Simeon/Simian

Neat

Ok here's what you do. Next time you have a bonfire, grab your camera. Set the shutter speed really high so that only the highlights of the flames get through and none of the ambient light. Then take pictures in continuous shoot mode so you get, like, 300 pictures in two minutes. You need that many because most will look like nothing except dark fire. Weed through them, though, and you'll find some seriously cool shapes, like these:

The upper half of this one looks like a slightly evil face: man with large mustache wearing a fedora (right half of face in shadow).


And here we have (in the upper left) a beast with ram's horns and long sombre humanoid face. Could be related to this guy.


This is Cosette from the Les Mis poster.


Here you can see a man - probably an early French explorer - looking sideways (to your right) and slightly back. He's wearing a large cloak and a strange hat.


This is among my favourites. It is a full-length view of a woman walking to the right, carrying a bundle of some kind. Her face is completely in shadow, but she looks determined.

Side profile of a viking head with horned helmet. Looking up and to the right.
This one looks like nothing (maybe a surreal seashell) but I love how solid it seems.

Block Party

Learns a new trick every day...

Walk on By

Enjoying his birthday present:)


And, for something unrelated - we forgot to post about Halloween! Simeon was a giraffe. In the morning we went to our mommy & me reading time where a lot of other animals were in attendance, including 3 lions, a bear and dog. That night we stuck around the house for a while passing out candy and then headed over to our friend's place. Simeon helped greet trick or treaters after performing his concerto...
then rejoined the herd. Unfortunately, his very uncool mom made him go to bed before they could reach the plains.
Sigh. Way to go mom.

Birthday boy

Simeon is one year old! November 8th was the big day and it was pretty low key, we sang to him when he woke up and gave him his present. The real hullabaloo was to take place Sunday night. I had to give him a little help in blowing out the candle, but he had no problem figuring things out from there. He got to have cake AND ice cream - his first real taste of sugar. His cousins were on hand to help out with the passing out (and opening) of the gifts...and they were great at explaining what birthdays are. I'm not sure he took it all in, but they gave it their best shot anyway.This past year has gone by so quickly. When I see babies now it's hard to remember that little bundle that we held in our arms with the fuzzy shock of hair. I can't believe all the changes that he's gone through already; first word, crawling, solid foods and the first time when he reaches out to be held only by you - but before I get too teary Simeon wanted to say: Thanks Grammie & Grampy for hosting a great party.

reflect

Nerf guns are fun.

It gets a bit shaky because I was laughing so hard myself!
PS- this was just after Halloween in case you're wondering why mini chocolate bars are strewn all over the floor.

44th President

Sean and I were very excited to see Barack Obama win the election on Tuesday. We stayed up until midnight watching the news - yes, Sean "the old man" Carroll voluntarily stayed up past ten. :) {I'm going to be in trouble when he reads this post lol}
What was really interesting to me was to hear the reactions from the black community the next day. Person after person (of all ages) was saying "I never thought I'd see the day that a black man was elected president" or "Now I can tell my kids they can be whatever they want to be and know it's true". It was incredible to me that in this day and age there is a whole people group who have felt excluded from success because of their race. I'm sure that I sound very naive, and I probably am - because honestly I can't think of an instance where someone's been discriminated against. I heard the N-word once and had I been a little older and a little bolder I would've said something instead of being shocked into silence. Racism is a problem in Canada, I'm not denying that but it's just not something that I've seen firsthand. In short, I congratulate the U.S. on this landmark in their history and I also want to say that John McCain had a wonderful concession speech and took back a lot of dignity that had been sacrificed during the last few weeks of his campaign.
That's my shout out to the USA.
Back to Simeon. :)

House sitting

We spent a week at a friend's house taking care of things and chasing Simeon around the place. He learned to crawl thanks to the hardwood floors and is getting around faster than ever.Simeon also got out the tools to do a few repairs around the house. He's currently trying to get into the local union.
But even after all that he's still raring to go (daddy doesn't have as much energy).
We also took full advantage of the backyard and Simeon had a great time.