Author Archives: joel

Stage 1: Inspiration
The first step in the artistic process is the search for inspiration. He contemplates the nature of life, the universe and everything - all in the quest for the seed of an idea that will blossom into a masterpiece. He becomes pensive, and withdrawn.

Stage 2: Madness
After hours of fruitless searching, the artist slowly goes mad - riding alternating waves of rage and euphoria. It is in this stage that many artists break, succumbing to one vice or another. This artist resorts to drooling on his canvas, and eventually masters his inner demons.

Stage 3: Enlightenment
Eureka! The artist discovers a subject worthy of his craft, and proceeds to capture its raw essence on the canvas. For this work, the artist has chosen the classic beauty of Euclid's visions - namely, the square and the circle. The first of these two masterpieces the artist has entitled "Three Squares", while the second has been titled "Circle on Paper". Note the artist's unique interpretation of these well-known forms.*

Stage 4: Elation
Ah, sweet release! His artistic energy spent, the artist enjoys the resulting afterglow. But alas this joy will be short-lived, as he will momentarily be compelled to repeat the process - an artist's drive to create shows no mercy.

*In all seriousness, Sean really did draw squares and a circle on purpose. It was awesome. He picked up a colored pencil, repeated the name of the shape he was going to draw several times, and then proceeded to try and draw them. They aren't perfect, but for someone who only learned to identify shapes a couple of months ago, they are amazing. Way to go, Sean!

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!

It's amazing how different Sadie is this time around. When Sean was two months old, she couldn't even be allowed in the same room with him. She was obsessed and would do anything she could to get near him, and when she did manage to wiggle through she would lick his face so much that we were honestly concerned about whether he could breathe. He was almost nine months old before she finally started to relax around him, and we assumed the only thing that really changed was that he was big enough to push her away if he wasn't interested in her attention.

So of course we were very worried about whether we would have to go through the whole thing all over again once Carter was born. To our welcome surprise, Sadie has been amazing this time. We can play with Carter on the floor, and Sadie doesn't bother her. Sadie can sit with us on the couch, and get close without getting in the way. But this photo really demonstrates how different things are this time. Last night, carter was taking a little snooze on Lori before her evening meal. Sadie jumped up on the couch next to them, laid down, and snuggled right in to the baby - all without waking her up. It was heartwarming.

This was the first time that Sean let us put Carter anywhere near him. He's interested in her now, but if we try to put her near him, it makes him nervous and he runs away. It's quite cute. But today, for whatever reason, he was okay with her. He still wouldn't let me put her in his lap, but he did let her rest on the couch next to him. So this is officially our very first picture of our kids together. And there was rejoicing throughout the kingdom!