"I want a stick."

"OK, let's go over there and look for one. Here, how about this one, is this a good one?"

"No."

"OK, let's keep looking."

"OK. This a good one!"

"That's great."

"And this a good one!"

"Right on, Jason."

"This a good one and this a good one. I have two sticks."

"That's right, you have two sticks."

"Can I keep them?"

"Well, you can play with them here in the park, but once it's time to go then you have to leave them here."

"OK. Oh! That a good one!"

"No, Jason, that's not a good one. That's a pencil."

"Oh. OK."

Technical info: Shot with a Nikon D40 and Nikkor 50 mm f/1.4G lens, in manual exposure mode. Aperture f/2, shutter 1/2500 sec, ISO 200. Post-processing in Aperture 3: straightened; curves for highlight recovery; levels to darken shadows and brighten midtones.

Getting Jason to cooperate when I want to take his picture is not terribly easy. But I figure that if I can get him to hold still and look at the camera, working with other kids ought to be a breeze.

Technical info: Shot with a Nikon D40 and Nikkor 50mm f/1.4G lens, in manual exposure mode. Aperture f/2, shutter 1/1250 sec, ISO 200. Post-processing in Aperture 3: straightened; curves for highlight recovery; burned the background; dodged over the subject; further dodged over his eyes; levels to darken shadows and brighten midtones.

I like to call Jason "Monkey," among other things. Sometimes it fits a bit more than others.

Technical info: Shot with a Nikon D40 and Nikkor 50mm f/1.4G lens, in manual exposure mode. Aperture f/2.8, shutter 1/1000 sec, ISO 800. Post-processing in Aperture 3: straightened; max recovery; burned over the background; levels to darken shadows; curves for contrast.

Most nights, I'm the last one to go to bed. Jason is in the bath by seven and asleep not too long after that. Juliette has to get up early to be at work on time, and anyway she likes to fall asleep with the TV on, something that I can't do. I always have more work to do--pictures to edit, blog posts to write, business stuff to plan--and then I do like to have a little quiet time to myself at the end of the day to unwind. I read or do a crossword, or just surf the web aimlessly. Lately I've taken to having a nightcap or a cup of decaf.

Eventually I get tired or realize it's late. I check to make sure the timer on the dishwasher is set, let the dog out one last time, then turn out the lights. The last thing I do before I climb into bed is check in on Jason.

He's been in his "big boy" bed for a couple of months now, and although he's mostly used to it, he still hasn't settled into sleeping in a regular orientation. So, every night when I go in, I find him twisted up in a different position. Occasionally he's in what I'd consider a normal sleeping position. More often he's squished up against the toddler rail or lying lengthwise across the foot of the bed, or upside-down and on top of the blanket. He's never liked his actual pillow but he does like to have something under his head now, so often I'll find him with his cheek pressed up into a wadded up blanket or a stuffed animal--he never has a shortage of either in that bed.

It makes me grin to see him all twisted up like that, and I wonder how long it's going to take to start sleeping more "normally." Sometimes I wonder how long it took me. But mostly I just look at him and watch him breathe. Most nights it's all I can do to stop myself from climbing in there with him.

It's been hard to find time to get out and shoot lately, what with everything that's been going on lately. Happily, I was able to combine some family time and business planning this weekend when I took Jason for an outing to Old Poway Park. I needed to scope out the grounds and check the quality of the mid-day light in advance of a promotional event I'm planning for next month, and Jason needed to get out of the house and play after being cooped up for several days due to illness. He was, of course, insistent that we go straight to the playground first, but once he'd gotten some good climbing and sliding time in, he was pretty agreeable about the test shots I wanted to take.

Technical info: Shot with a Nikon D40 and Nikkor 50mm f/1.4G lens, in manual exposure mode. Aperture f/2, shutter 1/1250 sec, ISO 200. Post-processing in Aperture 3: cropped to square; curves for highlight recovery; levels to darken shadows and brighten midtones; dodged over Jason; burned over the bright sky and ground; added vignetting.

"Jason, what's my silly name?"

"I don't know." [laughs]

"Is it Daddy Waddy?"

"No! Not today!"

"Not today?"

"No, that's yesterday!"

"So what's my silly name today?"

"I don't know. Ummm... Radio!"

"Daddy Radio?"

"Yeah!" [laughs]

"Oh my goodness, how silly."

"And Cooper is... ummmmm... [looks around] House!"

"Cooper House?"

"Yeah! [laughs] And Jason is... ummmm... [looks around] Bird!"

"Oh yeah?"

"Yeah! [laughs] Jason Birdy! Not Turkey today, Bird! And Mommy is Mommy Gobble Gobble! [laughs]"

This is Jason's current favorite game. He loves it so much that it's nearly guaranteed to pull him out of a tantrum or distract him from something else he wants. The best part is how he can so thoroughly crack himself up just by looking around and picking at random something that he can see.

This is what Jason looked like on Christmas morning while his Nana pushed him around the kitchen on his new tricycle. You may draw your own conclusions.

Technical info: Shot with a Nikon D40, Nikkor 35mm f/1.8G DX lens, and Vivitar DF-383 flash (in Gary Fong Lightsphere). Aperture-priority exposure mode, TTL flash mode. Aperture f/1.8, shutter 1/60, ISO 200. Post-processing in Aperture 3: flash WB preset; curves to bring up exposure and add contrast.

"I want a Toy Story party."

"Oh, really?"

"Yeah. I want a Woody and Buzz party."

"OK, well, maybe when it's your birthday, but is it your birthday today?"

"Yeah."

"No, it's not. It's [your friend's] birthday today."

"Oh."

That was the conversation on Saturday as we drove to Chuck E. Cheese's for Jason's friend's birthday party. Jason has been deep into the Toy Story franchise for several months now. We watch one of those movies or another (or, at least, the first twenty minutes) about every other day, and nearly everywhere we go, Jason has to bring one of his Woody, Jessie, or Buzz Lightyear toys with him.

Now, most likely when you hear "Toy Story party," you imagine Pixar-themed banners and tablecloths, possibly a performer in a Buzz Lightyear costume. But what Jason means when he says that is actually that he wants a Toy Story cake. For him, "party" literally means "cake."

It makes a certain amount of sense when you think about it, since Jason's main exposure to parties has been his friends' birthdays, which have always involved a cake of some sort. Before this weekend, every party he'd ever attended had been at a house or a park, just like a regular playdate. And since playdates usually also involve snacks, the cake would definitely stand out as something unique to parties.

The only thing that really surprises me is that he didn't pick out presents as the identifier of a party. Still, he gets presents at Christmas, and the parties at his day care don't have presents but usually do have cupcakes. I wouldn't have thought that such a young person would be able to make connections like that, but it appears that he has.

So, in Jason's world, if there's a cake, it's a party; if there's no cake, it's not. Though, come to think of it, I'm not so sure that's wrong.

I mentioned this on Monday, but Jason really loved that bus. He kept trying to climb in during the middle of other kids' rides, and even after I made him quit doing that, he still hung around and peeked in the window.

Technical info: Shot with a Nikon D40 and Nikkor 50mm f/1.4G lens, in manual exposure mode. Aperture f/1.8, shutter 1/125 sec, ISO 800. Post-processing in Aperture 3: curves for highlight recovery and contrast.

Thoughts for improvement: I'm pretty happy with this one, actually.

Chuck E. Cheese's has changed a bit over the twenty-odd years since I last went there--there's no more ball pit, for example--but one thing that's still the same is the skee-ball. I was hoping that Jason would have fun with that game, but it ended up being a little discouraging for him, as he wasn't strong enough to roll the ball all the way up to the target. Later on I saw a bunch of his toddler friends walking up the ramp and putting the balls right into the holes, but by that time Jason had already moved on to greener pastures.

Technical info: Shot with a Nikon D40 and Nikkor 50mm f/1.4G lens, in manual exposure mode. Aperture f/1.8, shutter 1/125 sec, ISO 800. Post-processing in Aperture 3: straightened; retouched a dust spot; dodged over Jason's head and shirt.

Thoughts for improvement: I'd like to have gotten a bit better angle, to get the whole target in the frame.