Little giraffe lost

We're all stuck at home today. It's raining and we're feeling sick. Sick of feeling sick actually.

Edit: After an afternoon in the park as things were better and we met Jennifer, he's now back with a 104.2F so it'll be a long night for him. The Dr on call was very helpful.

I donned the monkey and giraffe suits on the boys as they're nice and cosy and then took them into my bedroom where I used to always photograph the boys in the mornings before mornings meant rushing out the door, to capture the sweetness of the giraffe and the monkey, interchanging roles, together holding hands, or a gentle hug and kiss. A perfect staged shoot. Except that sweetness turned into a pillow fight, the first I might add between a giraffe and a monkey and one little giraffe lost.

I love his little freckle on his chin, one of only two and the first to appear.

Whilst Callum sleeps, I use the time to bring out the homemade cards I made but left at Mum and Dad's til retrieved on this trip. One side shows the word, the other the object, all in categories of sea animals, wild animals, colours, fruit and Reuben does a beautiful job reading about 100 of the words I present him with, then excitedly finding the right subject pouch in which to put them in. I can't help but wonder if we should do a 4 day week at school, maybe with longer days, so I can focus on these areas of development with Reu which really I don't think he's getting practice on at school til he's a little older. We know where Reu's challenges lie, there are 38 identified for CHARGE, but this boy's a great lover of letters and now reading.

Dedicated to Steph & Simon, one of Reuben's godmothers, happily married 14 years today.

Also dedicated to our dear friend Alfie who's celebrating his 4th birthday today. In Mum Sarah's fashion, I think we'll do some baking today. I have no skill in this area but I'll dedicate the flapjacks to you and virtually share them across the miles...


PS Great with the 5Dii I can switch to HD video, one of the reasons I bought it to try to capture a similar mood in my moving images as stills, and different to what I'm be able to achieve with my Flips which I love for their handiness, so I'll post a quick fun peek at the pillow fight later.

Techy: 50/1.4 at 1.8. Quickly edited with my homemade Trilby action in Aperture.


PPS I took the images and made one of my storybooks for the boys. Sharing it here...