Liam’s sickness and the power of social networking

Two interesting parts of my life coincided this week: illness and online social networking.

I’m notorious for trying out new internet-based services and web sites. Jott.com takes voice notes from my phone and either schedules appointments with my Google calendar or adds them to my to-do list at rememberthemilk.com. Recently, I linked my account at twitter.com with my profile on the social networking site facebook.com. When I tweet (update my current activities on Twitter in 140 characters or less), a widget on my blog updates, my account at pownce.com updates, and my facebook status updates, as well.

I used to wonder if all this interconnected geekiness held any utility. After all, most of my posts are pretty mundane, to wit:

Today I stopped wondering about the utility because of this post:

Since posting that tweet, I’ve been contacted by three different people to ask how Liam is doing. A family member wrote an e-mail because she saw the news on the blog. A friend sent a text message because he caught the news on twitter. And another friend stopped by our house because she saw my status on Facebook.

This online social network that is usually just a toy now means something; it’s extended the awareness of my friends and allowed me to share the smaller news in my life with people I care about but don’t usually get to see face-to-face. These aren’t some random online friends from a chat room somewhere; they are my real-life friends and family with whom I connect via the increasingly digital fabric of our everyday lives. I may not sit down to coffee with them every day, but we share over HTML tables instead of cafe tables and via Javascript instead of the black caffeinated stuff.

So I challenge you, Shinnfans, to live the digital life with intentionality. Take advantage of ever-easier online social tools and use the opportunity to be transparent and share from your life-stream. Whether you need to e-mail someone an encouraging note or you link with me at twitter.com and sharing your small daily news, be real, caring and Christ-like about it.

And as for Liam, I wish I could report better news. He’s a pretty sick little boy right now, and it’s hard on all of us. But I guarantee that when I have better news to report, you’ll see it in one of my data feeds!

Brett’s Senior Portraits

I had the chance to shoot Brett’s senior portraits this morning. Brett is a great young guy, and we’re glad to make these pictures for him and his family!

Lisa’s shoot from this morning

Welcome to the Shinn Photo family, Joshua!

Liam is 15 months old!

We are so proud of our little 15 month old!  I’d like to take just a moment to catalog all he is able to do.

Liam is getting more and more mobile on his two feet.  These days, he might be found walking from the kitchen into the dining room to find Maggie or his truck.  He still walks on his knees, but he’s gaining the confidence he needs to take off on two feet and walk!  Because he can’t quite reach the floor as he’s riding his truck, he will propel himself using one leg.  The other leg is tucked up under him bum on the seat of the truck.  What a sight!

He is a climber!  He tries to climb a lot of objects, but especially likes Maggie.  He likes to climb on Maggie when she’s laying down.  Usually she is pretty patient with him and will let him climb up and over her.  I’m thankful she is so good with him.

Language, Language, Language… Liam has been learning sign language since before he turned one.  We got a little discouraged because he wasn’t responding with signs as we continued to use them.  He’s using them now and we need to learn more so we can continue to build his vocabulary.  He knows: Please, Thank You, dog, more, eat, and all done.  He waves for Hi and Bye and also blows kisses.  He uses the sound /bo/ for bath and bottle.  When he signs, “Thank You,” he also makes a distinct sound.  He can say “apple” and understands a few phrases.  The chicky says /bok/.  “Put it in your mouth, Liam,” and “Put your head down,” both solicit the correct behaviors.  He understands what a truck is and will go to it if asked to.

Liam likes to do a lot of things, but here are just a few that rise to the top of his list.  He fancies the kitchen cupboard and any drawer he can get open to empty its contents.  Putting objects in containers can occupy him for quite a long time!  He is always a happy camper outside.  If he’s fussing and is brought outside, the crying stops.  It’s amazing, and I’m sure we will have a lot of fun outside this spring and summer.  He likes to play in Maggie’s bowl (water and food) and is willing to help clean up when asked.

Liam is not huge eater, but he will eat almost anything if it is combined with apples.  For example: apples and sweet potatoes, apples and pear, apples with chicken, apples with yogurt.  We will continue to find combinations!  If you’d like to pass along your apple combination, please do!

We are so amazed at how much growth happens in such a short amount of time!

Lisa’s Baby Shoot from this morning

Lisa had the privilege of taking Jakob Appleford’s first pictures this morning. He’s a beautiful little guy, as new as they come. Welcome, Jakob!

Photoshop for free – online!

Okay, this is a little geeky for andrewandlisa.org, but I had to put it out there. Many of you know that I love Photoshop, and I know that many of you don’t.  There are two reasons people don’t use Photoshop:

  1. It’s hard.
  2. It’s expensive.   Most people don’t want to shell out 600 Big Ones just to try software that’s probably too complicated, anyway.

Well, with Adobe’s new announcement of Photoshop Express, a whole new world of free, super-easy photo editing and sharing is available for the masses. And that includes you. There’s nothing at stake, you should try it. You should try it now. Just click here!

Lyle’s Senior Portraits

Thanks for the fun this morning, Lyle!

Reedley Downtown Association

If you look closely, you may see a familiar hand at work in the creation of this new web site: www.reedleydowntown.com.  I put it up last night.  Let me know what you think!  Anything else that may belong on a downtown association web site that isn’t there?

Tired,

Andrew

Reedley Downtown Association – Shameless Self-Promotion

Here’s a picture of me with the rest of the board of the Reedley Downtown Association. We’ve joined forces to make Reedley a fun and comfortable place to live using the power of geographically-specific retail.

Liam pictures as requested by Mare

Most of these are from this past weekend’s trip to Lodi, but a few (including the first three pictures every taken by Liam!) are also present.  Enjoy!