Pinked

Image

Wanted to share this one taken last Friday morning just before 7am. This was the first official shoot of the photowalk. I had about 3 hours of sleep before waking at 4 am eating food, checking the photo gear and heading out to Utah County by 5:30 am. The clouds didn’t look this good with the shot of Mount Timpanogos I wanted to make. I got close with the first shot of the day:

click image to see a larger version

However, the long exposure (10 seconds) meant the clouds were blurry. But I had to make a tradeoff to get the stars. It’s still my favorite westward shot of that morning.

I was talking last night with a friend and telling him that March has been an incredible month for me personally; I’m feeling good about me. Which sounds like an affirmation.

Daily affirmation: I will feel good about me.

* * *

If only I could get Marlo to stay in her bed. She’s discovered the joys of wandering around the condo at night. At least the night before last she wasn’t talking to herself for an hour. While farting on me. Which happened repeatedly the night before that one. Leta likes to report, completely asleep, that she’s suddenly scared and needs to sleep in my bed. When Leta gets in bed, Marlo wakes up. Can’t win. At least yesterday morning everyone was in good spirits and we had a fun morning in dad’s bed. Marlo says “dad’s bed” very slowly and lispy. It’s super cute and I don’t really have the necessary leverage to keep her in her own bed. And I’m not exactly going to fight it too hard. Maybe in a year I’ll be more inclined to get up and force her back into her own bed. But I like having her in bed. She’s warm and if we are tired and non-farty, we sleep okay. I keep thinking about Leta at Marlo’s age. I’m remembering the tactics that worked to calm her down before bedtime and I’m starting to use them with Marlo.

I’m also using some tactics to get the girls out the door in the morning. Those are working markedly better than the sleep tactics. Maybe it’s time for a workshop or two where the girls and I talk about the importance of sleep?

  • http://twitter.com/Andreerah Angeerah

    Please sell the photo of Mount Timanogos.  It is gorgeous. 

    When you have that discussion with Marlo and Leta about sleep, please let us know how it goes.  We are resisting moving our 3 year old boy into a toddler bed because we just know he will be awanderin’.

  • elaine_marie

    If you figure out a way to convey the importance of sleep to children, I’m sure a lot of people would be interested in knowing that.

  • http://www.facebook.com/beth.george2 Beth Rich George

    Give it time. It’s about you, and connecting with you, not about sleep.  And if you don’t have a king sized bed, get one.  You won’t have it for very long, before you know it they won’t need that extra touch.  But for now, they need it.  And I’ll bet, just a little bit, you do too.  

  • http://www.facebook.com/beth.george2 Beth Rich George

    Oh, and your photos make me cry, they are so beautiful.

  • http://profile.yahoo.com/PXLWFI3C45HO7SGBABSUOEAONE DDG

    the swishy clouds make the stars jump out like 3D. very awesome!

  • Jessica Lyn

    After my ex-husband moved out, my 3 1/2 year old son crawled into my bed just about every night for the next 5–6 months.  I think he just needed the extra comfort and reassurance from me.  Gradually he started sleeping in his own bed and things are back to normal now almost a year later.  Your girls may not be able to communicate their needs with words when they are tired, but they certainly know they need some extra comfort and cuddles from their father.  

  • http://twitter.com/yogahz yogahz

    We used to lay out a sleeping bag and pillow on the floor next to our bed.  We told our kids of they needed to come sleep in our room it was OK, but only if they used the sleeping bag.  We were there for murmured words of comfort but were still able to get grownup sleep. 

    The pictures are beautiful.

  • americanrecluse

    I love both these pictures but the stars, man, they are magical! 

  • http://twitter.com/CupcakeKarate Lindsay

    Yes, yes. A workshop! I can see the powerpoint now… I’ll set up the conference room, you bring the decaf! 

  • chernevik

    My best advice for sleeping kids is routine and schedule, which may not be super helpful here.

    They have to learn to notice and break their own cycles of self-stimulation.  It’s natural to enjoy activity, so we do things to excite ourselves when we feel stimulation dwindling   due to our own fatigue.  We get a ‘positive’ feedback from that self-stimulation, but it only makes us more tired and requires a still larger effort to keep ourselves awake, while creating internal tension that makes it a lot harder to relax.  They have to notice this and restrain themselves from making that next self-stimulation, which reduces their energy level / tension and so makes the next internal demand for stimulation less urgent.  We all cycle up or down to sleep, kids have to learn to avoid the up cycle without “trying” to sleep (which I think just becomes another vehicle for tension generation).

    When ours were little I thought it helped to explain this, then point out when they were self-stimulating (being silly, jumping around, provoking others, etc) and quietly work with them to just stop that.  Getting them to focus on breathing helped.  If you help them squelch enough self-stimulations, they go to sleep, and build muscle to help them do so on their own.

    Again, this was simplified by advantages of routine, schedule and confidence that may be more problematic for you right now.

  • kate rau

    Gorgeous photos, Jon!  Just stunning. 

    I still occasionally sleep with my 11 year old girl, and it’s heavenly.  Of course now she’s all gangly arms and legs; it’s like sleeping with a colt.  But I wouldn’t trade it for the world. Your girls are so lucky to have two parents who “get” them.  

  • http://twitter.com/lala34mc Laura Gaunt

    I love, love, love the first photo. The second is great too, but something about the pink underbelly of those clouds. Dreamy.

    I’m a total sucker for my 3 year old sleeping with me. I try to put her to bed on her own but after that, eh. It’s such a short time. And they smell so delicious.

  • Sarah Clayton

    My husband is away during the week, every once and a while I ask my 11 yr old if he wants to sleep with me .. each time it’s a huge ‘yeah’  — it is different now that he doesn’t move around like he use too though!  Good for you Jon for giving your girls the love and support they need when with you as I’m sure Heather is doing also.  Making the best of a hard situation!
    Your photography is stunning, really gorgeous!!

  • bambooska

    I like to see colors in your photographs.

  • adoreadora

    I neeeeeeeeed these photos. Like, NEEEEED. Please sell prints :)

  • Laurelee

    So, I know you really want some unsolicited advice! But..we’ve put a baby gate in the doorway of our son’s room at bedtime (he’s Marlo’s age) to keep him from wandering since he started climbing out of his crib at 17 months (fml..). He also knows how to unlock the deadbolt on our front door now…so that’s fun. Good luck!

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Kim-Carter-Taveroff/729985601 Kim Carter Taveroff

    My 20 month old jumped out of her crib yesterday while she was supposed to be napping. We very unceremoniously converted her crib to the toddler bed and when we put her down for the night (lol) she ping ponged around her room for a good hour and a half before finally crashing. Unfortunately she has to be locked in her room, I don’t want her wandering the hallway at night thanks to the stair case.

    It’s on my photo bucket list to make it out to one or more of Utah’s National Parks one day to photograph the Milky Way.

  • http://twitter.com/homeanduncool Home and Uncool

    I liked the kids sharing a bed with me for the 1st hour or two. Then they rolled on top of me and/or starting kicking in their sleep. That when we started having Sleeping Bag Nights and once they passed out I’d move back to my big comfy bed.

    Keep on shootin’ …

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1108072961 Jane Owings-Schaefermeyer

    When my middle daughter was 3, she was a wanderer.  When we  found her asleep on top of the refrigerator, we decided to put a lock on the outside of her bedroom door.  A few mornings later, we found that she had tried to take the door off it’s hinges.  She had worked the bottom hinge almost out.

  • rageagainsttheminivan

    I’ve got the same issue with my almost-three-year-old.  She is really stealth about it and wakes up before anyone else.  Many a morning I find her in the living room, going through my purse and trying on makeup.  I don’t know what to do about it either.  Aside from setting an alarm so I wake up first. Pshaw.

    I also have ambivalence about the night-time bed sharing. I go through stages where I am really annoyed that I’m not getting enough sleep, and I vow to be stricter about it. But then I think of how freaking fast they’re growing and what a short stage this is.  I would imagine in 10 years I’ll look back on this stage and wish I’d given in more.

  • http://www.8womendream.com 8 Women Dream

    My son liked to get up in the night and crawl in bed with me for the longest time and I was questioning this habit to a particularly funny mom-friend who had raised her kids successfully. 

    “Yeah that was my son J…” she laughed, “I thought we were just going to have to move his bed into our bedroom too… But you know they all eventually think you are weird and an embarrassment and don’t want to be seen anywhere near you… you’ll have about 6 months worth of decent sleep from that point before he asks for the car keys and money for a date.” 

    I am happy to report that I have a fine teenage son and I miss those nights where his little soft pajama feet would kick me square in the kidneys just as I was drifting off into deep, deep rem sleep.

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=542762913 Gwenola Calvez Horwitz

    I love your photos and I love reading about your daughters.  I hope you make a gazillion dollars through your website.