With Christmas fast approaching, I spent a recent night wrapping gifts. Lots of gifts. So many gifts that I didn't go to sleep until after midnight. I figured I'd earned the right to sleep in the next day, which happened to be a Saturday when Vince would conveniently be available to watch the kids. I left my wrapping paper and ribbon in a neat pile on the dining room table and retired to bed.
The next morning, I slept until the late hour of 8:00 am, took my time getting ready in the morning, and entered the living room refreshed and ready to tackle the weekend. This is the sight that greeted me:
Looks like someone's gonna be on Santa's naughty list, and it ain't gonna be the kids.
Perhaps this was Vince's way of discouraging me from sleeping in ever again? Who knows. Well, like the kids, it's a good thing he's cute, because I think there was enough ribbon left over to wrap around his neck!
I'm not a girly-girl. Never have been. I'm not a big fan of ruffles, frilly undergarments, beauty pageants, or pink lip gloss. So I guess it's no surprise that my daughter would be the same. At the tender age of 19 months, Calliope already has a definite tomboy streak. Some might even say that her behavior at times is downright unladylike. Though I would prefer that she leave her pants on and refrain from using her breakfast as hair gel, and though sometimes I find that her stubborness borders on outright insubordination, I have to say that I love that my daughter is such a rough and tumble little girl.
Even so, part of me wonders what Calliope would look like with a poufy princess dress on. With her big round eyes, chubby cheeks and pigtails, she'd probably be pretty cute! So on a recent afternoon, I took her to the mall to find out. I found the biggest, poufiest, glittery-ist, most tulle-filled princess dress in the store and put it on her. Unfortunately, it didn't go over well.
Guess I forgot who I was dealing with here. :(
I realize that it's been almost two months since my last post. Yes, I feel really guilty about neglecting my blog. No, I haven't been spending all my free time torturing my daughter with tulle. I've actually been insanely busy!
For one thing, our dear friends the Ilardis came to town. As you can see, Benjamin was over the moon to see his love Kayla again.
On the days that Benjamin was in school, Calliope and Kayla had a chance to bond. I think Calliope really liked having a big sister to pal around with. And Kayla seemed to love having a little sis to take care of, too. Ahem, Marco and Sheila, I think your daughter may be trying to tell you something!
During their stay, we squeezed in a visit to Disneyland - and Calliope squeezed into a pair off too-small shorts.
My parents took a vacation and paid us a visit, too, though I'm afraid that with the amount of running around they did with the kids, it wasn't very relaxing.
The summer's been filled with birthday parties galore. It seemed that we had one almost every weekend these past six weeks. It's crazy how many kids had birthdays in September and August. Hmmm... Looks like the holidays were a popular time for getting frisky! ;)
Summer didn't seem heat up until after July, so we've been spending a lot of time at the pool...
...and at the beach.
You may notice that in all of these pics, Benjamin's mohawk is MIA. That's because he's decided that he wants hair "like Daddy's." What better way to get him Daddy's haircut than by taking him to Daddy's hairstylist, Chika Furumiya! Though Chika doesn't usually cut the hair of anyone under four feet tall, she agreed to make an exception for Benjamin. We had to improvise ways to keep him covered up while she was working on him, but the end result was well worth it. Look at that smile on the Boo's face! It says, "I'm so handsome that I'll never let you save money by cutting my hair at home again, SUCKAS!"
Though Chika didn't cut Calliope's hair, she did give her some uber-trendy feather hair extensions. They looked absolutely adorable - until Calliope ripped them out three days later. I guess hair extensions and tomboys don't mix.
To get some of that tomboy energy out (and to give her poor mother a break), Calliope is now in Mother's Day Out two days a week. One of those days she goes together with her brother. It's funny to watch them clinging to one another at drop-off, especially since by the time pick-up rolls around, they're pretending not to know one another. I suppose this is a preview of what high school will be like.
So as you can see, it's been a busy summer. But it's not just the days at the beach, trips to the pool, birthday parties, long days with the kids, commitments to the Playa Vista Moms Group/preschool/elementary school fundraising committee/Mandarin playgroup, or out-of-town visitors that have kept me busy. It's WORK.
I have been shooting up a storm these past few months. And though my eyeballs are dried out from editing, though I'm in a constant state of panic about keeping up with my clients and orders, and though some days my right hand feels like it's going to fall off if it has to click the shutter one more time, I am LOVING it. I get excited before every shoot, and as soon as it wraps, I can't wait to get home to look at the pictures.
Especially the ones of the kids! Photographing young children is exhausting, but no matter how worn out I am after a session with them, I always find myself sitting there with a dopey grin as I'm going through their pictures. Their enthusiasm and pure joie de vivre is contagious even through a photograph.
Which brings me back to my own two children.
I see them growing up, and I can't help but feel a pang. It's all happening too fast. Just four years ago, it was just me and Vince living alone in our home. Now we're a family of four. And wasn't it just the other day that I had two BABIES? Now one of them is making his own hairstyling decisions and the other is giving me attitude about what clothes she wants to wear. I love seeing them grow, but is it so wrong of me to want them to grow up just a little more slowly? I asked my mom if she remembered what it was like when my brother and I were this young.
She said that she remembered it all as if it were just yesterday.
Just now, after Benjamin went to the potty and was putting his underpants back on (backwards, I might add), he bent over to inspect his posterior and said to me, "Mama, I have a little butt." I chuckled affectionately and said yes, he did indeed have a little butt. He then came up to me, inspected MY posterior, looked me dead in the eye and said, "Mama, you have a big butt." Oh, Benjamin... I have ended relationships over words less cruel than those. Good thing I'm legally stuck with you for at least another 15.5 years. Besides, I don't put much stock in what other people think.
. Especially when the person in question has his underpants on backwards.
I realize it's been an age since my last post. Despite what my son would have you believe, it's not my lazy fat ass that has prevented me from updating this blog; it's the royal time suck I call Lily Chan Photography. But even aside from LCP stuff, a lot has happened recently, so I promise you I'll post again soon.
Remember that "new baby" I told you about in my last post? The one named Lily Chan Photography? Well, like a real newborn, it's been a needy little thing. I spend so much time tending to it that it might as well have colic.
Someone asked me recently how much time I spend each day on LCP, and I broke it down like this: on an average day, I spend about two hours working on my website/marketing/answering emails, two hours on post-production, and two to three hours on research and education (be it on gear, technical stuff, software, or whatever). At this rate, I'm not even making minimum wage. It's a good thing that I am truly enjoying what I'm doing. And I really thank God that I have a husband that is so understanding. You rock, Vince.
And none of that time includes time actually spent on a job shooting pictures! Because of the Dirty 30 special I'm running right now, I've been able to drum up a fair amount of buzz. This is great because as a new photog, I need all the buzz I can get. This is not so great because other areas of my life as suffering. Well, maybe "suffering" is a bit harsh. I mean, eating leftovers three days in a row is hardly "suffering," right?
So just to give you an idea of how my new baby is faring, I thought I'd give you a glimpse into some of my recent photo shoots.
Yes, all of these shoots happened at different times within the two weeks since my last blog post. No, this isn't all of them. No, I don't know where I'm finding the time to do all this. Yes, my home is a complete disaster.
You may be wondering who some of my new clients are. Most of them are people I am either friends with or friends of friends with. A few are total strangers. All are pretty awesome for taking a chance by giving a newbie family photographer a shot.
Get it? A "shot"? If this photography thing doesn't work out, maybe I should become a stand-up comic. NOT!
Like I said, every one of these families is wonderful. It's been truly incredible having the chance to meet them and see them through my lens. I feel as though each shutter click is an opportunity for me to capture something that is here and then gone in just a blink of an eye. Like the fuzz on a newborn's arms. Or the toothless grin of a baby. Or the acne on a teenagers face. Wait, scratch that - my acne lasted for-EVER.
I have to give props to several peeps in particular - my good friends Julie, Lisa, Deb, and Clara. They've been so enthusiastic and supportive of my new endeavor and have helped in so many ways. Julie and Lisa with their expertise in the business side of things, Clara with her financial savvy (and her mass-mailing of friends), and Deb by sending me crazy hyper emails and texts filled with ENDLESS SMILEY FACES :):) AND CAPITAL LETTERS AND OUT-OF-PLACE PUNCTUATION THAT JUST SHOUTS HOW EXCITED AND PROUD SHE IS OF ME???!?!??! :):):) God, Deb, do your emails ever give me a headache, but I still love 'em. Keep 'em coming!!!! :):):)
And again, I must thank my wonderful husband Vince. He's been a veritable single dad these past few weekends, schlepping the kids around by himself while I've been off on shoots or mired in editing. I am so, so grateful for how supportive he is and how much he's encouraged me. Little does he know, all of this exposure to adorable little babies has been scratching my itch for a third little Chan to round out the brood.
Looks like someone's gonna be on Santa's naughty list, and it ain't gonna be the kids.
Perhaps this was Vince's way of discouraging me from sleeping in ever again? Who knows. Well, like the kids, it's a good thing he's cute, because I think there was enough ribbon left over to wrap around his neck!
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