My "Candid" Neighbor

I have a very nice and friendly neighbor who also has a very alarming behavior. Every single time I see her and talk to her, she whips out her camera and takes a picture of Jake. I am not exaggerating...every single time. I haven't had that many encounters with her...I've probably only talked to her 5 or 6 times over the 2 years we've lived here. It might be important at this point to mention that she is Japanese, and so I probably shouldn't be too alarmed by it. But it still weirds me out. What is she doing with these pictures? Does she actually upload them on her computer? Does she get them printed at Costco and then take them home to scrapbook with? Does she have a blog where she posts them to show her friends back in Japan? I want you to have the visual so here is what a few of the encounters have looked like:

Encounter #1: Jake's Blessing Day
After Jake was blessed, we had friends and family over to our place for a luncheon. She was walking by and saw the party, and came in to say hello. This was esentially my first time talking to her. I was holding Jake and said hi to her and the next thing I know, she takes out her camera and takes a couple photos. She didn't ask. She just took them. And then she left.

Encounter #2: Jake at 4 mos. old
Jake and I were sitting out on the lawn in front of my apt. He was in his Bumbo seat. She was walking to her car with her daughter. She saw us and said hi and then told her daughter to go stand next to Jake...and she took a picture. And then they got in their car and left.

Encounter #4: Last night
We ordered some Girl Scout cookies from her daughter who was fundraising, and together they came over to give us our cookies. I answered the door and was making small talk. Things were going fine. Her hand didn't seem to be reaching for a camera. And then Jake came up behind me and stood in the doorway. And I knew, it was only a matter of time. And sure enough, not even 5 seconds later, she told her daughter to bend down next to Jake and snapped a picture.

Now these are a few of the examples. A couple of the times she has gotten me in the picture...now that was awkward. Do I smile? I didn't ask to be in a picture. And she didn't ask me, or give me any warning. In fact, this picture is being taken against my will. I am being held hostage in this picture. I'm sure the look on my face is of someone thinking those things. But mostly it is just Jake by himself, or Jake with her daughter. And that bothers me more. Why is a random person wanting photos of my baby? I've spent a lot of time thinking and wondering what she does with these pictures she takes. I feel absolutely no need to take pictures of children that we have no relationship with. But maybe it's normal. Maybe I'm the weird one. Maybe she's offended I don't constantly take pictures of her daughter. Maybe that's what I'll start doing and she'll get a taste of her own medicine. Every time I see them going outside to their car, I'll run out their with my SLR and just start snapping away like I'm paparazzi. If you have any better ideas on how to make the insanity stop, let me know.

Our Halloween

Here are some pics from all the Halloween related stuff we did in the last couple weeks. First, I had my 3rd annual Halloween craft party (somehow it turned into an annual thing I do now:) It was some very good girl/craft time.

Then Marc and I got annual Disneyland passes! Yay! I am so excited to have them again. The last time we had annual passes was when we were dating.

We of course did some pumpkin carving...Jake liked doing the part I hate the most...scraping out the pumpkin.

Here are our jack-o-lanterns. In case you can't tell, Jake's on the right is a little basketball...it wasn't too lit up in this picture. And the reason we made his a basketball was because...

he was a basketball player for Halloween...for the Utah Jazz of course (to make his dad proud). This of course caused some controversy, being that we are only 20 min. from the Staples Center (sorry Lakers). Getting this costume together was no easy task. I bought the jersey online...and of course the perfectionist in me had to get him matching shorts for the uniform. But you can't buy it in toddler sizes. I ended up going to the fabric district in downtown and eventually finding matching fabric to the jersey. At that point I thought I would try to sew the shorts which I always said I was opposed to doing because it would (and has) ended up in a total disaster...let's just say, sewing is not one of my talents. But thankfully, our family friend Suzanne came over following a begging phonecall from me...and made the shorts. Thank you so much Suzanne! And I will boast that I then sewed on the light blue stripes on the jersey and shorts...and did the Jazz iron-on on the shorts. It's sad that I feel proud of myself for sewing some straight lines...but it all turned out great. He was a little stud.

This picture is to show the tatoo I put on him to complete the look...I chose one that is a heart with MOM on it. Hey, if you're gonna give your baby a tatoo, at least make it sentimental.

Marc and I were referees. Marc pointed out how it was symbolic since as parents, we are also referees of Jake's life. How insightful:)

By the way, did I mention why I chose to make him a basketball player? I was debating between other cute costume ideas for a long time...not so sure I wanted to do basketball. But Jake LOVES basketball. He's always talking about it, always has to be holding a ball, and loves to shoot hoops. One morning in October I went into his room to get him up. He sleepily opened his eyes and looked up at me and said "basketball." I thought, wow if basketball is literally the first thing on his mind when he wakes up...then I'd better go with that as his costume.

This is at our ward trunk or treat by the way.

Here's Jake's best little friends: Brody, Lauren and Emily

The Friday before Halloween we had a party with some friends. We did a video scavenger hunt all related to Halloween things. It was pretty dang funny. I apparently deeply embarassed some of my friends on my team at In N Out where we had to stand in the middle of the restaurant and sing Monster Mash.

On the actual Halloween night, we went to Whittier and trick or treated at Grandma and Grandpa's

And then over to Aunt Trina and Uncle Gene's

And then we went around my Aunt's neighborhood and did some more trick or treating. He started to catch on that if he stuck out his bucket, people were putting candy in it. And he was all about it...all business. It was pretty fun for me as a mom to watch.
After that we drove to our friend's house for a party. I had given him a chocolate candy and then hadn't looked back at him for 10 minutes. And then when I turned around I saw this...ahhh, isn't that what Halloween is all about?