Pumpkin Heads

Trampoline Fun, September Flowers

Yesterday I was playing with Toby and decided to get my camera to get pictures of our fun!
I also took pictures of the flowers around the backyard.

Then I took some of the flower pictures and played around with them on PhotoShop. That's a fun program!

I also altered this picture of Toby (above). I lightened it up and added highlights.

Toby had so much fun jumping with the bucket of water, we'll probably do it again today.

As for the potty training, I've dedicated the whole day, each day to getting Toby into underwear. It takes a lot of work (Toby seems to understand what to do, and then he has a colossal accident that takes all of my patience and energy not to give up and put him in a diaper for the rest of the day.

I have to give up my regular workouts, taking Toby to the playgrounds, or going anywhere unless it can be done in a half hour (Toby can hold his bladder longer than that, but I'm afraid of him having an accident, especially if it's poo). Toby seems to like using the big toilet rather than the potty so I ordered a fold-up seat to go on the big toilets at the restrooms in stores, so as soon as that gets to Walmart, we'll be able to go places.

No More Diapers (hopefully) :)

Yesterday we noticed we needed to buy another box of diapers (having only around 10 left) but with Greg out of a job right now, we both did not want to buy them. So we decided it was a good time for Toby to be potty trained. :)

He's been interested in the idea for awhile now. He likes it when I read potty books to him, so we told him that he will wear diapers only for night time and that from now on he'll be wearing underwear and using the potty or toilet.

I've set up a Potty Success Chart where every time he goes potty he gets to stamp off a square and when all the squares are stamped off he gets a special treat (ring pop - he loves those). Also he gets a jelly bean every time he goes.

Yesterday he had 3 or 4 accidents but today he's only had one and a half (he slightly wet his underwear before he made it to the toilet). He seems to like going in the toilet rather than the potty (I think the potty is uncomfortable for him) so I ordered a potty seat that folds up so I can stick it in the diaper bag for church and stuff.

So far it's going well. I hope this will be the end of diapers during the day!

A Short, Funny Video

Here's just a funny thing that happened while we were at Vonnie's house when we evacuated Herriman during the fire. I let Toby take pictures with our camera and here is the result!

Cheesy Smile

Uncle Ben teaches Toby his "Cheesy Smile" -

Toby Can Read! Sort of :)

So Toby has been learning his letters and their sounds and these are a couple attempts at reading! He's only two and a half years old so we're pretty excited about him learning to read at such an early age. We're not pushing him, he just likes letters!

Cindy Going to the Temple!

Cindy came down here to Utah to go to the Temple for the first time. Dono and his family and Doug and Sarah came, along with Cindy's parents and me and Greg. Ben and Julie (and someone from the ward) watched all the kids!

Can you see Greg? He's there...

Some nice lady took our picture so we could all be in it.

Easter at the Platts

More Photo Fun!

So I discovered a few more functions on our camera. The photo above is enhanced with the "Starburst Effect". Can you see the twinkle in Toby's eyes?

"Happy Faces". Apparently it's supposed to enhance people's smiles. Or in this case, makes them creepy.

"Partial Color". Isn't it pretty?

"Fisheye Lens". Another creepy effect when you try it on a closeup face.

Another fisheye lens enhancement. Josslyn looks a bit strange!

Another fisheye lens...

No enhancement here, just having fun with Toby's flashcards.

New Camera!

Wow! When Greg ordered the digital camera from Club Bing, I expected it to be mediocre. But I can't believe how much better it is than my $100 Polaroid!

For one thing, this new camera can take closeups! My old didn't.

It's a Sony Cyber-Shot 230, 12 mega pixels.

This shot would have been completely blurry and yellowed. My old camera couldn't handle natural indoor light.

It has a smile detector! You hold down the button and it waits for a smile, then takes the picture.

It can take action shots or low light shots, two things my other camera couldn't do. My Polaroid took too long to shoot for action shots, and in low light, it just did flash, making it appear like the subject was in a room with the lights out.

With a shot like this, my other camera would have blurred, confused at what to focus on.

It has a function for sepia, black and white, and vivid color shots. The one of the pennies is shot with vivid colors.

And the best thing of all - the battery pack holds a charge for hours! I can take tons of photos without having to recharge! My old camera would go through batteries every few minutes!

I'm loving this camera!