Much like I did last year and the year before, here are some awards that I made up and some stats about the 366 (This year was a Leap Year!) daily posts for 2012 in Pictures.
Best Write-Up:
Top 7 Best Titles (in chronological order):
- They See Me Strollin' They Hatin'. (3/30/12)
- Cinco de Witt (5/5/12)
- Foam Party (6/6/12)
- McCormick & Smiths (6/16/12)
- Gasoline Starkiss (9/17/12)
- Box Seats (9/21/12)
- Pottying Like It's 2012 (9/30/12)
Top 5 Best Photography (in chronological order):
- Is there a Sherangioma? (5/7/12): I wanted to get Clara's picture by the sign, but I needed about three hands to do it. With some work, I was able to still hold her safely and get the picture that I wanted.
- Sunshower (7/7/12): Some of these were taken with our good camera, which resulted in some beautiful pictures, even capturing the rain in sharp detail. The sunrays in the top-right picture turned out great.
- Mama and Baby (10/22/12): This one isn't about anything I did or the quality of the camera. The lighting was already perfect, and the two girls were already perfect. I saw it and immediately grabbed the camera to make sure I was able to get a picture of it before one of them woke up.
- Unseasonably Warm (11/9/12): Meghan did a great job in the photo on the right of capturing the beautiful fall leaves in the foreground at the top while still getting Joshua playing with another branch in the background.
- Multi-Kid Blockfest (12/1/12): Joshua's main interest was in knocking down stacks of blocks, and I wanted to capture that (in the top-right photo). I had my cheaper camera with me, which isn't fast. So I had to time it by pressing the button at just the right time when he was winding up to have the picture actually take when he was knocking it down and the blocks were in the air. I was off on the first try, but I nailed it on the second.
A Williams Dinner (11/18/12): I took the picture of the three sisters, and I'm not sure what went wrong, but I turned what should have been a really nice picture of three pretty girls who all have perfectly fine skin tone into an apparent "before" picture for facial rash medication. Sorry Williams sisters!
Top 5 Coolest Visuals (in chronological order):
- Marilyn and Me (2/8/12): It almost seems like an optical illusion to have me so small compared to a statue, but then you realize it's a gigantic sculpture.
- Deliciousness on the Plaza (2/19/12): I really like the intense light that seems to be shining down directly on us.
- Perhaps Chartreuse Cabeuse? (4/11/12): The neon lettering behind me looks like it's on fire.
- Foam Party (6/6/12): This picture has a fun 3D-type effect. If someday technology allows us to convert this blog to 3D, this picture will look great.
- 5-4-3-2-1: Happy 8:30!!! (12/31/12): I took some pictures of the glow-in-the-dark jewelry that ended up being really trippy. The ones we used in this post are more normal looking but especially the one with Joshua results in a pretty cool-looking picture.
Best Facial Expression (in chronological order):
Top 3 Rants (in chronological order):
- Baby Math (2/11/12) Joshua's face: "GRRRRAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!"
- Easter Sunday (4/8/12): Joshua's face in the lower-right photo: "I hope nobody is seeing me do this. I hope nobody is seeing me do this. I hope nobody is seeing me do this."
- Clara the Climber (8/7/12: Clara's face: "Okay, so you've caught me. But I dare you to stop me!"
Top 3 Rants (in chronological order):
- Perhaps Chartreuse Cabeuse? (4/11/12)
- When Rednecks Speak Spanish (4/17/12)
- Bags Instead of Babies (9/2/12)
Best Job of Avoiding Sharing Not-Yet-Public Information:
We
found out Meghan was pregnant in late January. Because of past fertility
issues, we wanted to make sure things were going well before we announced it to
our family, and then we wanted to tell as many people in person as we
could. It wouldn't have been so hard to wait to tell people, except
Meghan was extremely sick for the about six months of her pregnancy. So
that led to times where we had to cancel events or have Meghan not attend
without exactly admitting why. It came up a couple times here in the
blog, where Meghan was "sick" or "not feeling well", which
was true, just not in the way you'd think. Here are two examples of that:
- Spending Time with Grandma (3/6/12)
- Substitute Chef (3/14/12)
Best Blog Improvement:
In
past years the "X Months" post for the kids' under-1 monthly milestones
were very brief. This year we made a concerted effort to use those
posts to elaborate more on developmental achievements that have happened
since the last monthly birthday. We try to keep track of these
elsewhere, but having them also noted here in the blog makes for a quick
and easy reference for us when needed.Best Blog Trend:
Recently we broke away from the unstated policy of "one or two, but at most four pictures per day." Meghan has been pushing for awhile to loosen up the format, so toward the end of the year we had some posts with five or even six pictures.
Most Annoying Blog Problem:
In general, you can click on any picture on the blog and it will show you the large version of it. For some reason, in some posts, one of the pictures can be enlarged, but all others in the post do not get larger when you click on them. This was especially annoying in posts such as Hannah's Dramatic Arrival when you want to get a better look at a busy picture. We are going to try to figure out why this is happening and correct it for next year.
[EDIT (1/6/13): I have figured out why this happens and will prevent it from happening in 2013 in Pictures. I will go back and fix some of the posts in 2012 in Pictures.]
Closest to a Blog Disaster:
Moral of the Story: Just use Lost & Found (3/19/12) Without that crazy series of events resulting in me getting my camera back, we would have had three posts gone forever.
Saddest Post, In Retrospect:
Not Terrence's Favorite Place (3/31/12) We switched vets quite a few years ago after Banfield's negligence resulted in Lemieux's early death. Since then, we've gone to Oxford Animal Hospital. Although they're a little more expensive than some vets, they provide great care. Our favorite vet there is Dr. Ross Burd, pictured in this post. Earlier this month, he passed away after battling pancreatic cancer. I had forgotten we had a picture of him until I was going through the blog preparing for our end-of-year posts. We'll miss him, and so will Terrence, Natalie, and Alex.
Tagging Trickiness:
Saddest Post, In Retrospect:
Not Terrence's Favorite Place (3/31/12) We switched vets quite a few years ago after Banfield's negligence resulted in Lemieux's early death. Since then, we've gone to Oxford Animal Hospital. Although they're a little more expensive than some vets, they provide great care. Our favorite vet there is Dr. Ross Burd, pictured in this post. Earlier this month, he passed away after battling pancreatic cancer. I had forgotten we had a picture of him until I was going through the blog preparing for our end-of-year posts. We'll miss him, and so will Terrence, Natalie, and Alex.
Closest to Sacrilege:
- Terrence is My Co-Pilot (4/19/12)
- G-Zus Saves... You Money? (12/19/12)
Tagging Trickiness:
It's a Girl! (5/21/12) We tag everyone who appears in the posts, and at the time of this post we didn't know what we would name our baby, so she was just "Baby #3" in the tag. After we had decided what to name her (which was the night she was born) I went back and modified the "Baby #3" tag to be "Hannah".
Do You Have Your Tickets to the Gun Show?:
Manual Labor Day (9/3/12) Yep. :-)
The Where's Waldo Blog Game
We tag each post with the people or pets who appear in them. Usually it's obvious who is in the picture, but sometimes it's not. Sometimes it's even difficult for us to spot that little pug in the corner or under the table in the picture. Are you up for a challenge? For each of the following posts, try to find the person or animal I mention (Okay, in one case it's a statue).
We tag each post with the people or pets who appear in them. Usually it's obvious who is in the picture, but sometimes it's not. Sometimes it's even difficult for us to spot that little pug in the corner or under the table in the picture. Are you up for a challenge? For each of the following posts, try to find the person or animal I mention (Okay, in one case it's a statue).
- Lazy Saturday (2/4/12) - Find Terrence and Natalie
- Fun With Crayons (3/23/12) - Find Natalie
- Easter Sunday (4/8/12) - Find Terrence
- Casual Observers (4/21/12) - Find Joshua and Alex
- Drinking from a Cup (5/9/12) - Find Barb and Clara
- Tactile Adventures (5/17/12) - Find Terrence
- Teeny Tiny Lady Liberty (8/23/12) - Find Statue of Liberty
- Holiday Weekend BBQ (9/1/12) - Find Terrence
- Joshua Turns Two (10/12/12) - Find Terrence
- Unseasonably Warm (11/9/12) - Find Terrence
- Seasonally Appropriate Art (11/12/21) - Find Meghan, Hannah, Terrence, and Natalie (Hint: They are not tagged because unintentional reflections aren't tagged)
Most Words:
Bags Instead of Babies (9/2/12) - 515 words
Fewest Words:
2 Grandmas (5/3/12) - 29 words
Most Pictures:
The Big 0-2 (10/27/12) - 6 pictures
Gingerbread Fun (12/11/10) - 6 pictures
5-4-3-2-1: Happy 8:30!!! (12/31/12) - 6 pictures
Gingerbread Fun (12/11/10) - 6 pictures
5-4-3-2-1: Happy 8:30!!! (12/31/12) - 6 pictures
Most Links:
Farewell Chicago? (12/27/12) - 5 links
Most People (not including concert crowds):
Bringing the World to Kansas City (12/5/12) - 17 people
Christmas Weekend Part 2: Nicholl Edition (12/16/12) - 17 people
Christmas Weekend Part 2: Nicholl Edition (12/16/12) - 17 people
Musical References:
Did
a post title not make sense to you? It might have been one of the many
musical references we tend to use in our post titles, although for whatever reason we used far fewer this year than we did last year. Here is a list
of the post titles that were references to either a song title or a
lyric, with some verbatim and some modified to fit the subject matter of
the post. The link takes you to the song that is being referenced.
You’ll see there’s a wide variety of genres and generations among them.
| 1/11/12 | Empire State of Mind |
| 1/25/12 | I Wish I Was a Little Bit Taller |
| 2/9/12 | Little Drummer Boy |
| 7/3/12 | Dance, Then, Wherever You May Be |
| 8/15/12 | She's Happy and Knows It |
| 8/20/12 | Closing Time |
| 8/31/12 | Raindrops Keep Falling on Her Head |
| 12/6/12 | Away in a Very Sturdy Manger |
Some Nerdy Stats:
| Posts by Jason: | 218 |
| Posts by Meghan: | 148 |
In each post we tag the people in it, as well as our own pets. Here’s the breakdown on the number of posts in which each person or furry friend appeared, among those who made at least two appearances. Ties are broken by the alphabet, not by how much we love you.
| Joshua | 183 |
| Jason | 141 |
| Clara | 140 |
| Meghan | 74 |
| Hannah | 40 |
| Natalie | 19 |
| Terrence | 19 |
| Joanna | 11 |
| Julie | 10 |
| Andrew | 8 |
| Barb | 7 |
| Christine | 7 |
| Peg | 7 |
| Ron | 7 |
| Alex | 6 |
| Bob | 5 |
| Jean | 5 |
| Kirk | 5 |
| Jim | 4 |
| Tony | 4 |
| Deb | 3 |
| Michelle | 3 |
| Nick | 3 |
| Vincent | 3 |
| Abby | 2 |
| Brent | 2 |
| Carla | 2 |
| Christa | 2 |
| David | 2 |
| Jason K. | 2 |
| Lucy | 2 |
| Mark | 2 |
| Nate | 2 |
| Nathan | 2 |
| Sam | 2 |
| Steve D. | 2 |
And as we did last year, this year we tagged each post with the state where the picture was taken if it was somewhere
other than Kansas, solely so I could do this exact list, because I’m
curious about dumb things like this. Here’s the breakdown:
| Kansas | 325 |
| Illinois | 10 |
| Missouri | 7 |
| New York | 6 |
| Nebraska | 3 |
| Ohio | 3 |
| California | 2 |
| Indiana | 2 |
| Michigan | 2 |
| Minnesota | 2 |
| Wisconsin | 2 |
| Kentucky | 1 |
| Texas | 1 |
And that's the end of the stats and awards. Just like a real awards show, it probably dragged on too long.
[Editor's Note: In the next day or so we'll post the final wrap-up post for this year, and then we'll be off to a new blog. Until then, stay tuned!]
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