according.to.kim

It's a wrap

One year later, my photo-a-day project is finally complete. Wow. What a year! I've heard from so many of you -- both in person and in writing -- that you've enjoyed my daily photos. Thank you SO much! I'm glad you liked them, and I loved hearing from you.

What can I say? I gained so much from this experience... an entire year in my life, my family's life, captured in pictures -- from the highs to the lows, from the interesting or exciting to the utterly mundane -- it's all there. And it's all dear to me. Your kind words and all the photos that I may not have taken otherwise (that is SO key to this project: many photos only exist now because I forced myself to photograph something, anything, every single day)... well, they almost make me want to continue. Almost.

No, it's time to wrap this one up. I need a change, and I'll enjoy my freedom from that specific daily commitment. It was very challenging some days! And time-consuming. Absolutely. But. BUT. Also very rewarding.

It's incredibly cool to be able to recall something about each and every day of an entire year. Those photos allow me to do that. I love seeing those photos in rotation on my computer screen saver and remembering all those days.

I also enjoy seeing large batches of my daily pics in chronological order. I realize you haven't had that experience on this blog, so I've uploaded the photos to Flickr. If you're interested, check out Daily Pics 2007 (there's a new link on the right sidebar too). I think it's neat to see the progression. The seasons change and my little girls grow a year older. Even our home changes a little. All in a big block of photos.

I know I said I was working on something for 2008. I still am. I'm fine-tuning my plans right now, and more importantly, taking a little break from having a specific posting regimen. Stay tuned.

Oh, and I will be posting some photos in the meantime. I just haven't had time!

***
Here's an image of all 365 photos together in chronological order (click the image to enlarge slightly). To see larger versions and my blog entries (in reverse order), open the Daily Pic category and scroll down past this image.

Daily pic: 31 Dec 07

This is it. The last one! A photo a day for one whole year! I'll have more to say about this project later.

But you won't believe this. I can hardly believe it myself. My camera inexplicably quit working two photos after this one. It just quit. Right in the middle of a timed photo, with four seconds left to go. The battery is fine and the camera is clearly on, but it won't take a picture. I have no idea. Neil will take the camera to Don's Photo this morning. Can you believe that timing though?! I had often wondered what I would do if something happened to the camera in the midst of this project. I'm glad I didn't have to find out, but I would have attempted a few more shots this morning!

P.S. Happy New Year everyone! I wish you all the best in 2008.

Daily pic: 30 Dec 07

This is our play room in the basement. No one has actually played in here for a long time though because it was a total disaster area. Neil and I have worked hard the past few days to get this room organized, as well as the adjoining room in the basement which was overflowing with items displaced from our main floor when we removed shelving in Georgia's room and had our hardwood floor refinished in June.

For the play room, we bought these chrome shelving units from Costco and put them up yesterday. That made a huge difference. It may not look like it, but I did remove quite a few things from this room. Some toys will be donated to a charitable organization and some are destined to live at the Irish dance school to entertain siblings during class time. I'm still uncertain about what to do about the box of junky little toys I collected this weekend. You know the stuff -- mostly from fast food restaurants and Kinder surprise eggs. I know they will not see the light of day in this house again, but what should I do with them? Garbage?

All three girls have really enjoyed the play room yesterday and today. They rediscovered many toys they had forgotten about. They can actually find things now, and have been fairly good about putting toys away when they're done. It helps to have a home for everything!

Unfortunately, it still feels a bit crowded in this room because it continues to serve as a storage area for infant clothing (in the left corner) and children's clothing and shoes (overflowing from the closet in the right corner). The infant clothing will go soon enough; perhaps this year...

On that note, today was a big day in that we gave almost all of our baby things (except the crib and clothing) to cousins on Neil's side who are expecting in March. It was quite a bit of stuff and its removal certainly made some much-needed space in our house. I have also sold our crib to one of my dance class mates and it will likely leave our house in January. Wow, it's almost hard to believe we've reached this milestone already. Georgia is almost two and those baby years are behind us.

Well, I'd better get to bed; I have to work tomorrow. Wish I had more days off! I wasn't finished with the basement overhaul and there were many more things I wanted to do.

Daily pic: 29 Dec 07

Georgia with her newest baby doll. She loves her babies. When I took this photo, she was singing a little song with her own words and her own tune, as she often does. This one went, "Baby bell, baby bell, baby bell, baby bell..." (She loves Babybel cheese too, which is likely the source of that combination of sounds.)

Georgia is talking so much these days. I love that cute little voice of hers! She says any and all words she hears now, like the other day she said "darn it!" immediately after Neil said it. She doesn't have long sentences yet, but very often speaks in two word phrases like: 'jammas on, carry me, open me (when she wants help opening a container), all done, very poopy.

Her very favourite thing to say right now is "uppy daisy!" and she uses it liberally. And why wouldn't she? I can't resist scooping her up when I hear her say those words! I'm sure to get a nice snuggle when I do so. Have I mentioned that Georgia is the most cuddly toddler ever?

Daily pic: 28 Dec 07

I'm very impressed with Sophia's reading! I'm excited for her too. She's enjoying her new skill very much. Today she read some instructions on the computer to Madeline and didn't have to ask for help. She was proud of herself, as she should be! (Oh yes, this is great for me too!)

A couple months ago, when Sophia really wanted to try reading English words, she would pronounce each letter with the French pronunciation and would get a bit frustrated because she knew it didn't sound right (and I had to correct her, of course). I must give her credit though for not quitting like she does sometimes when she's frustrated. She persevered and gave it a try almost every day. Then it just clicked one day (three weeks ago) and the words started to come out of her mouth much more easily. She still gets stuck on a lot of things, of course, but I think she's doing very well. When you work with someone to read English, you realize just how many things don't make sense in this language. It seemed like every time I provided a rule to Sophia, the very next word that came along that looked like it should follow that rule was an exception to the rule (I think K:) said something similar once). The book Sophia is holding in this photo is one of our favourites for her to practice reading. It's the Usborne Farmyard Tales First Word Book. I bought it several years ago and it's great to see it paying off now. Each word and sentence is related to a picture, so it gives her clues and confidence every step of the way.

P.S. Tonight, we tried playing Perfection in pairs and now Sophia loves it! Thanks for the tip K:)

Daily pic: 27 Dec 07

Madeline with her new horse, Butterscotch, and her five Webkinz pets, including the reindeer she received for Christmas (named Princess) and the brown Arabian she bought today with Christmas money (named Cinnamon). When you press Butterscotch's ear, she whinnies, moves her head up and down, and plays The Lone Ranger theme song. We've heard it a lot over the past few days! (Sophia was determined to be in the photo too. Her reindeer is named Mimi, and her new penguin, purchased today, is named Snowy.)

P.S. Re: Georgia - I don't know if she was teething. I thought she had all of her molars already, but I could be wrong. Anyway, she slept through the night last night. I hope tonight is the same! Also, we received a letter today from U of S Cardiology. Georgia has an appointment with a pediatric cardiologist on January 17. She hasn't had a heart check up since last January, and I hope it'll continue to be an annual appointment 'cause that would mean she's doing well and they have no concerns. I'm not too worried; she seems to be doing very well! (for background, see Diagnosis & follow-up)

P.P.S. I did bake a cake for Neil today. I even made icing. The girls were disappointed we didn't have one yesterday.

Daily pic: 26 Dec 07

It was Neil's birthday today and he received... Battleship! It was no surprise to Neil though. We had actually purchased this game for Sophia because she enjoys playing Dogbeard's Bathtub Battles on Webkinz, but we knew that when she saw the dragonfly in our storage room a few weeks ago, she also saw Battleship. We had to change things up. I might have saved this game for her birthday next month, but while I was wrapping Christmas gifts, I decided to give it to Neil for his birthday instead. After all, he really wanted it too! He and Sophia enjoyed playing a couple games of Battleship today. It's a good game, and very high tech compared to the one we had as children.

I'm sorry to say that Neil didn't get a birthday cake today. I've come down with another cold and was feeling rather crappy today.* I didn't feel up to baking a cake. Maybe tomorrow. We ordered in food for supper too. Neil had spent the afternoon watching Canada play in the World Junior tournament and then making tamales -- a somewhat labour-intensive Mexican dish -- for the first time. (We'll eat them tomorrow.) When it was time to make supper, neither of us had the desire to get crackin' in the kitchen. In fact, all I could manage to do at that time was lay down for a nap.

*Georgia fussing and keeping me awake for half the night did not help at all! I have no idea what was wrong with her. She never does that, and she seemed a little under the weather today, but that's all.

P.S. Sophia lost another tooth tonight. The one next to her top left incisor. There's no way there's room for a permanent tooth in that spot. The two new incisors were already buckling slightly from lack of space. I wonder if the orthodontist will decide to remove some of her teeth fairly early. She'll see the orthodontist for the third time this spring. When she was five, he said they may start intervening at age seven. We'll see what that entails.

P.P.S. I added a few words to my 24 Dec 2007 post.

Daily pic: 25 Dec 07

Our gift opening started at 7:16 a.m. on Christmas morning. For much of December, the girls had been waking up closer to 6:00 a.m., so we were happy they slept so late on Christmas day! Also, they fell asleep on the way home from their cousins' house the night before (an hour-long drive), so we didn't have the challenge of trying to get excited children to go to sleep. That was nice! I'm sure Sophia would've stayed awake for a long long time if we'd been at home on Christmas eve.

In this photo, the girls are opening their gifts from Santa (wish I would've asked them all to look up for a second!): an inchworm ride-on toy for Georgia, a Barbie styling head for Madeline, and the game of Perfection for Sophia.

Sophia had really wanted a remote-control dragonfly from Santa, but since both she and Santa knew that we had already bought one (Sophia accidentally saw it in our basement while looking for something else; later reported to us by Laurel who learned about the discovery from Bronwyn), she received that from us. Madeline had asked Santa for "Butterscotch", the huge Fur-Real pony, but she received a smaller (and considerably less expensive) version from us instead. Georgia didn't ask for anything of course. They were all quite happy and didn't seem to care if their gift came from Santa or from us. The girls received many wonderful gifts from other family members as well. Many thanks!

Daily pic: 24 Dec 07

We spent Christmas Eve with my family in Yellow Grass -- my parents, my brother and his family (who made dinner and hosted our celebration), and my grandma, two aunts, and one cousin from Weyburn. Our girls had a lot of fun with their cousins, Ethan, Jordyn, and Kacy, who are all close to them in age (five, two, and 15 months apart, respectively). In this picture, Kacy was singing "Five little cookies" for everyone before the kids opened their gifts (except, as you can see, Georgia couldn't wait to tear into hers). Kacy's performance was very cute! It was a great day.

P.S. (Added Dec 26) Before going to my brother's house in the afternoon, my parents had all six of their grandchildren over to their house for some Christmas activities and a snack. The kids really enjoyed it. It also gave Sophia the opportunity to give a Christmas gift to my mom's two cats. When we were shopping one day, Sophia decided she'd rather spend her money on the cats than on anything for herself, so she bought some cat toys for them. Funny.

It was so nice to see how well all the kids get along. It's a shame we hadn't seen them for five months -- since we were all in South Dakota in July. And it's not like we live in different provinces; we're only one hour apart! My sister-in-law, Robyn, suggested we should try to get together once a month from now on. I agree. It will no doubt be challenging to do that, but certainly worthwhile.

Daily pic: 23 Dec 07

Sophia was giving Georgia piggy-back rides this evening. Lots of giggles! At least Sophia is about twice Georgia's size and I know she's strong enough. I'm more concerned when I see Madeline carrying Georgia (which does happen from time to time) because she's only about ten pounds heavier!

Daily pic: 22 Dec 07

We had our first family Christmas gathering on Saturday. Laurel and Bronwyn were leaving for Texas this morning, so we went to their house yesterday to eat supper together and exchange gifts. For supper, Neil picked up food at Smokin' Okies BBQ. Nice and easy! Afterwards we had chocolate fondue using the fondue pot and chocolate I received in the huge chocolate basket I won in October. For dippers, we used things we had on hand -- toasted pecans, rolled vanilla cream wafers (from my recent gift basket), ginger thins, mandarin oranges, and marshmallows. It was all good!

Daily pic: 21 Dec 07

Just having a little fun with my camera and Christmas lights.

P.S. I'm so excited to have the next nine days off!

Daily pic: 20 Dec 07

Today was kind of like an early Christmas! (Other than being at work and all that.) Neil received a $100 Future Shop gift card that he won by voting in the online CFL All-Star Balloting. We received reimbursements for 18 months of health care expenses that I finally submitted a couple weeks ago. (I'm bad for putting off stuff like that.) It was quite a lot of moula from more than 20 visits to the chiropractor, our new eye glasses, etc. I am SO thankful for the benefits we receive through my work. I also received this gift basket from one of my dealers. Nice, huh? ("One of my dealers" -- that still doesn't sound right to me! For clarification, I'm a Dealer Rep and "dealer" is short for SaskTel Authorized Dealer.) Here, too, is a glimpse of where I spend most of my work time -- on the computer and on the phone.

I had my camera at work today because Neil and I went to see Sophia's Christmas program at the senior citizens' home in the early afternoon. It was wonderful! I'm so glad we went. Grades one, three, and seven performed about five songs together, with a bit of narration by grade seven students between the songs. All songs were accompanied by piano, and some of the older students played flute and violin at various times. I think the school must have a great music teacher and they must have practiced a lot because the songs were excellent! I was very impressed.

This evening, I went to the advanced adult Irish dance class, just to practice, as they had invited the beginners to join them over the holidays (since we aren't having our own classes over the break). Very glad I went. I couldn't remember steps I learned on Saturday, so now they're more stuck in my brain -- I hope! Plus, it was great to get moving after those two huge lunches in a row. I always enjoy watching the advanced dancers as well.

Daily pic: 19 Dec 07

Isn't this striking? It's dragon fruit. We like trying new things, but hadn't tried this before. Sophia saw it on Daniel Cook and a classmate of hers took one to school for lunch, so she asked for it and was very happy when Neil told her he'd bought one today. Sophia really liked it and says it's "like a big kiwi". I don't see the resemblance in flavour, but I liked it too (but then, what do I know? this site also compares it to kiwi). The flavour is very subtle, with just a hint of sweetness and no tartness at all. It was easy to scoop out the flesh with a spoon.

Daily pic: 18 Dec 07

Seven Sleeps Until Christmas by Stuart Adams. (A shamelessly easy thing to photograph today.) Neil's sister, Shauna, gave us this book a few years ago and we haven't read it yet. We didn't have it with us in Texas last year, and before that, I think the girls were a bit too young for this type of book. But not now. I look forward to reading it to Sophia and Madeline this year -- starting tonight, of course! The forward begins: "Greetings from the Santa Archives. Welcome to a special collection of letters written by Santa Claus, himself... Together, I believe they capture the caring, sharing, giving values which can be so easily overlooked at Christmas."

P.S. I'm tired! I can't wait until I'm finished work on Friday and then I have a whole week off! I have so much to do before Christmas though... I'd better get to bed; I feel like I need a little extra sleep tonight.

Daily pic: 17 Dec 07

Watching Christmas videos and eating (or, in Georgia's case, just peeling) Christmas oranges. How Christmassy is that?

Daily pic: 16 Dec 07

Sherlock prefers to stay outside almost the entire day when it's nice out (i.e., not bitterly cold). When it was snowing this morning, he stayed here, curled up under our huge spruce tree. He will often make a little nest for himself in the snow or dirt. At 11.5 years, Sherlock isn't very active anymore. I just recalled, he became our dog 11 years ago yesterday.

Daily pic: 15 Dec 07

Frost on the Mugo Pine in front of our house. It was quite foggy out today, resulting in a lovely coat of frost on everything. The temperature was nice and mild too.

Madeline and I went to our last dance classes of the year this morning. I'm enjoying my class very much! I've already learned the Reel and Light Jig (though I'm far far far from perfecting them), and today started learning the Single Jig (which, surprisingly, bears more resemblance to the Reel than the Light Jig). After my class, the students from my class, those from the more advanced adult class, and our teachers met at Bushwakker for lunch. Great food! I enjoyed getting to know my teacher and some of the other ladies a little better. I learned that my teacher's parents both grew up in Ireland, but met here in Saskatchewan after immigrating. Just thought that was interesting.

Daily pic: 14 Dec 07

Madeline on her way to preschool this morning. I was home at that time because I was off work today. I spent the day gathering baby stuff for Neil's cousin (looking forward to freeing up some space in our house!) and wrapping Christmas presents. This afternoon, while Sophia was at school, Neil took Madeline shopping, and Georgia slept for an unusually long time -- three hours! I was able to wrap all but one gift in that time, and then when Neil and Madeline got home, I quickly wrapped the gifts she bought for everyone at Dollarama (except the one for me; Neil wrapped that one). Earlier this month, Sophia went shopping at a "Children's Christmas Market" where she bought gifts (including gift wrapping) for all of us for 25 cents each. This is the first year Sophia and Madeline are giving gifts that they selected and purchased.

Daily pic: 12 Dec 07

Every year, I get an ornament for each of the girls. These were irresistible for 2007. I love how they're all "Mom's Favorite"!