She's fun when she isn't sick

The camera *does* make a difference...

OK, so the subject is pretty darn cute. And if the camera adds 10 pounds, she is no longer at the 20th percentile for weight at 7 months. You judge for yourselves...

I decided to pick up the Canon EOS Rebel XS, rather than the XSi. The differences? Mainly 10 megapixel resolution rather than 12 (not a big deal at all unless you are going to blow up the pics to be ginormous...), and a lack of spot-metering. Oh, also *significantly* cheaper. Apparently, the internal buffer is smaller, so if you are doing a lot of servo-driven shooting in RAW mode, you can overrun the buffer and you'll drop from 3 fps down to 1.5 or so. The XSi shoots 3.5 fps continuously.

One of the greatest technological advances since I have used an SLR (which was back in college) is the advent of image stabilization in the lens (Canon puts the tech in the lens, but I think Nikon puts it in the camera body...not sure, they call it "VR"). Anyway, it's pretty amazing--last night I shot a 3 second exposure without using a tripod, and it came out crystal clear. This will let you take shots of things in relatively dark conditions without using a flash, and without getting grainy images. Good stuff.

Aside from the camera, Emerson is doing great--she is over her third ear infection in two months, and also got over a nasty virus that made blisters in her mouth and throat. It was so sore than she didn't want to swallow anything, and then she made an association between the pain of swallowing and the sight of a bottle...so anytime we'd come in with a bottle, she'd start crying. Ugly.

She really is a chill baby, though, especially when she's well. I think we're very, very lucky.