(not) camera shy

Having a Mama with a camera has sure gotten this Little Girl NOT camera shy.
Still, I guess it can't be helped that Kecil should eventually be 'camera aware'...
And started with her own version of 'camera face'. Siiiiggghhh.... like this one:

Or this :

And don't forget the famous peace-sign pose:

Oh dear.
Well... at least she hasn't quite heard/learned of the 'duckface' yet.
Here's Mama hoping for more natural poses in front of the camera next time.

How about you, any tips for posing in front of the camera? Or you think it's all up to the photographer to capture the best angles?

cameras...

When the sun comes out, the weather cooperates, Kecil & the Dog behaves, and the Mama is eager, it is time to whip out the camera to capture that gorgeous gorgeous light. After all, photography is all about light.

We tried some focusing exercises...

But of course, Kecil is not content with just watching Mama taking pictures.
Oh no! She too, whipped out her 'camera', and started 'practicing', bless her!

Kecil's 'camera' might just be a pretend one, made up of ... yes, you saw that right ... a used SIM card attachment. But hey, this Mama happens to believe that a little imagination goes a long way.
Besides, I believe that you are already quite well acquainted with Kecil's photography, no?
So I guess you are pretty capable of imagining the photograph she would have captured.

In the meantime, we are still hoping for more sun (and more meetings of conducive factors) for more walkies cum photo-ops.
Until then!

back to the playground

 

It's been a while since we visited this particular playground. Between the relative distance (it takes at least 15 mins walk to go there), the frequent rains, and the general preferences for walking routes... it's just not the top of our walkie destination

(Not to mention that Mama prefers to avoid the minimart across the playground just so she does not have to deal with whiny Kid begging for candy and what-nots)

Clearly Kecil enjoyed her visit to this playground after so long.
This Mama thinks we should come here more often, just to expand Kecil's motoric abilities even further.

Here's hoping for more good weather and fantastic lighting.
Good weather for us to go out for longer and earlier walkies,
Fantastic lighting for Mama to use to capture this walkies in 'film'. Haha.

Until next time!

Did you notice how this favorite dress of Kecil is getting too small very soon? Yikes! She's growing WAY too fast! Well, at least the shoes are still too big, this particular pair anyway. Can't say the same about the rest of her shoes either. Hmmmm....

Swimming with Daddy

Last week must have been a week of blue moon.
Such a rare happening, we actually had a combination of good weather and Daddy coming home really early, on a weekday!
And since Daddy decided to have a dip at the pool, we three trailed along:

Kecil: to play in the pool with Daddy
Mama: to take pics of her beautiful people in the pool
the Dog: (in her own 'words') I don't want to be left alone in the house!
So off we ALL went to the pool.

As usual, swimming with Kecil involves lots of splashing, jumping, 'fake swimming' and of course, smiles all around
Especially Kecil. She LOVES playing in the pool and would continue playing despite the cold water
Even as she protested that her fingers had shriveled like Opa/Eyang!

You see how Daddy had to 'force' Kecil out of the pool.

It was a delight watching the two of them in water. And as I looked through these pictures again, this Mama is ever so thankful for oh so many things:

• For Daddy's proximity to work/schedule that allows this kind of moments happening
• For easy access to the pool nearby
• For the camera that captured those beautiful pair of eyes, full of delight, full of joy
• For this blog that give Mama the chance to both capture and share these with you

There are times when we just need to count our blessings. Have you counted yours lately?

{this moment}

{this moment} A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. via SouleMama

aftermath....

We are very lucky to be living in an area with only limited effect/damage after the twin typhoon last week. For one, unlike the nearby local town, being on higher elevation meant that we were not affected by flooding despite the ultra-heavy rainfall during the week.
Still... the neighborhood took in its share of the typhoon's effect and some damages as well.
From the usual debris on the road, outside the house, right on to the fallen tree at the playground.

Mind you, the tree in the playground is merely one of many that fell after the typhoon.
It just happen to be the one nearest to our house. As I said before, we were VERY lucky.

Not too far from the playground, yet another tree was also uprooted, its fallen branches hanging precariously low on the stretched wire.

Umm.. the kids? Oh, I guess they are there to give you a sense of scale.

The storm season had been quite bad this year, but the point is that we are fine, we are OK, and we are very lucky. It could have been worse.
In any case, efforts have already been made to deal with various damage.
The staircase hidden by the tree above (you can see the green railings if you look very closely), for example, was already accessible even if most of the tree is still in its awkward position.

We are still not clear of the typhoon season, so we are still hoping for the best.
In the meantime, we are out to enjoy some sun and blue skies today.
And perhaps do some laundry.

How is the weather at your corner of the world these days?

Nesat & Nalgae

The Backyard after the Typhoons

It had been an interesting week last week, with two typhoons after the other
In fact, Nesat was definitely the strongest typhoon we had ever encountered in our stay here
With signal 3 alert applied to the city and its vicinity, we all hunkered down in the house (including Daddy!) listening to the wind and watching the storm wreaked its havoc.

There were some grumpy faces, as one realized there will be no school, the other no walkies, another no blogging time, yet other (not pictured) more work to make up for lost days....
But I guess it will be too much out of the usual character not to make the best use of what we got
So we spent some time at home, at times sans electricity, being cheerful as we can, enjoying each others' company.... the likes.

So, we did some creative hair-styling, take some self-photos (yes, Kecil as well!), take some Mama & Kecil photos...

Eat some instant noodles and watch some YouTube (because the cable TV was the first thing that went down as the storm hit, and when the lights started flickering, Mama deemed it more prudent to stick with noodles rather than taking chances with the electric stove and coming up with half-cooked dish)

And since Daddy was home, Kecil took the opportunity to 'get' her own uhmmm... jungle gym?
(Usually it was Mama's privilege to be such. Arr... I guess now I know why parents buy their kids stuff like jungle gym and mini playground equipment for indoor use: to avoid being used as one. Hmm...)

Mama got to take pictures of her beautiful people (yes, they are mine, all mine!!!)

We might not quite like having typhoons at our doorstep too often. But once in a while, I am sure we can deal with. Perhaps with more instant noodle and battery power (for alternative sources of sustenance, light and entertainment).
There is sun outside today, so maybe we'll stop here just so Mama and Kecil can go out to enjoy ourselves before yet another storm. The storm season is not yet over!

Wishing you good weather and fun!

friends...

Friends collage (1)

I am not too sure how true this is for other kids, but for this Mama, Kecil sure has met many friends in her short 3 years.
Some she met here, some she met on her travels.
Some became very good, close friends, some drifted after a while, and yet others become distant memories as they became separated through physical distance.
Nevertheless, Mama hopes that these friends would still be kept in this space,
To bring some smile to those who see them
To bring some beautiful memories
Through the test of time...

Friends collage (2)

Given the uncertainties of future, Kecil would probably make even more friendship with even more people. This Mama hopes so, anyway. After all, there's is always something about having friends in every port of call.
Here's to friendship and beautiful memories.

when we have no rain...

Kecil & Ami climbing the wall at the playground

There was a time not a while back, when we had a stretch of rain-less days,

And Mama kept on getting more and more photos of Kecil going for walkies,

day after day after day,

and Mama was afraid you might get sick of them,

Then came the storms, and it wouldn't stop raining.

Ugh.

So to celebrate the return of sun 

(brief as it is, given the yet another storm in the horizon, scheduled for landfall within 2 days),

we are back to outdoor/walkies photo. Yes?

Mama's cute little followers

Despite already being saddled by a happy-to-be-pushed-on-her-tricycle Kiddo, a happy-to-run-away-and-roll-in-the-mud Doggie, not to mention a gigantic DSLR, 

there are still days when Mama is crazy enough to take on yet another little girl for our walkies,

sometimes with the camera, sometimes without.

Is it really crazy many to take on solo?

Ah... well... we can always call it a practice for any future siblings for Kecil, if any.

In the meantime, Mama thinks that Kecil's interaction with her friends are definitely a good part of childhood memories that is high on the priority list to be documented.

Especially when it includes a certain cute Doggie. Ahem.

The Dog seems to be bored

We might have yet another storm coming this weekend, which means more rains, more days spent at home ....

Hopefully it would also mean more craft sessions, perhaps some indoor stories,

We hope, anyway.

In the mean time, here's wishing you a good weather at your corner of the world!

Sunday ... & Monday

Sunday rolled in last weekend without anything on the cards except for some bad weather. So Kecil settled in at home with Mama and worked on 'things',

which happened to include bathing a certain naughty, smelly dog who sneaked outside for a roll in manure:

Guilty look you said? Mama would say grumpy, for being bathed after all the effort of making herself smelled 'right'. Hummpphh!

Back to Kecil, Mama did have some ideas after watching some arts and crafts show on TV.

Just using some materials on hand:

And after plenty of painting and wrestling:

TADAH!

It's a bit simple, not to mention VERY red.

But sorry, Kiddo. We only have red paint at home. 

Yea yea, Mama should stop simply eye-ing those paints at the store and start buying them so we can put more colors other than red on our projects.

Still, Kecil was pretty happy, and since she was, Mama was happy too.

Came Monday, one of her favorite song got played on TV, so we already got some action with the guitar:

Being a pilot edition, the 'guitar' is still a little 'buggy',

which is, of course, Mama's code to say that it was broken by Tuesday. Ha!

I guess we still need to work on the construction. 

Ah well, we'll try better material and methods next time, if there is indeed a next time.

Until then!