Can I be your friend?

Make an on-line slideshow at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Three ballons

Today we had a celebration. It would have been number 39. Orange, ginkgo tree, balloons and cupcakes.

Hoy tuvimos una celebracion. Hubiera sido numero 39. Naranja, ginko, globos y pasteles.

Batman

My son is totally obsessed with Batman. He could have batman everything if it were his own choice. I am contributing to his obsession by making him a batman quilt. He has designed the front, but I take care of the back. I have advanced a lot in it but then stopped for a while (maybe the photography is taking over??). I hope I can get back to finishing it before it is too hot to bear it!

This is the embroidery I am going to put in the back...his own drawing and my embroidery. I love the drawing, he has made it so many times that I believe he could make it with his eyes closed...I had to immortalize it!

Mi hijo esta obsesionado con Batman. Podria tener todo con batman si fuera su propia decision. Yo estoy contribuyendo a su obsesion haciendole una colcha de Batman. El disenho la parte de alante, pero yo me ocupo de la de atras. He avanzado mucho pero de pronto me pare (sera la fotografia que me tiene ocupada??). Espero volver a ponerme y acabarla antes de que haga demasiado calor para usarla!.

Este es el bordaod que le voy a poner por detras...su propio dibujo y mi bordado. Me encanta este dibujo, lo ha hecho tantas veces que creo que lo podria dibujar con los ojos cerrados...tenia que inmortalizarlo!!

Night pictures

Now experimenting in a dark black pitch night. Unbelievable!

Ahora experimentando en una noche oscurisima. Increible!

Crazy weeks

This week is ending very fast and crazy. Today we spent the day at the zoo with Luca's school. It was a wonderful day and the kid loved the animals. It is fun to see how much more involved and interested they are at this age. I remember the time I took Luca to the zoo when he wasn't yet 3 and the most interesting thing for him to do was to jump from some rocks down to the floor, he couldn't care less about the animals. Now he was describing all about sting rays and elephants and zebras and giraffes. Lots of fun.

Esta semana esta acabando muy rapidamente y es una locura. Hoy me pase el dia en el zoologico con el cole de Luca. Fue un dia precioso y los ninhos disfrutaron de los animales. Que bueno ver como se involucran mucho mas y estan mas interesados en esta edad. Me acuerdo cuando lleve a Luca al zoologico cuando aun no tenia ni 3 anhos y lo mas interesante para el era saltar de una piedra al suelo, no le interesaban lo mas minimo los animales. Ahora estuvo describiendo todo sobre las rayas y los elefantes y las zebras y las girafas. Que divertido.

I am taking two photography classes this week. And on top of that, I have a million things more to do and I hope to get through this week in one piece! for now I would just like to share the photos I have been taking, the things I have been learning with Jackie at L'atelier...amazing what one can learn in such a short period of time! It is true, there is a before and after L'atelier!

Estoy haciendo dos cursos de fotografia esta semana. Y encima, tengo un millon de cosas mas que hacer y espero pasar la semana de una pieza! por ahora os ensenho las fotos que he tomado en estos dias, las cosas que he aprendido con Jackie en L'atelier...increible lo que uno puede aprender en tan poco tiempo! Es verdad, hay un antes y un despues tras L'atelier!

Swimming

Luca is swimming. He loves going to swimming lesson. He likes it better than when he was younger. The same happened with basketball and soccer. I think as he gets older he is enjoying sports a bit more. Of course, I took my camera to the pool and while I watched him, I also took pictures of him and played around with my camera and its manual and, not that I quite know what I am doing, but hopefully, I am learning some.

Luca esta nadando. Le encantan las clases de natacion. Le gusta mas que cuando era mas pequenho. Lo mismo le paso con baloncesto y futbol. Creo que segun crece disfruta mas de los deportes. Por supuesto, me lleve mi camara a la piscina y mientras le veia, tambien tomaba fotos de el y jugaba con mi camara y con el manual, y no es que sepa lo que estoy haciendo, pero esperemos que aprenda algo poco a poco.

I captured a tiny jump accidentally in this picture. I like how it came out.

Le hice una foto pegando un saltito de casualidad. Me gusta como quedo.

I also got the conference about Luca's achievements this week. He is doing great, progressing nicely, he is at the level where he should be academically, and pretty much all of his goals have been reached. In terms of language he made a very nice progress and more is expected shortly, but the only thing that I was told that I didn't expect was that he has a little bit more trouble than most kids learning articulation.

Tambien tuve la reunion sobre los avances de Luca con las profesoras esta semana. Va muy bien, avanzando muy bien, esta al nivel que deberia estar academicamente, y casi todos sus metas han sido conseguidas. En cuanto al lenguaje ha progresado muy bien y esperamos que sea mayor aun en poco tiempo, pero lo unico que me dijeron que no me esperaba era que tiene mas problema de lo normal para aprender a articular.

Apparently he has something, that makes him have some trouble getting long words or long sentences pronounced properly. He has trouble getting his brain to make the motor part of the mouth to work how it should. He used to mumble and not move his lips at all. And as the therapists were telling me all of this, it hit me, I had the same thing. When I was little I was like that, I had trouble pronouncing things, I thought I was being lazy...I even had low muscle tone all over my body and needed therapy and lots of exercise to grow out of it. And I did. It seems like Luca only has this problem in his mouth, related to speech (although that might also be the reason why he can't shoot the ball in basketball and why he hasn't been that crazy about sports). It will take him longer than others, it will take more work on his part and on mine, but we will overcome this one too.

Aparentemente tiene algo, que hace le cueste pronunciar las palabras largas adecuadamente. Tiene problemas con que su cerebro sea capaz de hacer que la parte motora de la boca funcione adecuadamente. Solia hablar sin mover los labios. Y mientras las logopedas me contaban todo esto, me di cuenta, que yo tenia lo mismo. Cuando yo era pequenha, tenia problema pronunciando las cosas, pensaba que era perezosa...incluso tenia flacidez muscular en todo mi cuerpo y necesitaba terapia y mucho ejercicio para superarlo. Y lo hice. Parece que a Luca solo le afecta al habla, a la articulacion (aunque quizas por eso tampoco puede tirar la pelota a la canasta en baloncesto y no le han emocionado mucho los deportes). Le va a costar mas que a otros, va a necesitar ms trabajo que otros ninhos y por mi parte tambien, pero esto tambien lo superaremos.

Blanco y negro

And this is just an experiment editing a picture of Luca, ready for bed, in black and white. I still don't know how to edit very well, but hopefully I will learn more as I play with my pictures some more.

Y este es un experimento editando una foto de Luca, listo para irse a dormir, en blanco y negro. Aun no se como editar muy bien, pero esperemos que aprenda mas mientras juego con mis fotos un poco mas.

Who will be my model?

I have warned everybody that I am in the photo taking mode so beware of me and my camera!
Yesterday the day was sunny and beautiful and we went to the park and took a few shots of Luca and his friends.

He avisado a todo el mundo de que estoy con ganas de hacer fotos, asi que esten al tanto de mi camara!
Ayer hacia un dia soleado y espectacular asi que fuimos al parque y le hice unas fotos a Luca y a sus amigos.

First experiments

These have been some of the pictures I have been taking of Luca to try to figure out my camera for the first week of my photography class. It was not easy to do this, specially with Luca as my model, but I think some of the hundreds I took look good although, I would still change things in all of them. At least I have to say that I was able to use my camera in semi manual mode, controlling the aperture by myself instead of all auto like I used to....

Estas son algunas de las fotos que he tomado de Luca mientras intento averiguar ocmo usar mi camara en la primera semana de mi clase. No fue facil, sobretodo con Luca como modelo, pero de los cientos de fotos que tome, alguna no esta mal, aunque yo cambiaria cosas en ellas. Por lo menos puedo decir que he sido capaz de usar la camara en modo semi manual, controlando el diafragma en lugar de ponerlo todo en automatico...

And about Luca's world, I just meet a girl who is also deaf and just uses a hearing aid in one ear and has no hearing in the other and she spoke beautifully, having learned sign language first, then English at 7 and Spanish at 13. It blew my mind and made me realize once and again that the sky is the limit.

Y en el mundo de Luca, justo conoci una chica que es sorda y usa un audifono en una oreja y nada en la otra que no tiene nada de audicion y hablaba perfecto, y aprendio a hablar con senhas primero y luego aprendio ingles a los 7 anhos y espanhol a los 13. Alucine y me hizo darme cuenta de que el ser humano puede llegar hasta donde quiera.