Baby Steps

We had a couple of false starts with Michael between 8:00 and 10:30 last night, including one last bottle-feed that we hadn't managed to fit in before bedtime.  But then, he slept from 11:00 pm until nearly 4:00 am the next morning.  Amaze-ness.  It would have felt a tad bit more like a victory if he had slept for longer than two hours after the bottle that followed his waking, and had he not proceeded to fight Tom so fiercely over being returned to the crib at that point that Tom gave up and took him downstairs for the next couple of hours.  Where he, of course, slept soundly in Tom's arms.

I know- baby steps.

Abby, at least, had the courtesy to sleep in until around 8:00 am, and didn't need to be brought down to breakfast until closer to 8:30.  She was also much closer to her usual self.  Her ultra-stubborn, oversensitive post-vacation alter-ego didn't rear its bawling head until bedtime.  Though, thankfully, the bath she fought against turned out to be "okay" in her book, once she was in it, and the crib that she attempted to springboard out of my arms to avoid was not so bad to be in, after all, once I turned on the light and music show of her pal Bella the Butterfly.

I haven't yet had a chance to get a new SD card for the Nikon, but Tom surprised me with a new lens-cleaning pen this evening (the old one was lost in the move), so I was able to get the baby grease off of my Panasonic.

It was nice to have a functioning camera again, but boy, do I miss my Speedlight.

This first picture came out a bit dark and grainy with no flash.

I was in the middle of adjusting the settings to capture a bit more light when Abby threw a toy that hit poor Michael in the forehead.  Some chiding (of Miss Abigail) and comforting (of little Michael) ensued, and that was the end of photographs for a time.

When I picked the camera back up, there was even less natural light in the room, and I was getting very dark pictures, indeed.

 
I had to turn the ISO way up, and shutter speed way down, when I metered in-camera.  This made it difficult to capture Michael in focus, and affected the overall sharpness.  There was also a lot of shadow appearing, and in the end, I wasn't happy with the over-warmness (for lack of a better descriptor) of the tone.

Turning on the pop-up flash only made things look stranger, and more washed out.  I probably should have redone the metering before trying to take a picture.  And come at Michael from a different angle.

But I was not really in the mood for more experimentation, and was a bit curious about how the camera's smart settings would compare, so I gave up, and resorted to auto, with the pop-up flash.  Not bad, especially in comparison to my previous failed attempts, but the color looks all wrong to me.

I know I say this all of the time, but the subject is cute, regardless.  :)

Like everything else, it's all baby steps.  And will continue to be, until I miraculously discover more hours in the day and some renewable source of energy to replace my need for sleep.  Then I can really dig my heels into this photography thing, right?  Eh, maybe.

He's got his lower lip tucked in again.  Those first two lower teeth must be driving him nuts, but neither has popped through his gums just yet.

Soon, my Little Man.  Soon.  That's what Mommy tells herself, too.