Photography

This makes me happy.

He found my old point and shoot and asked me to teach him how to use it. He said he wants to take pictures like mommy and went all around the house practicing with his new toy. I watched with a huge grin.

Photography is in my bones. It's something I desire to do, and something I'm extremely passionate about.

And I hope that the fact that I'm 95% booked until November means that others think I'm good at it.
And that makes me happy too.

Here's a sampling of some recent client work and if you'd like to see more, feel free to follow me on my Facebook Page!

Summering

Now that it's mid July and the temps are FINALLY hot, we've been trying to do everything we can to create the best summer memories for Drew.

And yes, that includes a lot of ice cream. And yes, I bribed him to give Ady a few tastes.

Oh and I love ruffle butts above fat legs.

Standing Queen

She's been standing for a few days now and although these aren't the best videos (ugh iphones), you get the idea. What's funny to us is that Drew didn't actually stand on his own until AFTER he took steps from cruising. Just another difference between these two!

My guess is that she'll be walking, or near walking, on her first birthday July 28th.

Trip to Detroit

This past weekend we spent 48 hours in Detroit with my brother and his girlfriend. We ventured to the zoo, Belle Isle Park and a couple of restaurants and for the most part had great weather. Derek and I also learned a HUGE lesson while there regarding our kiddos sleep habits. Essentially they canNOT sleep when hot and they can NEVER share a room. You see my brother's apartment doesn't have central air. They do have a window unit as well as a pretty nice living room portable AC, but the room we had the kids in got pretty warm. The heat combined with it being a new place for Ady and she was scared combined with the fact that they are light sleepers and wake to any noise (ie: the other one making sounds) made for a rough 2 nights and an exhausted mom and dad. Other than that we had a great time, but I think I'm still behind a few hours in sleep!

Here are a few pics of our short trip. On Friday when we arrived, we grilled out and enjoyed the patio where we watched Drew pick up and play with all the mayflies. Yuck.

Then it was off to the zoo Saturday morning. It's really quite a beautiful zoo with gorgeous landscaping. There's also this beautiful fountain area where I snapped a couple portraits of my brother and his girlfriend. 

Then it was on to see all of the animals and feed the giraffe in which I snagged the VERY last ticket to do that. So glad I did though as Drew loved it and chatted all afternoon about how slimy his tongue was!

I adore this progression of my brother and Drew watching a sea lion swim overhead in the tunnel...

Then on Sunday, after an AMAZING breakfast involving red velvet pancakes, we head down to Belle Isle park to see the fountains and mini zoo they had there. (And by "zoo" I mean some reptiles, birds and deer.. it was pretty lame).

And whatttt?!?! Another picture with all 4 of us looking and smiling?! I can't believe we got 2 in one weekend but love this one more since our 4-legged was included!

Drew // 4.5 Years Old

**This post was set to go live on his actual 4.5 birthday (the 12th) but it failed so pretend you're reading yesterday!

Oh Drewdlebug. You are just such a little man now. I have no clue the exact age you stop using the term toddler and replace that with kid, but to us you are already a kid. Over the past 6 months you have grown so much and I'm so proud of where you are at. You're reading several 3 and 4 letter words and can spell so many as well. You ask a ton of questions nonstop and although sometimes I respond with 'I don't know', I try to answer the majority of them. The smarts and sensitivity you have doesn't come without it's challenges though. You're starting to understand what others think and have had some concerns that the boys in your class won't like a specific clothing item. Once and a while you have mentioned that you think a shirt would be made fun of. It breaks my heart that you're already encountering bullies and I wish I could kick all of their asses.

I'm so proud of how well you interact with your sister and others. You are courteous to other adults and play with your friends and sister so nicely (most of the time). You have manners and know right from wrong in most general aspects of life and you handle your *chores like a champ without arguing. You are helpful around the house when asked and are able to do so much yourself. The independence you have is outstanding, and you seem to be quite the people pleaser.

You definitely are still a narrator of life. You LOVE recapping everything that happened with the utmost detail full of adjectives. You are still quite the chatterbox continually talking nonstop. So much of your chatting is questions, and pretty smart ones if I do say so myself. You ask questions like "what is life" all the time... deep, deep questions!

You're still eating and sleeping as well as you always have. We start your shower (which you do all yourself) around 7:15 and you're in bed generally around 7:45 ready to read our 2 books, do some math/spanish and then say prayers. I would say depending on the day you're asleep by 8:30-9p. Sometimes you'll wake up around 7 on your own, but sometimes you'll sleep in until 8. And you're still napping the majority of days. If we're out and about on the weekends we will try to get you to take a car nap, but sometimes skip naps all-together. You still do much better with a nap so we're not ready to give them up just yet! And we've had a good 2 weeks or so without pullups at night so we might be fully moving to undies! You've always had an issue holding your pee throughout the night being that you drink so much fluid but you've been doing great at that lately! Sometimes I'll hear you get up and pee in the middle of the night but the next morning you have no recollection of doing that. I'm glad you can do all that in your sleep!

Thank you for being the best example and big brother ever. I love hearing you say things like 'no, Ady, you can't chew on that' in the sweetest tone right before you gently take it from her. Although you sometimes still squeeze her a bit too hard out of love, you're generally very sweet with her and can be found giving her hugs at all hours of the day. You also get just as excited as us when she hits milestones and you love waking her up in the morning before school. Thank you for being the best role model she could ever have!

Love you little man. So, so much.

* Your 'chores' right now include getting your milk for dinner, placing napkins at each spot before meals, taking the recycling to the bin and taking your plate to the sink after dinner. Sometimes you help feed Bailey and you often carry in the mail as well. 

Drew's New Do

There are several rites of passages with childhood and often a "personalized haircut" is one you'll see with toddlers. Well last week Drew took full advantage of the 10 minutes I had to put Ady down for a nap to give himself a new do. I left him downstairs to cut with his lefty toddler scissors and some colored paper. As I was exiting Ady's room I was greeted with 'mom, there is a pile of hair by the table'. I was SUPER confused and came down to find this.

Then I looked down and saw this, which then led to me saying "oh no, what did you do?" and him getting upset! (And yes, I grab my camera in a lot of situations... I don't want to just document the sunshine and rainbow days, I want it all!) Don't worry. He stopped crying pretty quickly, especially because I let out a little laugh. I think he got upset more because I gasped when I saw it as I really didn't even reprimand him. We did have a talk about how we can't do that again and scissors aren't for hair, but it was too funny not to snap some pictures.

Derek REALLY wanted to buzz it, but I just couldn't do it. It's shorter now, and you can still see the trimmed areas, but overall it's not too bad. And yes, I still crack up every time I see it. 

I'm just glad he didn't chop off his ear in the process!

His Snug

Drew is obsessed with our 'snugs' around my plants in the backyard. I've corrected him now, but it was SUPER cute how he called them that for a couple of days.

Ady's 1st Surgery

Although I hope and pray she never has to have another surgery in her lifetime, the reality of childhood broken bones or other accidental injuries is inevitable. Although relatively minor compared to others, getting ear tubes is still considered a 'surgery' with an anesthesiologist and a full staff of doctors and nurses. I know tons of people who have gone through MAJOR surgery and realize that this is quick and minor, but it's still surgery. They still have to put my daughter to sleep for a bit and I was still a nervous wreck in the waiting room. I mean, this is my child and therefore it wasn't "minor" in my mind.

On to the recap.

So we left our house around 5:30am on Thursday morning. A neighborhood girl came over to sleep on our couch for a bit until Drew woke up, give him breakfast and play until we got home. The surgery was scheduled for 7:30am and we were taken back to the pre-op area around 6:40. We were asked TONS of questions by nurses and doctors and went over how everything works 19 times.

After Ady flirted with all the doctors for a while, they brought her a tiny little gown and had her get dressed.

I opted to go back with her and hold her during the anesthesia part knowing she would do better if mommy was holding her. That means I had to wear a full body suit of scrubs too!

Then it was time to go back. I carried her down the hall and into a huge, white operating room. There were about 5 nurses and doctors and they had me sit in a chair and hold Ady. A gas mask was quickly put on and the nurse began a conversation with me about Ady's tan legs and vacation. It was obviously to keep my mind away from the fact that she was squirming while I held her down and I have to admit, it kinda worked. I was ok until she went limp and I had to hand her over. Having a limp child in your arms and leaving them lying on this cold operating table ATE me up.

I was escorted back to Derek and then out to the waiting room with him. When people say this procedure is quick, it DEFINITELY is. I went to the bathroom, opened my granola bar and the ENT literally was walking into the waiting room. We were then taken back to the post-op recovery area where she was being held by a super sweet nurse. She wasn't crying a bit and was more awake than I had imagined she would be.

She was super snuggly for a bit, then enjoyed a bottle followed by some puffs.

There was another 11month old having her tubes done that morning and she was screaming and crying for a bit. Ady was hamming it up with the nurses right after surgery and everyone kept saying how well she did. Except for the few tears when the gas mask went on, my little angel didn't make another peep. We were told she would be groggy for a while, but she was pretty much back to normal right after the surgery. We went to the pool that afternoon, she took a great nap and we felt so good about our decision to move forward with tubes.

So far there haven't been any noticeable changes other than she does make even more noise sounds than she did before. The ENT said noises won't sound muffled to her anymore so she might 'explore' her voice a bit more. Either way, I'm glad this is behind us and we won't have to be at the doctors every couple of weeks with ear infections!!!

Happy 4th!!