Loving Piper...

Wow, has this girl given me trouble over the years! In 3 weeks she turns 5 years old and it really makes me think. I have been at my wits end with her more times then I can count and certainly more then with any of my other children. Things are really turning around now but it has been very rough for a very long time.

After she was born, I went through pretty bad Post Natal Depression. I credit being alive today to my amazing husband, Danny, and my wonderful counsellor. Without either one of them, I don't know what would of happened. With their support, medication and intense therapy, I came out of 6 months of hell. I think I'll always wonder if the PND was the reason that Piper and I didn't have a very strong bond until recently.

She's the one who's been the climber, the biter, the tantrum thrower (although I did have another one of them). Anything and everything... she's gone through the phase.

A couple of months ago I hit rock bottom. I couldn't take anymore. It was tearing me apart. I had a looong chat with a wonderful person that I met online. I've met her for real and she's someone that I hope has become a long time friend. Anyways, the next day... something was different. I don't know what but I knew that I had to do something.

Things have gotten better and better every day since then. I've learnt to see this beautiful little girl for the unique personality that she is. She's funny. I never noticed that. She's caring. She's helpful. She's clever. She's energetic.

She's my daughter...

I took these on Saturday. She loves hamming it up for the camera these days.

Blowing kisses... can you catch them?

"Hmmm... which pose next Mum?"

Aperture, Shutter Speed, ISO... Arghhhhhhh

I'm pretty sure that I actually understand the 'triangle'. I've read Understanding Exposure by Bryan Peterson (great book, highly recommend). It all makes sense to me. But when I have the camera in my hands, it just doesn't happen. I dial in numbers, get a correct meter reading, yet almost everything I shoot seems underexposed (that and out of focus). When I overexpose to compensate for that, I end up with blown areas somewhere. ~sigh~

Today I took Piper outside again. I swear, my house has the worst yard for backdrops. Yesterday I took her out so I could play with parametres and I had to bribe her with chocolate! Today she did it for free. Anyways, this photo was the best of the bunch.

A trip to Sydney

Last weekend we took the 2 older kids to Sydney for the weekend. Danny and Jadzia went to the Wrestling Summerslam show on Friday night while Bailey and I spent time with a friend and her family. Danny and Jadzia said the show was the best! I'm so glad they had a great time and I feel good that we're at a point in our lives where we can finally do these kinds of things.

While they were at the wrestling, we were walking around Sydney. We started at Circular Quay and walked up to the Opera House and around Farm Cove through the Botanic Gardens. We walked a little further then that before it got dark and we headed back to the train station. It was horrid weather and made it very hard to take any photos.

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On Saturday, we took the kids to Taronga Zoo. We had strange weather, a little bit of every season in the same day. I think the only thing we didn't get was snow. We had the best time. The kids behaved themselves so well and it was great to see Danny looking so relaxed and happy.

It was hard to take photos that didn't look like they were taken in a zoo. Cages, glass and obviously man made enclosures made it hard work. I felt a little sad seeing the animals. They are beautiful and it's great that we do get to see them but the enclosures at Taronga are so small. We're planning on going to Western Plains Zoo in the next holidays. It's so much bigger and the animals have so much more room. We'll be taking all 5 kids with us for that one.

Here's a small selection of the photos I took...

PS - I named the puppy Jack. He's still gorgeous and doing just great!