so often to clear it out.

Saw Palmetto is helpful for those with enlarged prostate. Didn't know that!