.454 the creativity project :: storytelling

i grew up in a household where words were worth more than gold (both parents were writers), thus reading became everyone's favorite past time by default. thus, for this month's theme, i chose to dig through my figurative photo crates and pull out pictures of everything surrounding my favorite art form (surprise: not photography) and search for all things book related...

i do the same thing (and told him so)...when something is so greatly written, i have to write it down.

it will either serve as inspiration...or a really great quote.

please visit one of my favorite 'photography mothers', singwa lim, at buckeroomama to see her take on this month's theme. 

there is magic and wonder in the eyes of her children and she does a beautiful job at capturing it in their daily lives. 

afterwards, please join us and share your own 'storytelling' themed images on the the creativity project facebook page :)

.452 the creativity project :: umbrellas

nope. i've got nothing. 

let me explain: i went out for some street canvassing and it seemed no one was carrying an umbrella. heck, i wasn't even carrying one and i was carrying a camera. 

then, i thought, i'll just wait until the next day it rains. but, as life goes (or luck will have it) "something came up" and you guessed it: i missed my moment.

then, i thought, i'll just take a picture with my toddler and one of her umbrellas and welp, as three year old moods will have it, she wasn't having it, thus, this was all i got before tantrums and emergency nap times kicked in. 

so, here you have it. experimental lighting and a dora umbrella folks. 

*eek*

(i promise to do better next month)

let's keep our (slightly smaller this month but still) awesome circle going by visiting the eclectic dan beeler and his dynamic blog full of nature and photojournalism, jersey journal by DTB photography.

afterwards, please join us and share your own 'umbrella or rain' themed images on the the creativity project facebook page :)

.446 kiddie land

proof, she has a room. 

granted, it's like a playroom with a bed that's never slept in, but still.

(*note: except for naps. she'll take naps in her own room, even sleep a part of the night in there...just not the entire night)

 

  

made by my niece when toots was first born.

a distant cousin illustrated this book. 

a cousin who my mother supports every year at the CCP's book fair.

sierra (first born girl grand) has a signed copy and now so does, toots (last born girl grand).

eeek! i almost have a three year old...

.433 toddler life

the first year of toots life was rocky. her mommy's brain was sick and then she was healing. her mommy's faith was shook and then she was praying. her mommy's father was sick and then and she was grieving...(a deep, seemingly endless, still springs up out of nowhere, type of grief).

so, on days when her 'terrible two' takes a turn for the worst, i remember that she's dealt with major emotional change since the day she was born and simply expresses it in all the beautifully draining ways that toddlers can do: tantrums. stubborn defiance. coloring on walls or floor boards or windows that her mommy sometimes colors on, too. 

she's my child in every sense i could imagine. creative, emotional, dramatically expressive. and on days like these past few ones have been, i take stock of all that makes her a ball of goodness in my eyes, because sometimes she's a just tiny stranger with a tornado in place of her emotions.

but, she knows her birthday, her abc's and all the letters to her name. knows, too, that a diamond is a rhombas and happily declares it when spotted on stain-glass windows or on sides of milk crates stacked high against concrete storefronts. she counts to twenty effortlessly and can now recite a tiny poem in sign language. she loves books and libraries and telling me bedtime stories rich with dragons and princesses and flying frogs on flying carpets. she'll choose an apple over candy and drinks water before apple juice all on her very own accord. 

i am extremely proud...and in awe...and overwhelmed...and in love...and, sometimes, drained, but, always grateful, that i get to be the mother to this little girl. with eyes like my father and the spirit of her grands, i am learning that all of me lives in the very core of who this sweet, amazingly beautiful soul is.

  

she told me to draw a picture of her. in her eyes, this was a masterpiece.

she drew me, too, but erased it immediately as she was inspired to draw a spider, instead. 

(pouting because it was too cold, and too late, for the playground)