This week at Jason's daycare they are learning about pets, as part of which they've asked us parents to bring in a picture of our kids with their family pets. That seems like it should be pretty easy, but let me tell you, Cooper has a black belt in looking away from the camera at the last second. It's some serious Remo Williams*-type stuff. Between that and trying to get Jason to sit still, this photo is nothing short of amazing.

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* For those of you who, unlike my brother and I, don't have an affinity for cheesy 80's action flicks, this is a reference to a 1985 movie about a super agent who learns, among other things, how to dodge bullets by watching the muscles in the shooter's trigger finger.

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Nikon D40, Nikkor 35mm f/1.8 DX
f/5.6, 1/125, ISO 200

We had some friends over on Saturday and when it was time to put the kids to bed* it turned out that Jason and his friend E had the same pajamas. This initially caused some consternation as Jason thought that E had taken his pajamas, but when it was revealed that there were actually two identical pairs, both boys became very excited. When we suggested taking their picture, they got even more excited. Which, as you can see, lasted about as long as it took me to retrieve my camera.

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* I always used to get so jealous of my parents and their friends when they got to stay up late and have fun. It's interesting being on the other side of that now.

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Nikon D40 and Nikkor 35mm f/1.8 DX
f/2.8, 1/125, ISO 200
On-camera Vivitar DF-383 @ TTL, bounced from ceiling

You see this face? This is the face of a boy who has gone an entire day without a potty accident.

Best. Day. Ever.

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Nikon D40, Nikkor 35mm f/1.8 DX
f/2, 1/60, ISO 200
On-camera Vivitar DF-383 @ TTL

Usually when I think of Jason these days I think about how well he speaks or how much different he is from a year ago. I think about how he's not a baby anymore, and it makes me a little wistful. So I forget sometimes just how little he still is.

He had some trouble keeping up at his dance recital this weekend, but, perhaps because he's so little, he ended up getting the biggest cheers of any of the boys in his group. I got a little choked up at that, I admit.

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Nikon D40, Nikkor 55-200mm VR DX @ 70mm
f/4.2, 1/125, ISO 1600

"I'm Batman."

"You're Batman."

"Yeah. I'm Batman. You're Spiderman."

"I'm Spiderman?"

"And Mommy is... corn."

You know, I keep meaning to write new reviews, but with one thing or another, it keeps falling by the wayside. Seems like I set out almost every day to catch up on my reviews, but by the time I've got the dishes done and the laundry put away and my son bathed and I've finished the day's work for my new photography business, all I want to do is collapse on the couch and watch re-runs of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. On the plus side, that means I've been ending a lot of evenings lately doing what I want—Juliette and I started season five of Buffy this week—but, of course, it means I've slipped a lot on some of my other responsibilities.

But you didn't come here to hear me whine. You came here for book reviews. So, in an effort to finally get back on track, I decided to do one huge omnibus review of everything I've read in the past six months. The twist? Each review gets six words.

The Hunger Games Trilogy: If you haven't already, read it.

The Illuminatus! Trilogy: Conspiracy theories make my head hurt.

Leviathan Wakes: The best new sci-fi in years.

Treason's Shore: A weaker series than I remembered.

His Majesty's Dragon: Like Hornblower, but with dragons. Fun.

Lolita: Beautiful prose, utterly uncomfortable reading experience.

And there we are. Hopefully it won't be another six months before I can get my act together. ;)

The Hunger Games

Started: 12/7/2010 | Finished: 12/8/2010

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Catching Fire

Started: 1/24/2011 | Finished: 1/25/2011

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Mockingjay

Started: 1/26/2011 | Finished: 1/26/2011

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The Illuminatus! Trilogy

Started: 1/4/2011 | Finished: 1/21/2011

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Leviathan Wakes

Started: 1/31/2011 | Finished: 2/8/2011

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Treason's Shore

Started: 3/11/2011 | Finished: 3/16/2011

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His Majesty's Dragon

Started: 3/17/2011 | Finished: 3/19/2011

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Lolita

Started: 3/21/2011 | Finished: 4/6/2011

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Jason had his first big dance recital this weekend. He was pretty excited about it, as you can see.

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Nikon D40, Nikkor 35mm f/1.8 DX
f/1.8, 1/400, ISO 200