Now that Seb's getting older, I'm trying to do more with him so we're not just sitting at home and taking the same walks all the time.  Since my mom is off in the summer, we've been trying to do something once a week.  Sometimes it's simple - we started with a picnic, one week it was Costco.  I wanted to do something with more of a photo opp last week, so we took advantage of the free carousel at the Great Park.  It's close to our house, and since it's free, if he hated it, I wouldn't feel like I wasted money.

I think that picture about sums up his feeling towards the carousel.  Oh, and that was before we even got on!  He was a good boy though.  He tried it and it wasn't until our last ride (which was close to his nap time) where he brought out the water works.  It was a great activity/opportunity for lots of photos though.  :)

Family Shot!

Eventually I'd love to take him to Pretend City, but I think we'll have to wait a few years.  I'm thinking the Aquarium of the Pacific would be fun too.  His day care has a fish tank and I know he likes to check that out.  Since we're so close, sometime soon, probably after the summer crowds die down and the fall weather arrives, we'll hit up Disneyland.  We will probably wait until late November or early December for that one.

Perhaps an Added Bonus?

When I created my blog yesterday I decided my posts should include photos.  I hope it will give my posts a visual personality to accompany my typing exercises writing.  I had a vision of a photo collage with text, so I found the pictures I wanted to use, and if desktop icons could get dusty, I fired up a very dusty Adobe Photoshop Elements to get to work.

I acquired Elements to edit all the fantastic images I planned to shoot on my Sony DSLR camera, a camera that I barely know how to use on the automatic setting.  I took a Saturday course on my camera, about 3 weeks before Sebastian was born.  I did not practice a.single.thing that I learned. For Christmas, I bought Elements because I wanted an easy way to crop and resize my pictures, and I figured I may some day figure out the even fancier editing aspects.  At the time Sebastian was 4 months and since we were in the process of finding a neurosurgeon, practice and learn, I did not.  I still really only know how to crop and resize.

So, perhaps in addition to typing, I'll become slightly more proficient in Elements.  Maybe even with my camera, but let's not get too ambitious here.  I was feeling motivated after creating yesterday's image so I stuck with the same theme for today.  Given more time, I would have done a little better with the signs, maybe a printed or more bold font.  I would not take pictures before nap time, and, well, with a baby, you take what you can get as far as poses, but I could have also looked to do a background with a little more personality.  That said, I love how this spur of the moment photo shoot turned out, let's hope Grandma loved it too.  Happy Birthday Grandma A!

Hello, Nice to Meet You!

The saying, "You are stronger than you think you are," should be my mantra for the last 12 months.  In August 2011 Sebastian was born, a surprise at 5 weeks early. In November 2011 we discovered I had a tumor in my spinal cord.  In March 2012 I had an extremely risky, but successful surgery to remove the tumor. 

We're approaching August 2012 and Sebastian's first birthday...and I'm still working towards my recovery.  Six of my fingers are numb but working (all but my thumbs and index fingers) and a part of me wanted to find a creative way to help retrain my fingers to get used to typing.  Incidentally, this is quite difficult when you can't feel which keys said fingers are striking.  :P

(I even considered some sort of typing program, remember Mavis Beacon the Typing Tutor, but figured a blog would be more rewarding.)

I'm also hoping to create a place to document some of my life since I can't believe everything that's happened to me in the last 12 months.  Who knows, maybe I'll be good at keeping up with this and it will be an outlet to share 'what's new' with friends and family.  *fingers crossed*

I recently joined the world of Instagram and Twitter and, aside from the basics, I'm baffled by hash tags, and I'm pretty sure I only have 1 person following my Tweets.  I'm going big by adding blogging, so let's see how much I can take on!  Blogging doesn't involve hash tags, does it???

In the event I somehow figured out how to share this with anyone, welcome!  If I do my part, I hope you'll come back and follow along as I try to find my voice here and work on my road to retraining my numb fingers.