Yay! I love birthdays. Even though I’m getting older. And 35 sounds so old to me. Not in a bad way, just in a “it’s been a long time since I was in college” kind of way.

Kind of a bummer, though, because George and I were hoping to go have lunch together somewhere while the boys napped, but we can’t find anyone to come over and watch our TV and use our internet while they sleep. It’s too bad we can’t just leave them a jar of peanut butter and put Finding Nemo on the TV and let them fend for themselves, but such is life.

Ha ha ha! Of course I’m kidding!

Here’s a cute picture of Oliver wearing a monkey shirt to change the subject:

I do have some exciting plans for tomorrow night, at least. Not as thrilling as the night on Bourbon Street I was kind of hoping for (it’s going to be WAY too cold for that anyway, so it’s for the best) but probably more fun. Some girlfriends are going to come over and we’re going to play my new Wii game and eat Chinese food and drink copious amounts of wine. Maybe we’ll rent a movie. We’ll see. All I know is:

When I was younger, I was very into photography. At the age of ten or so, I got my first SLR camera, a Pentax K1000. I took a photography class that included darkroom time and fell in love.

I continued taking classes here and there during the summers and dreamed about having a house with my own darkroom. In high school, I was president of our school’s photo club and had unlimited access to the darkroom and film and photo paper and chemicals. (If only I wasn’t such a nerd, I might have used it for more nefarious purposes. Heh.)

At LSU, I was briefly on the photo staff of The Reveille, taking photos for stories and “wilds” (those candid photos of squirrels and people studying in the quad that took up space on page 4) but kind of drifted away from photography not long after that. I was just too shy to take photos of people I didn’t know. (Though there was one time when a writer and I had to hide behind a bench on the field at Tiger Stadium while some guy proposed to his girlfriend at a picnic on the 50 yard line on Valentine’s Day night. That was kind of neat.)

I still don’t like taking pictures of people I don’t know, which is I guess why I didn’t pursue photography further. And darkrooms are obviously not as necessary anymore, and that was probably one of my favorite facets of photography. Plus, I had a mean photography teacher in college, so I didn’t go beyond a single course there.

But now it’s fun again. I have willing subjects, and a decent camera. I have a whopping three lenses now, and I just ordered this Lightscoop off Amazon (thanks to a gift card I had.) It should help me with my indoor photos and therefore my 365 photos project. (Check out Becoming Mom for more details and a chance to win a Lightscoop!)

I’d like to get lighting somewhere between here:

and here:

I would love, love, love to take a photography course now. I hardly ever take my camera off auto mode, and I’d love to take better pictures of the boys. We’ll see. One day.

…til my birthday! I’m a big fan of birthdays, especially my own. Heh. Even if I will be three-and-a-half decades old. That’s okay because George (and my brother) will be forty this year, so I am still young compared to them.

My dream is to sleep late on Saturday. That’s what I want as a gift. That’s all. (Oh, and another Wii remote so George can play the new Super Mario Bros with me.) 8 am would even be fine! 9 would be preferable, but while I trust that my dear, sweet, loving husband will get up with the boys and entertain them for a while, I will be needed to help get them downstairs for breakfast and such.

But ooh, wouldn’t it be fun to have a family birthday breakfast at a restaurant? I might be pushing my luck on that one…

I even get to go to a birthday party on Saturday! Not my own, but for a friend’s 7 year old. I think 7 year old birthday parties are probably more fun than 35 year old birthday parties. More cake. Maybe David will let me open some of his presents. Hmmm….

I’m not sure if it’s worth recapping the holidays. I mean, the eleven days George, the boys, and I had off from work and daycare. It was brutal. Tiring. Exhausting. We got cabin fever. The house got messy. But we survived. Miraculously. George was teasing me because before the holidays, I was soooo excited about all the “family time” we were going to have.

Ha! I’ve discovered there is such a thing as too much family time. I think daycare agrees, as the boys are having a teensy bit of trouble getting back into their routine.

But more than that, I think they’re really and truly becoming two year olds. I mean they’ve started fighting more over toys. They’ve started having definite preferences, and god forbid someone else wants the same color cup as you! Or in recent days, the Cat in the Hat DVD. Linus and Miles have been fighting over it pretty much non-stop for the last 48 hours. Miles is the one who generally has it, and he just grins maniacally at Linus whenever we ask him to share it.

Anyway. So there was a lot of whining. I almost ripped my ears off. I really wanted to.

But there was some fun. Christmas Day was nice with my mom and Larry. We met up with some friends some days. We went to a birthday party. We saw a fire! We spent the night at Ren’s house, and then at my mom’s. We went to the zoo and the aquarium and the Children’s Museum.

So it wasn’t all bad. But I’m glad to be back to normal.

Proof that we had some fun…

At the park with Ren and Chloe:

Oliver and his ubiquitous orange jacket:

Checking out the giant tree at the Ritz:

At Millie’s birthday party:

Destroying the children’s department at Barnes & Noble:

Playing with the trains with Whitman at the Children’s Museum:

Miles:

At the zoo:

At the aquarium:

So tired. That’s my theme of the past, what, ten days? No, eleven. Eleven days of “quality time” with my children. More viewings of the Cat in the Hat (the 1970s cartoon version) and Thomas the Tank Engine than should be legal. I can recite Finding Nemo.

The boys are back at daycare, I’m back at work. Relishing the quiet.

Today the boys are 25 months old. I will have to take that picture this evening. That will probably end up being today’s picture for my 365 in 2010 project. We’ll see.

Last night I went to bed early so I could get a full night’s sleep before heading back to the office. The boys have slept pretty well over the past eleven days, so I had no reason to think that last night would be any different. Except that Oliver, apparently, hadn’t had enough Mama time.

So he woke up screaming at around 11:15 and didn’t go back to sleep until 3. Of course he only wanted Mama, but George was good enough to hang out with him and watch Nemo until the wee hours of the morning.

Here’s a picture of Miles that almost made yesterday’s Picture of the Day, but was edged out by brotherly love.