May 2009 Photos

~Zusha almost 5~Gedalya 3~Adel 6-7 months~

Do I miss these curls?


No way no how! I have pictures, and pictures don't need brushing.


I keep trying to catch a photo of the dandelion seeds as they are blown away, but apparently am not succeeding. We're all having fun in the process, though.


Gedalya found himself a treasure- a big rock!


Fresh baby burrito.


My cool kid.









Zusha was playing on the jungle gym, and his tzitzis were hanging down between the slats. Of course, Gedalya wouldn't pass up such a fun opportunity!


Juuuump!




Someone on Imamother suggested to use sugar water to help curl peyos. I tried it because, well, nothing else works! (They also suggested pineapple juice, but I'm not going there.) So I gave it a try. It's healthier than spraying him up with chemicals every day, although I haven't used hair spray or gel in over a year. So I tried he sugar water, and it actually held his straight hair together in some semblance of a curl.

Party Time

Zusha's friend Zusi turned five and his mother invited us to their house for a little party.

The boys went off to play in the toy room.


Adel also went off to play. Her circle of friends is not limited to reflected ones.
Dovid is about a month older than her, and they always played quite nicely.

They played quite nicely, until... Dovid became mobile. {Cue suspenseful music.}

"Mama, there is someone attacking me."


"Erm... I think he's trying to eat me."


"He IS trying to eat me!"


"I've been eaten!"


While Dovid was eating Adel, the big boys were eating ice cream.


Notice the color difference in the photos above? I was going to edit them, but then decided to use them as a photo lesson instead.
The light in Zusi's kitchen is quite yellow. Which is why the first photo I took there is, well, yellow. Then I adjusted the white balance. On most cameras there is an option to set your white balance to sunny, cloudy, mixed sunshine with thunderstorms...

Oh, wait. That's today's weather forecast.

As I was saying, you can set your camera to sunny setting, cloudy, and a few types indoor lighting. Each type of light gives a different tint. Some are more yellow, some are more blue. Midday light is pure white. Early morning and late afternoon light is yellowish orange. Midnight light is nonexistent. When it's cloudy, the lighting becomes steely grey. Indoor lamps can run the full spectrum.
When you change the setting, you are telling your camera to compensate the tint by adding another color. If the light is too yellow, the camera adds blue to neutralize it and make it appear white in the photo. To a blue light, it adds yellow/orange.

Some cameras have custom white balance. You choose this option and a small square appears in the center of the screen. You direct the camera at something purely white (make sure the square in the center is filled with the white) and press a designated button. Your pictures will then be true to color.

When I came into their house, I had my camera set for the outdoors (white light). The yellow light made this picture really yellow.


I adjusted the white balance and took this photo. (It's not a great one- the lighting was weak so it came out dark. But at least the colors are true.)


Now my camera was adding a lot of blue to the photos to neutralize the yellow. So when we moved into the sunny toy room and I took a photo there, this is what happened:

It continued to add blue when I didn't need it any longer. So I adjusted the white balance again and took the two photos I posted first, at the top of this post.

Always Learning

Today was a happy day for Adibaby.


Why? Well, she got to learn and experience new things.

First, we learned how to count till two.
One tooth, two teeth.


Next Adi socialized and made a new friend.


Then Adi counted her friend's teeth.
Two teeth plus two teeth equals four teeth!


All that counting, adding and socializing made Adi kinda tired.
Our last lesson was in afternoon naps.

From the Other End of the World

My mother in law was in India for business for several months. She came back about three weeks ago. We were all so excited to see her again!

First we drove to cheider to pick up Zusha.



Then we went all together for pizza

And then to the park.


My mother in law got the kids some toys. The boys got little taxis like those in India. Adel got a little pull toy with two ducks. It's made of wood and plant dyes. She also got this rattle, made from the same materials.


Then it was time for the in laws to leave. We stayed on in the park a little longer.

Bye bye!!

Scientific Outline of My Thoughts

• Shavuos was great! Gedalya ate the eiruv on the first day, but otherwise it was nice.
• Zusha's tooth is barely holding on. I told him it can fall out when he's home, in cheider, or outside with me. I warned him that there might be a little blood. He looked at me in terror. I comforted him by saying that it won't hurt, and will be just a little blood from the tooth and not from a booboo. That night, he ran out of bed in a panic, "I have blood!" (He didn't and I sent him back to bed.) Then later, "My tooth fell out!!" (It didn't and I sent him back to bed.)
• It won't get warmer than 80 degrees for at least two weeks. That's great, because I will be able to use all the long sleeved shirts for the kids that we don't normally have much of a chance to use because of the sudden weather change that usually takes place.
• I've been trying to teach Adel to wave when I say "Hi" for about a week. Yesterday she actually opened and closed her fingers slowly during a "Hi" session. She still needs to concentrate very hard to do it, but pretty soon she should be waving!
• Cheider is almost over, and I'm really excited for the summer!
• I'm giving up on headbands for Adibaby. They all leave a mark on her poor little kepele.
• I put Gedalya in underwear and let him figure things out on his own. He is fully trained when he's not wearing anything and fully untrained when he wears something on his tushie. The first few days there were only misses. Then we had some hits, but still mostly misses. Now he's doing it right most of the time.
• At the park I heard one woman say to another about her baby, "He's so big and round. He looks just like you!" That didn't sound exactly right.
• Gedalya just "got" bike pedaling. He is riding around the center wall of our house nonstop. Zusha parroted him and kinda got it as well. The last time we went out with the bike was September and neither of the boys were able to ride it. I foresee lots of bike days this summer. The only issue is how to get to the park with the bike and two kids, one baby and a stroller. They aren't so good on it as to be able to ride to the park. Maybe on Sundays Hillel can watch Adel and I'll go with the boys, the bike and no stroller.
• Today on the way home I had Adel in the wrap, and the boys were stacked up in the stroller. A frum man, in his fifties or so, looked at Adel, then at the stroller and said, "Oh, my, there are several more in there!"