Meandering (Wide)

Thursday, July 28, 2016

Week #26

25 and 4/7 weeks along!
Ohhhhh boy.  Oh boy oh boy oh boy.  Either this boy is a moose, or he's positioned himself in a totally different way than Callie did!  I'm 26 weeks along today, and I feel as though I look like I did when I was 33 weeks along with little C!  I'm feeling all the aches and pains as though I were farther along as well.  But baby boy seems to be pretty happy in there.  He practices Tai Bo several times a day in between naps and stretches.  He is active around 5am, 8-9am, around noon, around 5, and around 10pm.  Luckily I am able to sleep through any middle-of-the-night play sessions!

Pregnancy, aside from the aches and pains, has been smooth sailing since the last post.  Ever since I began to feel baby move around and kick, my anxiety has decreased considerably, and the days pass quickly.  When I was 15 weeks, I had bought an at-home doppler so I could listen to his heartbeat and verify he was still alive.  Of course the next week he starts kicking hard enough for me to feel him, and my amazing purchase has been rendered nearly useless.  :-) Every once in awhile, I'll still listen though.  Callie likes to listen in, too.

Callie is completely adorable about her baby brother.  She loves to give my belly hugs and kisses, and say "hello".  She likes to tell us that she's getting a baby brother soon, and she makes sure we know that he can't walk yet.  And she tells me to eat lots of food so he will grow big and strong!  Once, she was talking to me about when the baby comes out, he's going to POP out of my belly button (as she holds her arms out wide), and we had a nice talk about how babies are born.  I'm fairly sure she got the idea from the Hungry Hungry Caterpillar book ("and POP!  Out of the egg, came a tiny, and very hungry caterpillar.") but she didn't seem too flabbergasted when I told her about vaginal birth.

We got Callie's big girl room put together about a month ago.  We ripped up the carpet and subfloor, put down new CDX and continued the bamboo hardwood through her room.  And we painted the trim to match the rest of the house, and Callie picked out a gorgeous peach color for her walls.  (At first she said she wanted purple, but when I put a purple sample up she walked in and said "Nooooo!  Not PURPLE!  PINK!"... oh toddlers...)  She loves her new room and loves showing it to whoever comes over to visit!

We are currently working on getting the nursery put back together.  We are re-doing the floors in the same way, and I'm planning on painting some thick white horizontal stripes on the feature wall.  Remodel work keeps getting interupted by Bryann's work travel schedule, and me wanting to spend time as a family doing fun stuff instead of working on the house.  :-P  But we'll get there!  Thankfully, we aren't doing many changes to the nursery.  A little paint here.  A few different fabrics there.  (My friend Anna-Lisa has made a quilt that she claims is her most gorgeous quilt she's made yet, but she won't let me see it yet!  Waaaah! She's also slaving away over doing new changing table basket liners in  nautical fabrics!  What a good friend I have!)

What Baby T has been up to:

  • Baby is the size of a... Scallion?  wtf Baby Center?  Give me a better fruit/vegetable than a scallion!  Apparently I missed all the cute fruits over the past several weeks.  He's about 1 and 2/3 lbs, and measures 14 inches from head to heel.  
  • He began putting on some baby fat last week (yeah! no kidding!) and his skin is smoothing out, and hair is starting to grow!  
  • His lungs are getting set for the outside world.  They have developed branches of the respiratory tree as well as a substance called surfactant which will help air sacs inflate once he is born. 
  • Ears are developed and he can hear me talking and singing to Callie (and sometimes yelling at the dog)
Pregnancy symptoms include:
  • Heartburn, heartburn, and more heartburn.  I knew this was coming, because I struggled with it so much with Callie.  But UGH!  Heartburn sucks!  I finally put together a travel pack of TUMS to keep in my purse last night because I was in such agony at work yesterday.
  • Backaches
  • Tossing and turning at night because I can't ever get comfortable
  • Bryann also now has to help push me out of the car when we park on our driveway, because I can't seem to manage to hold the door open and get myself out while on an incline.  Only slightly embarrassing...
  • Braxton hicks.  Just, like, all the time. Ever since around 10-12 weeks.  So fun.  
What I miss/What I'm looking forward to:
  • Drinking...  I'm currently planning a wine-tasting trip for a friend's bachelorette weekend.  And I am le sad that I can't enjoy all the tasty tasty wineries we'll be going to.  I was half-tempted to book crappy wineries, so I wouldn't be so jealous, but I love my friend too much to do that to her.  
  • I'm looking forward to Bryann and my weekend away in Bend babymoon.  Bryann's mom wanted to come visit and have a Callie weekend this fall before baby boy comes, so Bryann and I are escaping to Sunriver for a few days in September!  I warned him that I will probably just want to sleep, and drink endless cups of coffee, and read in our adirondak chairs on our private deck (which he's totally ok with), but who know.  Maybe I'll feel adventurous and it will still be warm and we can float the river, or do an easy hike.  
  • I'm looking forward to not being pregnant anymore.  And maybe never being pregnant again!  I'm not a fan, and I would love to have my body back to myself again. 

  • 26 weeks
     
  • Nursery in progress!
  • Callie's new room.  Not a finished pic, but it's what I had on my phone when I posted this!

Thursday, June 2, 2016

Week #18

18 weeks
Baby Boy Turner is due on November 3rd, 2016!  This pregnancy has so far been very similar to Callie's, except that symptoms happened waaaay earlier.  I had all-day nausea and morning sickness starting around 6 weeks, and I started showing a little baby bump around 10-11 weeks along.  I haven't had any strong food aversions or cravings, although chicken was a little touch and go there for awhile, and it's still not my preferred food, to Bryann's dismay.

It's been helpful throughout this pregnancy to go back and look at my posts about my pregnancy with Callie.  My memories have not been as accurate as my recordings, and I'm so glad I wrote about what I was feeling and thinking as I was experiencing everything!  According to my memories, my pregnancy was care-free and la-di-da, when in reality, I had similar bouts of anxiety, and physical discomfort.

Now that I'm well in to my 2nd trimester though, I'm feeling much less anxious, and they days are passing more quickly.  We had an early genetics test, so we are comforted that there were no genetic abnormalities detected, and as a bonus, we got to find out that we were having a boy well before our anatomy scan!

I had convinced Bryann we were having another girl, so it's been a bit of an adjustment for us, but we're both really excited about having a baby boy, and Callie is SO sweet and talks about her baby brother all the time!

What Baby T has been up to

  • Kicking, and growing, and making me feel wonderful to be aware of him all the time.  
  • Baby boy is the size of a turnip (growing in to a bell pepper) this week and is measuring 5 oz, 5in., which says more about my size and weight gain, considering I look like I have a small melon in there...  Maybe we'll find out at the ultrasound that he's actually enormous, and I haven't just been eating too many hamburgers... 
  • His skeleton has been changing from soft cartilage to bone, hearing is developing (which explains why I felt him kick pretty actively whenever we were at a Broadway show last week).
  • He's also in the middle of a growth spurt, so I can expect to look more and more pregnant over the next few weeks.  I guess that means I NEED to keep eating hamburgers, so baby boy can keep growing!  


Pregnancy symptoms include:

  • There seems to be a very specific window of time where I'm nauseated.  When we were in NYC last week, I didn't feel nauseous once!  But I was sleeping in until 9am.  We get home, and as soon as I'm up at 7am again, I resume my morning routine of dry-heaving for about a minute.  I thought I was over the nausea... but alas...  true "morning sickness" is my curse.
  • I have to pee constantly.  I was up 3 times last night.  Before I was pregnant with Callie, I thought the peeing was just bc the baby was on top of your bladder.  But nope!  It is my constant companion.  
  • I'm also walking slower and out of breath easier than when not pregnant.  I even walk slower than Bryann now, which is really saying something.  He also has to push me up stairs already, which is only mildly embarrassing for only being 18 weeks along.  


What I miss/What I'm looking forward to:

  • It has been stupidly hot all the time, everywhere I go.  I miss having a nice, ice-cold, Portlandia-style artisan beer after work on my deck, while Callie plays on the porch or in the grass, and just relaxing.  Alcohol will forever be on the list of what I miss during pregnancy!
  • I'm looking forward to my ultrasound appointment on June 13th.  We already know the gender, and we are already fairly confident that there are no genetic abnormalities.  But I love checking in and seeing those little arms and legs, and seeing him move around!  We're so in love already.  <3 
... and since I'm not doing blog posts for the previous weeks, here are photos from week 15 and week 12.  :-)  
15 weeks

12 weeks

11 week bump!


Wednesday, June 1, 2016

We are Due with #2... again!

I figure it's about time I start writing about this pregnancy.  A series of pregnancy losses and a 13-week miscarriage really puts a damper on one's excitement about another pregnancy.  This pregnancy has been exciting, but more so anxiety-inducing and terrifying on a near daily basis.  And it's been difficult to let myself get excited about it, and share my joy with others, for fear of losing another baby.  For fear that jinxing is really a thing, and I'll bring more heartache on myself if I let myself be happy.  So I've been pretty quiet, and reserved, and just not my usual self this go-round.

But things are going really well.  And we're REALLY happy.  And I'm 18 weeks along.  So it's time to share, and let joy in.
...

When I found out I was pregnant last May, I wrote this post.  It's been sitting in here since then, and I hadn't been able to face it after the loss, nor able to write about anything else since.  I've revisited it a few times during this pregnancy, not sure what to do with it.  I considered deleting it, but it doesn't feel right.  So I've left it, in it's entirety.  When I read it, it makes me feel silly, and naive to have thought that everything would go as smoothly as with Callie.  But I remember how incredibly overjoyed I was to find out I was pregnant.  And I don't want to delete that and pretend it never happened.

I lost this pregnancy below at just 5 weeks on May 5th.  I got pregnant again in July, and carried until 13-weeks, and ended up losing that pregnancy on October 3rd.  I was pregnant again in December and lost it again at 5 weeks on my birthday, January 3rd.  All told - 2 "chemical" pregnancies, and one miscarriage.  So... we are still very fertile.  My body just had a hard time holding on to them.

Anyway, to be a good steward of my past joy, here's the post from the first pregnancy last spring.
...

Just yesterday, I found out I am pregnant!!!!!!   (I don't think I can put enough exclamation points on that sentence, so this aside will hopefully drive home the point that I'm SUPER excited!)

I am almost 4 weeks pregnant (calculated from last menstrual start date) and #2 is due January 15, 2016.  It's no secret that we were going to try for baby #2 after we got back from our cruise, but I think it'll be a surprise that it happened so quickly.  Lesson learned - we are super fertile.  Be careful!

I had actually been testing since the middle of last week with EPT's.  I took 3 of them last week a few days apart from each other, and they all came out negative.  I figured with that many negative EARLY pregnancy tests, I was probably not pregnant.  But I didn't start my period on Tuesday, and even on a shorter 25 day cycle, I got suspicious.  I took a regular test Tuesday night after I got home from choir, and initially the control line popped up in bright pink, but nothing on the test line.  If not for my friend's story about throwing away her positive pregnancy test because she hadn't given it long enough to result, and her husband finding it in the trash, I would have thrown that test away, too!  But I left it on the counter and came back to it a few minutes later, and sure enough, there was a suuuuuuuuuper duper faint line on the test strip.  I texted a picture of the test to a friend to see what she thought, and she basically text exploded with joy that I was pregnant and said that ANY line means it's positive, no matter how faint.  So, I did another test yesterday morning (just as faint a line) and I went in to my PCP clinic to get a confirmation of pregnancy test done.  Even the clinic had to test it twice because the lines were so faint, but they said I'm definitely pregnant and it's just really early.  Lesson learned - EPT's are total crap and a waste of good money!

Doesn't this look negative to you?

Test from Tuesday night, and another test from Wednesday morning, a few hours later.  

It's funny how different my reaction to this pregnancy is from last time.  It took me a few weeks to get over the "Holy Effing Sh*t" aspect of being pregnant last time.  But this time I am just plain excited.  Joyous, even!  Soooo looking forward to being a family of 4.

I feel like now that I'm a mother, most things just aren't a big deal anymore.  I feel like I can handle anything that gets thrown my way.  When I found out I was pregnant with Callie, it had seemed like a good idea, in theory, to start a family.  But when that became a fast reality, it was a little tough to get over the "how the hell am I going to be responsible for another human being?!? I'm barely an adult myself!" reaction I had at first.  But I've been there, done that, survived to tell the tale.  I know #2 will be different, maybe harder, but I know I can handle it.  I know WE, as a family, can handle it.

I surprised Bryann with the news last  night by putting Callie in a "Big Sister" shirt.  He didn't notice at first and was wondering why I kept staring at him strangely.  I had to ask him if he liked her outfit.  He turned to me and said "Are you really pregnant??!" and ran over and gave me a big hug.

I'm not sure when we'll tell our friends and family.  We have Wine & Dine this weekend... I'm not sure I'll be able to get away with not drinking and not raising suspicions.  I'd like to be at least 6 weeks along before we share the news.  If I miscarry I will probably tell a few of my friends, but maybe everyone in my social circle doesn't need to know.  We'll see how long we can play it cool.  My face basically explodes with joy every time I think about it...

Monday, April 11, 2016

To the Baby I'll Never Get to Hold -

Yesterday was your due date.  April 10, 2016.  I knew this day would come.  And I knew it would be painful for me.  And the day after is painful as well.  As is every day since I lost you.  And as will probably be every day to come.

I will never get to hold you.  I will never get to meet you.  But I have faith that your soul was not meant for that body.  And I hope that whatever your soul was made of will find its way in to another life.

We planted some camellia bushes in our backyard yesterday to celebrate your memory.  I've loved you every day, since the moment I knew I was pregnant.  And I will love you every day until my very last.

Thursday, May 7, 2015

20 Months and change



Ok, let's not kid ourselves and pretend I wrote this at 18 months and "forgot" to publish it.  I am a slacker, and life has been busy, and I just haven't felt like writing.  But man, oh man!  Time is a-flyin' by, and this little gal has grown so much these past few months, I need to document it!

Stats:  At her 18 month visit in February, she was 20lbs, 8 oz and 30.25 inches.

Health:  Callie has had an off-and-on cold all winter long.  Basically she's been a snotty mess every other week.  We went in to the clinic a few times just so they could make sure it wasn't pneumonia or an ear infection.  Since the sun has come back out and spring has begun, she's been less snotty and generally more healthy.  But she's a daycare kid, so she'll continue to get every virus that comes along!  Better now than when she's in school.

Sleep:  This sleep thing really is a bugger.  Until we finally got her off the bottle completely, she was waking up at least once if not two or three times a night, and nothing but a bottle seemed to calm her down.  We finally went cold turkey in March and nixed the bottle from our lives.  It only took one night of hell and then she was sleeping through the night again!  I've had several weeks of un-interupted sleep now, and I'm feeling great!

Clothes/Diaper Size:  She is finally fitting in to the clothes that correspond to her age.  Up until a few weeks ago, she was still in 12 mo (and even some 9 mo GASP) clothing.  Now she's only in 18 month, 24 month, and even some 2T clothes!!  We're finishing our supply of size 3 diapers and moving to size 4.  We've already started doing size 4 at night so she doesn't leak through them.

Diet:  Baby girl loves her food!  She basically eats whatever we eat for meals.  Lunch staples are PB&J, cheese sticks and fruit.  She's learned to use a spoon recently and loves eating from a bowl!


Nicknames:  Boo (and variations thereof) is the one that seems to have stuck around for good.

Favorite Songs/Lullabies:  Lately... Annie's song, Billy Joel's Lullabye, Baby Mine, Moon River

Milestones/Firsts:  We've seen a HUGE language explosion over the past month or so.  She uses sentences now!  SENTENCES!  "I wanna watch Pooh!" is a pretty common one.  She's also running now, using a spoon, holding a pen with her fingers (not her fist) and drawing scribbles.  She can count to 10 (with some prompting) and can sing some of the ABC's.

Likes: Singing and counting and dancing, eating with a spoon, running, Pooh and Mickey Mouse, squealing at the top of her lungs, giggling and being tickled, giving zerbits, and getting hugs

Dislikes:  Not getting her way, someone else feeding her, not being excused from the table to play when she's done even though everyone else at the table is NOT done.

Things I Don't Want to Forget:  Oh goodness... I'm going to have to come back to this one.  Life is just so joyful right now.  I don't want to forget her laugh or her squeals of delight.  I don't want to forget the smell of her hair after a bath, or the way she cuddles into my shoulder when I'm putting her down to bed.  I don't want to forget how she grabs my face and points to my mouth, eyes, nose, mouth, teeth so proudly.  She has sooooo many amazing faces, and I want to remember all of them.












Monday, January 12, 2015

15 Months

16 month photo... because I'm a slacker and didn't get her 15 month photo in time...

Since the changes aren't coming quite as fast and furious as they did during her first year, I'm going to update every 3 months or so.  However, we've seen SO much developmental growth these past few months, it will be hard to document everything!

Stats:  Callie now weighs 19 lbs 2 oz (6th percentile), is 29.75" long (31st percentile) and her head is 18" in circumference (49th percentile).  I was disappointed that her weight percentile dropped from her 12 month visit, but our pediatrician says that happens a lot when they learn to walk and become more mobile.  At least she's still gaining weight, following her growth curve, and hitting her developmental milestones. When we went in for our 15 month visit, the MA and the Pediatrician were both impressed by her vocabulary!  My girl IS a talker!

Health:  Callie has caught a few colds here and there over the past 3 months.  Just a few sniffles, a bit of a cough every now and then.  Nothing serious, and nothing I've ever called the RN line about.

We held off until her 15 month visit to try giving her peanut butter since I didn't want to deal with an anaphylaxis reaction at home.  So I gave her a few crackers smothered in peanut butter while we were in the waiting room, she gobbled them down, and she didn't have any reaction!  Thank goodness.  Being able to give her peanut butter sandwiches will make lunch time so much easier!

Sleep:  Damn, it feels good to have a 1-year old!  Calista sleeps beautifully.  She is still taking 2 naps a day for between an hour and two hours, although I suspect she's working on phasing out the morning nap.  She goes down for bed around 7pm, and wakes up around 7am.  Sometimes she'll wake up at 5am, but we usually go in and give her a bottle and she goes right back to sleep.  When she's teething, she'll wake up earlier in the night (10 or 11pm) crying but she goes back down pretty easily with a bottle and "Goodnight Moon" recited to her.

Clothes/Diaper Size:  I know I said I'd get rid of clothes that were 6 months too young, but we are still using 9 month onesies...! But we are also using 12 month onsies and shirts and ONLY using 12 month pants.  We just recently bought her an 18 month winter jacket, and it's only slightly too big for her.  I think she'll be in size 3 diapers for quite a while to come.

Diet:  Calista is a great eater for the most part.  She usually eats what we're having for meals, or she at least tries the food we give her.  I always put at least one thing on her plate that I KNOW she'll eat, just in case she decides that our dinner is not to her taste yet.  Her favorite foods are banana, frozen peas and corn, fresh diced tomatoes, cheese, ritz crackers and goldfish, and any sort of pasta with cheese or tomato-based sauces.  She always gets some sort of fruit or berry for desert and even when she says "All done", when I put the berries on her tray, she gobbles them up and asks for more.  Callie likes to use utensils to eat, and especially likes to use a spoon to eat yogurt with.

Baby Gear Love:  The Ergo continues to be a sanity-saver.  I still use it when we go places she can't walk around (like the home-brew store, or out wine tasting) and she does very well in it, which is surprising to me considering her desire to explore and be free.  I'm also quite happy that we purchased a travel/collapsible high chair a few months ago.  We've been able to use that at friend's houses for dinner, out camping or at picnic tables, at the beach house, and at restaurants.  I would put it on a list of Must-Have items for any baby registry.

Nicknames:  Callie-bear, Callie-bug, Baby Boo, Boo-Boo, Boo-Boo Bear, and variations thereafter

Favorite Songs/Lullabies:  She loves all music, all the time.  We have several toys that play music or sing songs and she knows how to push the buttons to get the toys to sing.  She even knows which button to push on my keyboard to get the demo song "Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go" to play.

Milestones/Firsts:  She had only her 2 bottom teeth when she turned 1, but she has sprouted 9 more teeth in the past three months (four of which have come through in the past 2 weeks alone).  We are calling this Teethvember!

Callie learned to walk just before the 13 month mark.  She had been taking 2 or 3 wobbly steps at a time before lowering herself down and crawling the rest of the way for a few weeks.  But with some practice and encouragement walking between mommy and daddy at the beach house, we got to see her and record her taking her first walk across the room!  After that, she seemed completely steady and confident.  She never toppled over and banged her head on the ground or on furniture.  Callie has always been a very physically cautious child, and it seemed like if she sensed she was in danger of falling, she would just bend down instead.

We've seen a lot of other motor-skill development as well.  She's been able to bend down and pick up a toy for awhile now, as well as pass a toy between both hands.  She can stack the rings on the pin, put large shape blocks in their respective holes (with guidance on which hole it goes in).  She puts items in a container, and she even puts spoons in milk-jug holes (now to retrieve my spoons back...).  Callie also likes to help open and close the refrigerator and the microwave, and help turn on and off the light switches. Sometimes she helps dress herself by putting her arms in her jacket, but she's really much better at undressing herself...

She has developed quite a bit of language in the past 3 months as well.  I think when she was a year, we were mostly hearing "mama" and "dada"  Now, she has a whole vocabulary it seems!  Her favorite words are:  Mama, dada, nana (banana), teetee (kitty), bye-bye, all-dah (all done), ah-beh (strawberry), bite, pea, teeth, shoes, mo (more), puppy, then Gab-gab (meaning Gabby, but Isaac says Gab-gab and this is what Callie calls all dogs now...) Iya (Isaac), ba (bath), Auntie, no, yeah, up, down, out, and (our favorite) nom-nom.

Calista's social skills have grown, too!  She's starting to take interest in other children.  She LOVES playing with Isaac and Hannah, and she'll interact more and play with children at day care as well.  Katee (Isaac's mom) calls the two of them "Monkey-see, monkey-do" because it doesn't seem to matter which one instigates, they both copy each other in whatever they are doing.  It's so fun to watch them play!

Likes:  Books!  All kinds of books.  All the time.  Books, books, books.  She'll bring a book to us, and sit in our lap, and turn the pages for us, and point to pictures.  She's not so interested in the story but at turning pages and pointing to things so we'll say what they are.  And pointing back and forth 8 billion times to the same two pictures, and we repeat 8 billion times what they are...  When I got up last Saturday morning after Bryann had let me sleep in, I sat down in the living room and Callie brought me "Eating the Alphabet", Bryann says, exhausingly, "Oh yeah, she loves that book this morning.  We've read that 10 times already..."

She also likes exploring everything, pulling tissues out of the kleenex box, playing the piano and dancing to jitterbug, walks outside, playing with other children, playing "peek-a-boo", Kitty, climbing on things, being tickled, being pushed down on the bed or couch and landing in a pile of pillows.

Dislikes:  Having whatever she wants to play with that she's not allowed to play with taken away from her, being told "No", being moved from an area she's not supposed to be in - basically not getting what she wants all the time.  I usually just let her tantrum and tell her "We don't get everything we want.  I know it's hard and very frustrating." and then ask her if she wants mommy hugs (which she usually does after a good cry.)

Things I Don't Want to Forget:
Callie's favorite toys are not actually toys, but boxes. Whenever we do a Costco run, the box flats get recycled into toys for Callie. She LOVES to climb on things so any new box presents a new climbing challenge. In, out, up, down, repeat!








Monday, October 20, 2014

30 Day Photo Challenge: Day 1 - Self Portrait

So I'm starting a 30-day photo challenge with my friend Annie to get me out of my comfort level and get me practicing with some of the settings outside my comfort level on my new DSLR camera.  We will share pictures on Instagram or Facebook, but I also wanted to document here as well so I could remember what obstacles I was dealing with when choosing different settings.

Day 1 - A Self Portrait

What?  Not every day involves bokeh and taking pictures of my baby??  This challenge is already challenging me to get outside my comfort zone.  Who knew that self-portraits with DSLRs were so difficult?  Well, they're enormous cameras with no front-view, so I guess it's somewhat obvious.  

I went two different directions with my self-portrait.  One I took in front of a mirror, and the other I went outside and held the camera in my left arm as far away from my body as I could, and took about 8 billion pictures swirling around in a circle because I wasn't sure where the light was.  

With both photos, I gradually pushed by aperture up from f/1.8 until I got the focal length I thought looked best.  

For the picture outside, I took the ISO off auto after awhile, and set it at 800 because I wanted a brighter picture than the auto setting was giving me, so the background is a little grainy.  The ISO is super high on the mirror photo.  I knew I was putting this in black and white, and I like a little grain in BW so I didn't bother meddling.  I would have had to go full manual mode and bring the shutter speed down to adjust for exposure, and I'm not ready for full manual yet.  

For the photo in the mirror, I set the focus on my left eye, and then flipped the photo post-production so the Canon label wasn't reading backwards.  For the photo outside, since I was taking it in true selfie style, I put it on auto-focus and hoped for the best!  

Both photos were taken with my 50mm lens in Aperture mode.  Some day, my goal is to shoot in manual mode, but Day 1 of my photo challenge is not the day.  

f/4.5, 1/80s, ISO:3200

f/4.0, 1/2000s, ISO:800