Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas to all! I hope everyone is surrounded by love, family and warmth as you celebrate. We're snuggled up in our house with family watching feet of snow pile up (well, Joe has been shoveling a great deal of it, too).

Here are a few pictures from last night's celebration. We hosted family and then headed to "midnight" mass at 9:30, where Joe cantored and Truman slept in his stroller/my lap.

I have to thank my family for letting me get in some off-camera flash practice. I set my Vivitar up on lightstand pointed at my white ceiling triggered via pocket wizard and wandered.




















Joe's stunt double — err, brother — James playing Wii with his own doppleganger-nephew Josh:






And the gift-giving:







These slippers Kellie gave Truman are made with recycled sweaters, how cool (and they fit his giant feet):





I did a big knitted Christmas this year, making everyone I thought would enjoy a knitted goody a hat or scarf:






















(p.s.: For those wondering, no, my son is not wearing pants. But when not wearing pants he is potty trained. We accept the trade off. Can you guess what my project in the new year will be? We'll just call it Project Pants.)

Caillou's bald head

This post could also easily be entitled "Things that bug parents in the wee hours of the morning when they are trying to get their kid back to sleep and are so tired they turn on the TV to try to occupy their night owl toddler," but I thought that was a little long for rss feeds.

Caillou is the little bald boy star of a PBS children's cartoon about the daily trials and tribulations, not to mention learning experiences, of a toddler. It's a pretty good show other than the fact that the boys baldness is never explained.





For the longest time I just assumed he had Alopecia or a similar disease that rendered him hairless and maybe it was a learning opportunity for kids. So I've been waiting for the Alopecia episode.

BUT IT NEVER CAME.

Tonight, sick of waiting I finally came across the answer: there is NO REASON he is bald. He just is. And apparently the producer's focus group said it didn't matter.

That's because their focus group was made of kids. It's the parents they are driving mad.

Now, this shouldn't be a big deal, as this blogger points out: Caillou means "bald head," and there are lots of reasons he could have lost his hair, such as giving himself a haircut. Sure, I buy that.

But then someone please tell me why they had to give his sister, mother and father ridiculous, obnoxiously luscious heads of hair? If it weren't for the stark contrast my Caillou quandary would have been dropped long ago.

Just look at his father:



Even his little sister has gobs of hair:




And why doesn't his hair ever grow back?

Caillou's world just doesn't seem fair. If he has to miss out on that hair he should at least be given the decency of a reason for his baldness.

Coincidentally, I think all the parents subject to his whiny voice deserve the same.

Fedie Family Fun

Say that five times fast!

Seriously though, the Fedies are my neighbors and good friends whom I was honored to photograph a few weeks ago. It's always fun to do family shoots with toddlers because they are busy, busy, busy.

On another note, thank you for those who've been checking the blog through my little blog sabbatical. I'm hoping to hop back in now, so stay tuned.