moosh in indy.

I think the one email/message/question I get the most that I don’t already have a post dedicated to is “WHAT KIND OF CAMERA SHOULD I GET!?” I’ve never written it because I’m still not entirely sure I know what I’m talking about and I’m certainly not the best photographer in the world, I just really like doing it and learning more about it every chance I get.

So after six years, here it is. What kind of camera you should get (according to me.) I add the according to me part because I am only fluent in Canon (I don’t speak a lick of Nikon) and because my mama raised me that you invest in equipment if you’re serious, which I am. Of course I can hand out advice for those who are not as serious, but know that I am a bit of a camera snob. I’m also a flip flop snob. I would rather get a pair of $40 Born flip flops that will be comfortable and last me for several years than a $1 pair from Old Navy that will give me shin splints and only last for one summer. (No offense Old Navy flip flops, I still like you for the gym and the pool!)

by Shireen

Photography is not a cheap hobby if you really want to take it seriously. Expensive equipment won’t make you better, but learning how to use what you have properly and upgrading from there will help. Just like a super fancy stove won’t instantly make you a good cook, it can make cooking easier once you know how to cook. Make sense? I’m all about the analogies lately.

POINT AND SHOOTS

So you just need a camera that’s slightly better than your phone but not a huge investment? Deal, however my advice on this is kind of lame. I’m going to ask you to go to a store and mess with the three dozen different options. If you know what’s most important to you and you are able to go to a legit camera store, they’ll be able to help you with your decision. (Most important for me with a point and shoot is fast start up and having it actually take the picture right when I click the shutter. I also like a good macro (close up) setting.) Currently I use a $160 Kodak Easy Share that does well enough, in the past I’ve really liked Casios. I’ve found that with Canon point and shoots they attempt to make a little camera do too much. In my mind a point and shoot should do just that, point and shoot – leaving you with the best photo possible in whatever situation you happen to be in.

If you’re looking for something a little fancier but not quite ready for a DSLR I would suggest a Canon PowerShot SX20IS camera. Bigger than a point and shoot but smaller (and much cheaper) than a DLSR, these cameras have almost all the capabilities of a DSLR without the need to change lenses. My mother in law has one and I would own one if I could justify such a thing. It can take amazing macros, take good wide angles and has a really good zoom. The f/stop is a 2.8, which to get a DSLR lens an f/stop of 2.8 you’ll have to pay at least $1K (except for the 50mm.) At under $500 the Canon SX20IS will let you take really good photos (it has good ‘dummy buttons’ as my step mom calls them) and have the ability to control the settings when you’re ready to learn more, all without making a huge investment.

MICRO DSLR (Four Thirds Interchangeable Lens Cameras)

These are kind of new. Maybe. They’re they size of point and shoots with interchangeable lenses. Some people like them, I am not one of them. The lenses can cost as much as DSLR lenses and don’t really have that great of range. The most popular is the Olympus PEN camera, I borrowed one for a month and was never satisfied with it. Very clunky and not nearly as convenient as it was marketed to be. That being said, some people really do love the things, if you’re interested see if you can borrow one first or make sure wherever you buy it from has a good return policy, just in case.

DSLR (Digital Single Lens Reflex)

So you think you’re ready to make the jump into a DSLR? Good for you! Please remember I only speak Canon, so before you go taking my advice go to a reputable camera store and hold both a Canon and Nikon in your hands. Which one feels better to you? There are other brands of DSLRs available but for convenience, let’s just keep it to Canon and Nikon for now. Thankfully almost everything Canon has, Nikon has a comparable equivalent, I just don’t know the Nikon lingo.

I need to work on fitting back into those jeans.

The most current and basic DSLR (at the time that I write this) is the Canon t3i, the body alone is around $600 depending on where you buy it. You can get kits that come with a kit lens and this is where my camera/flip flop snobbery comes in. Yes. The kit lens is only about $150 more, but it’s not going to take you very far and you’re going to get very frustrated with it if you intend on taking this photo thing seriously. If you do get better and someday want to upgrade that kit lens is going to be $15o of dead weight that you’ll never be able to unload. IF IT WERE ME, I would get just the t3i body and the 50mm f/1.4 ($370.) I would practice and practice and learn what I like THEN add another lens depending on what I wanted. Wider angle? More macro ability? Better zoom? I’d also rent or borrow the lens I was considering for a week before really making the leap (especially if it was a super expensive one.) I have a $500 zoom lens and a $1,700 wide angle zoom and I swear to you I use my 50mm 90% of the time. (I also wish I would have gotten the 15-35 f/2.8L instead of the 24-70 f/2.8L, FYI.) It’s worth it to save up for a few extra months to get something that will last that you really want.

The next level of Canon camera bodies are-

• 60D – $899 (body only) Faster shutter speed and faster continuous shooting than t3i (the new 60Da has an infrared sensor…which is cool, but not really worth the extra $600 unless you dig infrared photography.)

• 7D – $1,549 (body only) Faster shutter speed and faster continuous shooting than 60D

• 5D – $3,499 (body only) Higher megapixels and full format (meaning it actually takes 4 x 6 photos rather than having to do an awkward crop.)

I had a 40D before which served me well for five years until I outgrew the ISO and bought a 7D in January. I could really care less about the video capabilities, but that seems to be the norm on most cameras these days.

LENSES

Kit lenses (the ones that come in the box or with a “kit” or “set” on Amazon or in the store) don’t bother with them if you can avoid it (see above.) I know this is the not possible for everyone starting out (what do you mean money doesn’t grow on trees?) but it is my advice to everyone. Just something to keep in mind.

My 40D and 17-85 f/4-5.6 IS, the good ol’ days.

The smaller the number the more stuff you’ll be able to get in one frame. The bigger the number the farther it can/does/will zoom. The widest lens I have is 24mm. The longest one I have is 300mm. This post shows the focal lengths of Canon lenses. (See the red bands on all of her lenses? That means they’re L-series, which means they’re made of really good glass and that they’re really expensive. Here’s a post about L-Series lenses.) If you like shooting people, here’s a visual on using different focal lengths when shooting people.

Check out the difference between these two photos:

This one was taken with my 24-70, I was using an off camera flash (another thing for another day) but see how the bushes behind her aren’t very out of focus?

This one was taken with my 70-300, I was standing so far from her I had to practically yell at her to move the way I wanted her to, but see how much better the background blurred even though the f/stop is so much higher? Standing back and zooming in let me get a lovely blurred background without having to use a thousand dollar low f/stop lens. It’s a great way to “game” the lens you have to get the effect you want.

Before I had my 50mm f/1.4 I had a 50mm f/1.8 ($100) and before my 28-70mm f/2.8 I had a 17-85mm f/4-5.6 IS ($599) and I’ve always had a 70-300mm f/4-5.6 IS ($450.) I miss the wide angle of my 17-85mm sometimes. The next lens I’d like to get is either a 60mm f/2.8 Macro ($429) or the 85mm f/1.2L  ($2,049) I feel as though I have all my basic bases covered with the lenses I do have, anything else would really just be a luxury. One lens is never going to do everything you could dream, want or desire, so you have to figure out what’s most important to you and how much you want to spend.

FLASH

You don’t need a really fancy flash. You just need something that shoots out light and can be set to a manual setting. I have the 430EXII ($279) which is probably a little more flash than I need but I bought it before I knew that more money doesn’t make a better flash. If you want to go off camera there’s several different ways to do it (I use a Pocket Wizard.) A lot of people poo poo flash which is what I used to do, but natural light isn’t always available or pretty so sometimes you’re going to have to use flash. Even though you may hate it, you may as well learn how to use a flash so you can use it right when the situation arises unless you have the power to control natural light which is something I certainly don’t have.

A flash used properly.

EXTRAS

I got a battery grip for my 7D ($58.95) and LOVE IT. It allows me to have 2 batteries to power my camera (had to purchase an extra battery separately, I just got a generic) and it gives me a second vertical shutter release. I’ve had to charge my camera three times since buying it (Including the very first charge.)

Macro adapter ($50) let’s me take macro photos with my 50mm. It’s not AS NICE as a real macro lens but it’s much easier to use than an extension tube and far cheaper.

(without)

(with)

Lens filters. In case you missed it…THIS IS WHY WE USE LENS FILTERS.

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Holy crap that was a lot, and it took a really long time. I hope it helped you. If you still have more specific questions, please ask so I know what else you’d like for me to cover. If someone would like to translate this into Nikon, be my guest. xo (Also, all links to Amazon are affiliate so you can further fund my habit by enabling yours.)

There are very few words to describe Addie as she is more of an experience. Like stepping outside on a surprisingly windy day with a handful of balloons, they twist and turn trying to take off in the wind and eventually bop you on top of the head repeatedly. As she’s gotten bigger it’s harder to capture the very essence of her in a photo since she’s learned to be hammy and cheesy whenever my lens is pointed in her direction.

But, oh!

When I do get her.

It’s like capturing her childhood and giggles in a beautiful little jar and being able to hold onto them and enjoy them whenever I want.

I told her the other afternoon that someday there would be songs written about her hair. Wonderful songs that make you want to dance and twirl until you’re dizzy and out of breath.

This wonderful little creature that I call mine is like the most spectacular puppy, long gangly limbs desperately trying to manage some sort of order as she bounds into life headfirst with nothing but love and affection for everyone and everything in her path. She still has strong opinions on managing evil fairies and the proper attire for a princess all while refining her taste in boy bands and the latest dance moves.

Every afternoon she pulls her sister into her bedroom to play. While Vivi chews on Barbie legs and and bangs teacups together, Addie orchestrates grand adventures where she is the pirate and Vivi is the shark. Sometimes Vivi plays the role of baby princess while Addie plays the grownup princess who is forced into marrying someone who is most definitely not her true love. Vivi is adorned with necklaces, crowns and capes, all of which she tears off and throws to the side. Addie never minds, she continues on in her marvelous little world of make believe where everyone falls in love and unicorns really do exist.

My friend Lisa makes magical things for magical little girls like Addie and very lucky moms like me.  And  her newest fine pewter collection makes that a reality for many more families on a budget. All the handmade beauty of her silver pieces at far more affordable prices. Sign up for her newsletter on the bottom right corner of her site for a 15% discount on your first purchase.

Addie is my star and my heart and thanks to Lisa I carry her with me wherever I go (Vivi is back there too, self portraits of necklaces are hard.)

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Giveaway closed, thanks to all who entered and congrats to BeyondNormalMom for winning!

To enter, subscribe to Lisa’s newsletter and leave me a comment telling me you did (lying gives you gas.) You can also tell me what your favorite color is if you feel like it. Mine is dark yellow at the moment. Giveaway will end at Midnight EST on Mother’s Day. Good luck!

So this post I did last month about what I’ve learned so far about taking photos almost every day this year was pretty popular (by the way, I fixed the little glitch that didn’t let you pin an actual photo.)

“MOAR! MOAR PHOTO POSTS!” you cried. (Well, some of you cried, and I want to help you! I really do!)

Now that it’s summer and you’re going to be out in the bright sunlight (hopefully) a lot you need to make friends with your shutter speed and ISO.

The brighter it is outside the lower your ISO needs to be. The darker it is (usually inside) the higher your ISO needs to be. (The lower the ISO the better the color saturation and less noise/grain.)

Example:

(Seriously, no worse lighting than high noon sun, in a perfect world I would have moved them into full shade.) 55mm f/3.2 1/640 ISO 100

If it’s darker? You need to move your ISO up.

(This is in Addie’s gym with nothing but overhead florescent lights.) 300mm f/5.6 1/100 ISO 1600

Back to the bright sunlight. ISO 100.

If you keep your shutter speed too low (assuming you’re shooting on manual) your shutter will be open too long essentially blinding your camera, like flipping on a bright light to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night, everything is blurry and white. If you turn your shutter speed up not only will it catch motion faster, it will retain more of the details since the shutter is essentially “blinking” much faster. Dude, I’m not even sure if that makes any sense. VISUAL!

The first shot my camera said “WHOA! TOO BRIGHT! CAN’T PROCESS SO MUCH LIGHT!” and way overexposed. By making the shutter speed faster I was able to retain more detail and avoid overexposure. Shutter speed also controls how well motion freezes. The higher the shutter speed the better the freeze. The lower, the more blurry moving objects tend to be.

50mm f/2.5 1/160 ISO 1000 (ISO was high because it was a very overcast day, I wanted to keep all of his face in focus which is why I didn’t drop my f/stop into the 1′s to make it possible to lower my ISO.)

50mm f/2.2 1/800 ISO 200

Here’s the deal and something I had to learn the hard way, there’s no way to get everything you want out of a single camera or a single lens for a decent price. Even if you have heaps and gobs of money to spend you’re still not going to be able to have one “end all be all” set up. You have to choose what’s most important to you and base your purchases off of that and learn to game the other things you have into doing what you want (more on that later.) You’re not going to be able to get a sharp photo of a cat launching off the couch indoors in poor light without a flash, and if you use a flash you’re most likely going to compromise the depth of field (blur.) You’re also not going to ever find a lens that can take a really close up macro of a flower then zoom across the street to take a photo of your kid’s face riding their bike. You’ll discover as you get better at this photography thing that you’ll wish your camera or lens did something just a little different. I know with my zoom lens I wish I had a lower f/stop so it worked better in low light. Sure enough, there’s a zoom lens with a lower f/stop but it’s $1K more, weighs 9 pounds and is the size of a small keg, so I make my 70-300 f/5.6 IS do what I need it to do as well as it can do it and I realize there are some shots I just won’t ever get with it.

The best thing I can tell you to do is mess with your camera. Mess with it until your family asks if it’s broken because you’re fiddling with it so much. Turn the ISO up, turn it  down, then move the shutter speed around and see what happens. Soon the strange choreographed dance between ISO, f/stop and shutter speed will begin to make sense (I’m 6 months in and it’s just barely starting to click, full disclosure.)

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Tomorrow night (May 10th 8pm EST) Clickin’ Moms is hosting a twitter party around the new book “Beyond Snapshots” which is all about getting your camera off the green square “Cody” setting and onto bigger and better things. There will be prizes (so many prizes!) and you’ll be able to ask questions (so many questions!) I’ll be there, snooping around, answering what I can. Perhaps you’ll join us? Find out more from Jill (and see the prizes!) and RSVP if you think you can make it.

As usual, my offer still stands of a free trial or 20% off a membership to Clickin’ Moms.

Get a free trial with the code ‘MOOSHTRIAL’

Get 20% off with the code ‘MOOSH20′

Hope to see you tomorrow night ’round the twitters!

Thanks to Clickin’ Moms for having me as an ambassador and providing me with a membership to the Clickin’ Moms forums. All links to Clickin’ Moms are affiliate.

So Vivi doesn’t really like cake. Or balloons.

But she ate enough Mexican food at lunch to convince me that she is in fact my daughter.

She had a wonderfully simple birthday.

Her friends sang her Happy Birthday, something Addie has always hated.

Vivi seemed pretty thrilled with the whole idea.

Thank you for all the birthday wishes. One day I’ll be able share with her how many people have loved her since before she was even born.

Cake from 111 Cakery, inspired by Sweetapolita. White dress from Target, floral jumper from Paulina Quintana via Zulily.

sunday.

monday.

tuesday.

wednesday didn’t happen, here’s why.

thursday.

friday.

saturday.

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the fourteenth seven days

the thirteenth seven days

the twelfth seven days

the eleventh seven days

(let’s just accept that the eight, ninth, and tenth may never happen)

the seventh seven days

the sixth seven days

the fifth seven says

the fourth seven days

the third seven days.

the second seven days.

the first seven days.

Hey there, nice camera. What is that? A 60? A 600? What size card have you got in there? Have you figured out backlighting yet? Oh, you’re still shooting on the green square? That’s cool, I call the green square the Cody setting. He knows if he wants to use my camera and I’m not around to dial it around to that little hollow green box and snap away. But he also knows about the rule of thirds and not to cut people off at the ankles. I’m pretty impressed with what he’s learned so far.

He took this photo, he’s very proud of the non-ankle cutting and the thirds.

(50mm f/2.8 1/60 ISO 200)

He even held the camera straight, which is something I cannot do to save my life half the time.

This photo is kind of the perfect example of what I want to write about today, we’ll call it “What I’ve Learned From Taking Photos Every Single Day This Year” (Well, almost every single day, I can think of two that I missed entirely, today included. No biggie.) I have shot with my 50mm f/1.4 for probably 90% of the time this year. Every single photo from Paul’s birth, our trip to Florida as well as every photo I took in Utah last week (including Tayden’s birth) was taken with my 50mm. If you don’t have one, you should get one. A 50mm f/1.8 will run you about $100, if you can swing it, the f/1.4 has a much faster focus and a far more solid feel to it. If you can, take your camera into a camera shop, try them both out and give them a feel. If you like shooting big epic landscape photos I’ll refer you to my mom, that’s kind of her thing.

(50mm f/2.8 1/500 ISO 250)

So you have your 50mm and if you’re anything like me you’re firmly rooted in the belief that the lowest f/stop possible is a must. Sometimes it is. But most of the time it is not. One of the biggest problems I was having in January were these adorable photos of Vivi where nothing was sharp. They looked good enough on screen but if you really zoomed in they were blurry. I was shooting with the lowest possible f/stop and what that meant was I had a VERY narrow allowance of what was actually in focus before everything else dropped off into bokeh (out of focus.) If she moved the slightest bit I’d focus on her eyebrow, making her eyes out of focus. Or if I focused on one eye but she was at an angle the other eye was out of focus. It was infuriating. If you’re far back from your subject low f/stop isn’t such a problem, but up close and personal it matters. Rather than shooting at f/1.4 I bump it up to my new favorite, f/2.5 and turn up my ISO (usually around 400) to compensate for the loss of light with the low f/stop. Today’s cameras are so great that you can get up into pretty high ISO before noise ever becomes an issue.

(50mm f/2.5 1/800 ISO 320)

Suddenly all of Vivi’s eyeballs were in focus while the background stayed lovely and blurred (go ahead, click on ‘view all sizes’ and view it original. I DARE YOU.)

If you’re in the super bright sunlight and you shoot with Canon, keep your ISO at 100, Nikon 200. Adjust everything else accordingly. Nothing will give you better brighter colors right out of the camera as having your ISO as low as it can go for the conditions that you’re in.  Perhaps there’s a better way to take pictures of a dog attacking a tennis ball, but my parents seemed pretty happy with the way I did it.

(50mm f/2.2 1/1000 ISO 800)

I bought myself a new camera in January. I didn’t make a very big deal out of it because I’m still convinced it’s the person running the camera that has more to do with how photos come out than the equipment used. I shot with a Canon 40D for years and after going to a Zack Arias workshop I decided to keep on going with my 40D until I outgrew it, Zack’s greatest bit of advice. I pushed that camera to its very limits, I know how everything works on it and I know its limits. The thing I outgrew the most was the ISO, the 40D can only make it to 1600 ISO, my new 7D can be pushed to 6400, meaning I can practically take pictures in pitch dark (not really, but it kind of feels like it.)

(50mm f/1.6 1/60 ISO 4000 (I know! SHUT UP FOUR THOUSAND!))

If you want to get better at taking pictures, learn how to use what you have, don’t just keep wishing, hoping and going into debt for the next latest and greatest camera thinking that will make you better, it won’t. It will just make you a mediocre fauxtographer with overpriced equipment. Moving from my 40D to my 7D was like moving from a 3 bedroom townhouse to a 5 bedroom home. I have plenty of room to grow, and at times it seems like a little too much.

(50mm f/4.0 1/320 ISO 200)

Learn to love your histogram. Speak its language. If your camera has one, use it. I use mine 80% of the time to tell me how I’m doing rather than relying on the preview. I used to use highlight alerts but that’s not the most reliable way to tell how good your exposure is. Here are a couple of articles that explain a histogram better than I can (seriously, I’ve tried. I’m awful at it unless you’re sitting right next to me.) this one does a pretty good overview of your in camera histogram while this one covers your post processing histogram.

Not every photo is going to be perfect every time, all that really matters in the end is that you’re there to take it and that you enjoy doing it.

(50mm f/2.8 1/800 ISO 100)

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Overwhelmed? Yeah. Me too. The good news? I just typed in ‘histogram’ over at Clickin’ Moms and got 7 pages of results, which sounds overwhelming, but each question can be narrowed down to post processing software used, camera used, level of skill and just who asked or answered what. I know a few of you have signed up (I get emails when you do! It’s so exciting to see who’s drinking the learning about my camera cocktail!) but if you haven’t…

Get a free trial with the code ‘MOOSHTRIAL’

Ready to jump in viewfinder first? Get 20% off with the code ‘MOOSH20′

Hope to see you over there!

Thanks to Clickin’ Moms for having me as an ambassador and providing me with a membership to the Clickin’ Moms forums. All links to Clickin’ Moms are affiliate.

sunday. (tutorial for the eggs here!)

monday.

tuesday.

wednesday.

thursday.

friday.

(She didn’t drink any or cut herself. I could tell one of you was worried.)

saturday.

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the thirteenth seven days

the twelfth seven days

the eleventh seven days

(let’s just accept that the eight, ninth, and tenth may never happen)

the seventh seven days

the sixth seven days

the fifth seven says

the fourth seven days

the third seven days.

the second seven days.

the first seven days.

Taped to the door of room 7 was a plain piece of paper that read “Shannon Michaels is breezing through this process with hypnobirthing.”

Now I’ve heard good things about hypnobirthing, but knowing what my sister was going through two doors down made me want to burst into Shannon’s room, kick her support person in the ankles, and begin singing ABBA at the top of my lungs.

I took all my frustration out on Shannon’s smug little sign because I couldn’t do anything for my sister. (Well, I did some things, but nothing that felt even remotely useful despite her claiming it was.)

For any of you unfamiliar, I have one sister who is 22 months older than me. She’s the best sister I could have asked for, we’re a swell little team with quiet voices and substantial noses. She’s never been larger than a size 2 in her life and the next most surprising thing after finding out she was pregnant was seeing her sprout boobs, real. live. boobs, around 5 months. (Pregnancy! Whoo!) She is a very petite person and her pregnant figure was nothing short of adorable and full of baby. From behind no one would have never guessed what was looming out in front.

When she said she was going to try for an unmedicated birth I thought “GO YOU! But you do remember bruising a rib coughing that one time right?” Unmedicated labor fit her M.O. so I wasn’t surprised. When she’s sick she drinks tea, I take NyQuil and say sayonara cruel world. When she orders Thai she asks for the tofu while I ask if there’s an option to get all the meat. She takes herbs, I take drugs. She drinks spritzers while I drink Mexican Coke. She eats beets and thinks they’re delicious. I like cheeseburgers, she likes miso soup.

She was there for my labor with Addie and knew what a pleasant person I became after my epidural so I never said anything more, she knew the option was there.

Her water broke just before 3 am on April 2nd. She had already been in early labor for what seemed like the entire week, and certainly since the previous afternoon (April Fools sucka!) She was big and uncomfortable but once we were all at the hospital she went straight into listening to her body, making all the adjustments, bossy demands and movements necessary for her to be (somewhat) comfortable. After several hours of swaying and groaning I thought “Hot damn, she’s OWNING this birth thing! No drugs for her! This birth is going to be powered by ice chips and counter pressure alone!”

She didn’t progress a whole lot. 2 cm when she arrived, 4 cm after several hours and only 5 cm after several very, very long and painful hours. She was exhausted. We all were, but she hadn’t slept for almost 36 hours and she hadn’t slept well in at least 4 months. I could tell she was scared, I was scared. I wished I could take it all away for her. That I could do it for her. I’d done it twice, I could handle it! Let me do it! But that’s not how this birth thing works.

She never said the words out loud, but we knew what she wanted, and truthfully it was getting to the point where we all knew that’s what she needed.

Her birth plan went from ‘Unmedicated Childbirth’ to ‘Kicking Birth’s @$$‘.

Even after medication she was still uncomfortable but able to rest. She was checked again we were all surprised to hear she had progressed to a 9 and the nurse said she’d be pushing within the hour.

“Is pushing hard?” she asked me.

“Nope. It’s like pooping.” I responded.

Oh, how I regret those words.

Her doctor told her most first time moms push for an average of 45 minutes to an hour. I stood to the side and thought “Pfft. You haven’t seen my family give birth. We practically SNEEZE babies out.”

After watching her push for nearly two and a half hours I was choking back tears and wondering what gold trimmed and diamond encrusted present I could buy her that would show her how very, very sorry I was for ever saying pushing is like pooping.

I’ll spare some of the more personal details that would make your bits clench in solidarity and say he made it out.

All 9 lbs. 6 oz. and 22.5″ of him.

My tiny sister birthed a baby that was nearly 9% of her pre-pregnancy body weight.

No one saw that coming.

I knew I liked her husband but boy if I didn’t fall in love with him even more as I saw the love he had for my sister and their new son during those crazy intense 12 hours.

In the end she got her baby. A perfect little man with a full head of dark hair, thigh rolls, a dimpled chin and chubby cheeks.

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We had a talk tonight over sushi about how we have these things we get to keep.

We have husbands with whom we are madly in love with.

We have homes with mortgages in our names.

We have the jobs we dreamt of as little girls.

And now we have these perfect little children that we get to keep for as long as they’ll have us.

I always knew my sister was a good one, but I never knew just how strong she was until yesterday.

I love you sissy, and your little men too.