10/52 - 14/52

"A portrait of my little boy, once a week, every week, in 2014."

I've been a bit pre-occupied in the past few weeks. Mainly with work, a bit with crafting and generally with life...but I've still been snapping...

From the top:

10/52 - 'Choo Choo'. He's slightly obsessed. The tracks come out, they go away again, they come out and go away AGAIN. 'Oh no, track broken' (when he steps on it), 'Oh no, Zebra on the line' (always the zebra, the cheetah and lion don't get a look in). 'Oh no, CRASH!'. There's always some kind of emergency/imminent peril in his stories.

11/52 - A quiet moment at the garden centre whilst people watching with his bestie

12/52 - Owen bypassed all of the age appropriate park structures and went straight for the biggest. Then spent the next half an hour going up and down the enormous slide. He's turning into a bit of an adrenaline junky! 

13/52 - 'Look mummy' (he says as he drags me across the garden) 'Truck in da bush!!!' ... with rising intonation as if 'how on earth did that get there?!?!'. He'd been told all afternoon to be careful of the plants.

14/52 - He was having a rough day. After falling onto his mouth at the weekend, lots of howling and a trip to A&E, a week day follow up visit to the dentist and the start of a cold on this particular day had pretty much finished him off. This was about as much enthusiasm as he could muster for home made popcorn.

I finally have a proper camera again - hurrah! So hopefully I'll get to have some practice with it for this project again soon!

Joining in with Jodi's 52 Project on Practising Simplicity

9/52

"A portrait of my little boy, once a week, every week, in 2014."

Owen: Enjoying his babychino. 

He is such a joyful little chap. I felt this picture captured the twinkle in his eye well.  He was filled with such delight at even the thought of sitting with mummy to have drinks in a cafe. It obviously felt like a treat to both of us. :-)

I found it nigh on impossible to choose between the nine slight variations of this photo. I was very tempted to post a whole string of them but figured that it wouldn't really be in the spirit of the project!

Joining in with Jodi's 52 Project

8/ 52

 

"A portrait of my little boy, once a week, every week, in 2014."

This was taken at the train station (by Mr T this week). We were waiting to saying goodbye to daddy and watching trains as we waited. An especially fast train came through the station. 

This is Owen caught mid "WOW!!!"

Unfortunately I couldn't edit myself out of this picture in any way that didn't end up warping the picture of O, so sadly, I'm in this picture too!

Joining in with Jodi's 52 Project

  

7/52

"A portrait of my little boy, once a week, every week, in 2014."

Bit late this week as we were dealing with 2nd birthday madness Friday - Monday so I've barely had time to think about anything else. Also (I shamefacedly say) I'm cheating on two fronts:

1. This was actually taken at the very start of this week (Monday morning). To be honest up until Monday lunchtime it all felt like last week anyway. Well that's my story anyway and I'm sticking to it!

2. Its an instagram pic which I had promised myself NOT to use. Doh! 

Regardless I love this picture both in its composition and because its soooo Owen. He was out for a birthday woodland walk with his friends and decided to have a lie down. There was no apparent reason for the lie down. Maybe he was listening to the woodpecker... or watching for squirrels... or literally just having a rest...who knows...

Joining in with the 52 project on practising simplicity

6/52

 

"A portrait of my little boy, once a week, every week, in 2014."

'Peepo!'

Its all been about play this week. We have had lots of 'hide and seek' and lots of story telling with people and vehicles all getting stick in the mud ... that and singing...all the time! 

Still without my proper camera but the camera on my phone is bearing up reasonably well so far.

Joining in with the 52 Project on Practicing Simplicity 

 

5/52

 

"A portrait of my little boy, once a week, every week, in 2014."

Love, love, love him! Thats all!

Joining in with the 52 Project on Practicing Simplicity 

 

4/52

"A portrait of my little boy, once a week, every week, in 2014."

Killing two birds with one stone this week as I'm joining in with the 52 Project on Practicing Simplicity and Handmade Monday on Handmade Harbour.

This photo (please excuse the detritis from the junk room spare room) was taken in the middle of a rainy, lazy Sunday afternoon. I was sorting some washing, when Owen got involved and all of a sudden we were playing shop through the clothes airer. He was very entertained by the whole process but I felt I could make the experience a bit more exciting, so I grabbed a few bits of felt i had and not too long later we had a jaunty looking shop front (with added post box ... just for fun). 

Better photo of the shop. He LOVED it! So simple but so effective.

Sadly again using camera phone pictures (and even a borrowed one - the portrait).

3/52

"A portrait of my little boy, once a week, every week, in 2014."

Very late posting this but this was the only picture I could have posted for last week. It perfectly sums up the amount of giggles and laughter that we had that week. 

This picture was taken in a local cafe. We were both squeezed in at a little table for children under the stairs (sounds  bit Harry Potter buts its actually quite cute and cosy!). Owen couldn't have been happier. There were vehicles to play with, hot buttered teacake to munch through and a babychino made just for him by the lovely staff. I was able to sit back, enjoy my coffee and enjoy watching his playful little self pottering happily. This was him grinning at the ladys lunching across the way from us. Its currently his 'go to' grin. Makes me smile every time! So him! Admittedly its a bit fuzzy, but that's one of the things I love.

Sadly its going to be all phone pictures for the time being. My Nikon has given up the ghost and is being sent off for repair :-( So typical - I had just started using it again. 

Joining in with The 52 Project on Practising Simplicity

2/52

"A portrait of my son, once a week, every week in 2014"

Owen enjoying a well earned rest at the country park after digging up at least half of its mole hills!

So I managed to keep my promise to myself to pull out my digital SLR and get to grips withsome of my light issues. The light out in the woods was gorgeous a bit problematic  - alternately lots of light then lots of shadows. I'm really proud of this one as its totally unedited and its captured a rare moment of Owen staying still with a natural smile. At the moment we ususally get a screwed up 'cheese' face. Entertaining as it is I've been desperate to get a natural smile from him!

Joining in with the 52 Project on Practicing Simplicity

1/52

I came across many blogs last year who were taking part in the 52 Project over on Practising Simplicity. I only became aware of it half way through the year and was sad that I had missed the start of it, so this year I am happy to say that I'll be taking part. 

Jodi quotes the writer Gretchen Rubin on her blog saying this about parenthood: “The days are long, but the years are short.” I feel that keenly at the moment. Life with a toddler is full of joy but not easy. The tiredness can seem crippling but with Owen growing and changing at a rate of knots I look forward to having the reminder to be mindful and present in the time I spend with him (as opposed to using his playtime to finish a load of washing or something else horrifically mundane) and to bottle a little of the time we spend with each other. Cursed with an awful memory I hope that the 52 project will act as a bit of a diary to how he has changed over the year.

Of course, like pretty much any other parent with a camera on their phone, I seem to take a million and one photos of the little one on a daily basis. One of the reasons I love the idea of this project though is because I'm looking forward to the process of choosing just one picture that defines the week, be it one that captures a big, small, nervous, exuberant or other moment. Inevitably a lot of the photos will be taken with my phone. Its almost a reflex action now to reach for it and snap away. I'm going to keep my SLR closer to hand though to see if I can teach myself a bit more about portraits and light. I've been meaning to for years ..so why not now! 

Owen absorbed in construction work with diggers from Christmas of varying sizes. Its a very serious business!