DIY Collage Templates in Lightroom

Thank you, Allison of Torgesen Family Times, for your simple instructions on how to make your own collage in Lightroom. Ever since the demise of Picnic, I have been looking for a way to easily create quick collages from photos in Lightroom. Turns out, the tool was right at my fingertips.

He turned 14 months old today, a Sunday just like the day he was born. These days, he loves exploring everywhere he can get (and some places he can't, too), eating clementines, and snuggle-nursing on his oversized hippo.

Our love affair with this little person continues. I go to bed grateful every night.

Breastfeeding in Brasil

Look closely at this sweet breastfeeding ad from Brasil. It took me a moment to see.

The caption reads: "Made for each other. Breast-feed."

Clever, and so sweet.

(via One Small Step for Breastfeeding)

Oh, the things you'll say

Something I never thought I would hear come out of my mouth as a parent of an almost 14-month-old:

What's that in your mouth? Oh, is it just dog food? Okay. *walk away to finish dishes*

Parenting. The most delicious humility.

Gay Batman

Fascinating article over at Comics Alliance about the gayness of Batman. I'm no comics scholar, but I thought the read on the Batman character was unique and compelling.

Unrelated to gayness, this quote from the piece especially puts into canonical perspective my abhorrence for the casually misogynist world of "The Dark Knight" (and how popular and beloved that movie is):

Frank Miller expanded on this point when he was asked about Batman's sexuality by Christopher Sharrett for his 1991 essay, Batman and the Twilight of the Idols: An Interview With Frank Miller. The cartoonist said, "Batman isn't gay. His sexual urges are so drastically sublimated into crime-fighting that there's no room for any other emotional activity. Notice how insipid are the stories where Batman has a girlfriend or some sort of romance. It's not because he's gay, but because he's borderline pathological, he's obsessive."

It doesn't make it better, but it is interesting at least that blowing up girlfriends and omitting any other solid female characters is normal in the historical Batman universe.

This take on Batman's almost pathological obsession connects with another quote I recently came across:

[The late psychologist David Lykken] has controversially called psychopaths and heroes 'twigs on the same genetic branch.'

This was in the context of high vs. low reactive kids in the excellent book "Quiet" by Susan Cain, but my mind instantly jumped to Batman because my favorite cinematic crush (Christian Bale) has played both psychopath and hero in his career. Interesting to think of the two characters being connected by more than just an actor.

Thanks to Matt for the Comics Alliance link.

Daughter: birth to 12 years in 2 minutes

Fun and beautiful video from filmmaker Frans Hofmeester. He filmed his daughter every week from birth to twelve years old, and has edited that video into a two-minute video.

Long days, short years -- the phrase I try to remember in the middle of a frustrating moment of a wailing one-year-old, and the phrase that bubbles up bittersweet when my son closes his eyes and nurses to sleep, quiet after a day of wild motion.

Long days, short years - this video pins that expression into a concrete experience. Time does pass like that.

I love the ritual of this project; I wonder about how it is for his daughter, every week, to sit in front of the same backdrop and be videoed by her dad. I'm finding that in a life with a child (well, in life at all), it can be hard to sustain regular routines outside of the basic ones: eat, sleep, change, play.

I also find her growing expressions and moods fascinating. Those frames where she just gazes, or sometimes glares, at the camera, her inner life evolving and changing as she grows. Especially when you've just seen the wide open eyes of a baby, unguarded, clear, the sudden sullen look of a child makes your heart skip a beat. I know that I tend to overly idealize the value in that crystal clear raw essence of a new human being, but it is just so compelling, and seems to be a place that many creative people are trying to return to.

You can also see the time-lapse video of his son's journey from birth to 9 years old here.