Unsuccessful camera attempts

Yesterday the kids and I got together with a friend of mine and her 7-week old baby. When I pointed out the baby to Madeleine, she looked right at him and said, "Baby. Baby. Baby." Then last night when I gave her a baby doll and labeled it, she again said, "Baby. Baby." So today I decided I would try and get it on video, along with her ever-increasing ability to stand on her own, but she had other intentions. As soon as the camera was on, not only would she collapse to the floor from her standing position and crawl off after something, but she suddenly seemed to have no idea what a baby was. "See the baby?" I'd say, handing her the doll. She would stare down at it in silence, then throw it and crawl off in another direction. "Baby!" I'd say, handing it back to her. "A da da da da," she'd reply, quickly discarding the baby for some other toy. When I finally got her interest in the baby doll, she proved her parenting skills by first chomping on its foot, then shaking it up and down so that its head repeatedly bonked the floor, then tossed it aside. "Baby!" I would persist on saying, handing her the doll with one hand, video rolling in the other. "Ssssshit," she'd say, holding the baby doll out and showing it to me. I eventually gave up, so of course later in the day she crawled right over to the baby doll and declared, "Baby. Baby. Baby."

Speaking of unsuccessful camera attempts, I have been trying, for the last week or so, to get a good photo of Julia and Madeleine together to update the one that's hanging in our hall. I've managed to get a few so-so pictures, but none great enough to blow up as 5X7 and hang on the wall. Today while we were playing outside in the backyard, Madeleine was having such a blast in our new bouncy house that I thought I might have some success snapping a picture of the girls in there together. My attempt to get a picture of both girls smiling at the camera was about as fruitful as my earlier attempts to capture Madeleine standing and talking on video. Here are a few of the shots I got: