Eden Park

Today was supposed to be a beautiful day, so Stephen and I had planned to take Gavin to the Cincinnati Zoo.  When we pulled up to the parking lot around noon, it was FULL.  No joke.  There was no parking at the zoo.  We could've parked on the street...we could've parked in an adjacent lot...but we were feeling lazy and Gavin had fallen asleep, so we decided to go to Eden Park instead.

We popped Gavin in the umbrella stroller and had a great time walking around Mirror Lake and hiking on the wooded trails.  I also managed to take Gavin's eight month portraits (he turns eight months old on Friday, can you believe it?) -- but it's getting harder to get him to look at/smile for the camera as he becomes more mobile and more easily distracted.  It was a lovely way to spend our Saturday as a family.  

I'm really happy with how these photos turned out.  (I'll share more of my favorite eight month portraits on his actual eight month birthday later this week.)  I think Eden Park was the PERFECT backdrop for my super curious little boy, and I finally had some time to play around with the editing software Stephen got my for Chanukah last year (Lightroom and Photoshop Elements).  I can't get enough of Gavin's smile and I'm so lucky to get to photograph and kiss and hug and love on my precious son!

Photo Update

Gavin is growing up right before our eyes!  Trying new foods, becoming mobile, getting into all sorts of trouble...  Here are some recent photos of our little cutie!

Trying scrambled egg whites for the first time!  YUM!

Gavin loves eating watermelon and cantaloupe in his mesh feeder!

Watching some Mickey Mouse Clubhouse!

WHAT A BIG BOY!

Tub Time!

Gavin LOVES his bath each night.  When he hears the water running, he starts crawling as fast as he can towards the bathroom.  Sometimes he'll just sit in front of the bathroom door and wait until someone comes to give him his bath...morning, afternoon, it doesn't matter when.  It's awesome and hysterical and I'm hoping to catch it on video one of these days.  He just loves playing in the tub.  Here are some photos I snapped of my happy water baby this week:

He definitely gets his love of bubble baths from his mama!  :)

Gavin's Girlfriend

We are lucky to live in a neighborhood with LOTS of other babies.  When Gavin was two weeks old, I took him on a walk (it was one of those freak 50+ degree days in December) and ran into Amanda, whose daughter was three months old at the time.  I was walking around in yoga pants and an oversized sweatshirt, no makeup, hair disheveled, and tears streaming down my face from exhaustion.  Running into another new mom was EXACTLY what I needed that day -- to hear that I wasn't alone (or abnormal) in how I was feeling.  Since then, I've obviously adjusted to the challenges of motherhood (though I'm not sure I'll EVER adjust to the exhaustion), but I still love running into Amanda and Alli around the neighborhood.  It's always so nice for a first time mother to have other mommy friends to turn to for advice! 

This morning, Amanda and Alli stopped by while I was outside taking photos of Gavin.  It was extra fun that Amy, our down-the-street neighbor with two little cuties of her own (Brooklyn and Madison), came by to chat as well.  While the adults talked, Gavin and Alli had fun playing in the grass...

Gavin was so happy to see his girlfriend!

Gavin had been feeling a bit under the weather lately, so Alli made sure to check his throat for signs of illness.

His throat was all clear, so onto his ears!

Oh goodness, Dr. Alli seems to have developed a headache!

No worries, Gavin will kiss it better.

I'm hoping that within the next few months, we can get ALL the neighborhood babies (and their parents) together for some playtime.  Gavin is getting to the age where he loves being around other kids (though he's still a little grabby and rough with them) -- and we feel very blessed to live in a neighborhood where there are so many other young families.

Time to Baby Proof...

I'll write more about my fantastic birthday week later, but one of the best gifts I got was that my baby boy started CRAWLING!  He had been doing this thing for a few weeks where he'd pop up on all fours and just hover back and forth for a minute or two before deciding he could roll to his final destination more quickly...but last week he started actually attempting forward motion.  Nine times out of ten he landed on his belly (and the proceeded to, once again, roll and roll and roll) but occasionally he'd scoot a foot or two in the right direction.  But this weekend the crawling was undeniable.  Gavin can officially move from a seated position onto all fours and crawl to whatever it is he wants to get into.   He's still super shaky and it'll probably take some time to build his confidence -- but HOORAY for developmental milestones!

The downside of this new skill is that Stephen and I officially have to baby proof our home.  We live in a small ranch-style house, so baby proofing for us essentially means removing most of our furniture.  Our end tables moved to the basement along with our desk hutch when we started preparing for Gavin's arrival, and with his new mobility (and curiosity), it's looking like our floor lamp and coffee table will be joining them.  Once we get covers on the outlets and cords all tied up and tucked away, Gavin will have the entire living room to roll around and explore.  I'm having a little bit of difficulty adjusting to the fact that my nice Pier 1 decor has been replaced with Fisher Price must-haves, but it's fun watching Gavin play and laugh with his new toys.  I haven't decorated for a single holiday this year.  I still have owls and berries and reds/golds everywhere from the winter holidays!  So maybe it's not the biggest deal that when guests come over, they will now have to sit on the rug hahaha (just kidding, we still have our couch and chairs).

We bought our house in early 2009 and figured we'd stay around five years.  It's small -- perfect for a family starting out, and at the time, we weren't even engaged yet.  As we got engaged, then married, then pregnant, the house started filling with more and more stuff.  Breadmakers and stemware when we got married!  Stuffed animals and mamaroos when we got pregnant!  But nothing compared to the amount of stuff our 8 lb 10 oz newborn brought with him.  Blankets, binkies, bottles, teethers, loveys, clothes, lotions, diapers...it's amazing how much STUFF you need to take care of a little one!  Our house suddenly felt very small.  Moving all this furniture to the basement makes the house look a little bigger, for sure, but I am definitely starting to look forward to moving to a larger house in a few years.  A house with two stories, preferably, so Gavin can have lots of room to play but we still have space to entertain guests who don't want to have to maneuver around the bazillion toys constantly littering our floor.

This video was taken a few days ago...since then, he's gotten less wobbly (though I think his little wobble is the CUTEST) and even faster!  Folks, get ready, this kid is about to take us for a wild ride...

Bedtime Cuddles

As I've mentioned before, we used the Ferber method to sleep train Gavin when he was five months old.  We've had pretty substantial success with it -- he usually sleeps 9 pm to 9 am with one wake-up (usually at the six hour mark).  Things are a little rougher than usual lately (thanks to teething) but generally speaking, I'm pretty happy with the fact that Gavin now puts himself to sleep in his crib and also manages to let us sleep in from time to time.

The downside of the Ferber method is that we no longer get to rock Gavin to sleep.  We no longer pick him up for the middle-of-the-night cuddles.  A lot of the bonding we did before bed has been replaced with self-soothing.  Stephen still has his nighttime routine with the baby...but it's something I'm not really a part of.

SOMETIMES, though, Gavin needs a little pre-bedtime nap...  Tonight was one of those nights.  Stephen had class until 9:45, so I went over to Steve and Ashley's for dinner.  Gavin was SO fussy the whole time, so after I took him home and gave him a bath, I let him sleep in my arms for about a half hour.  It was so nice just holding him as he slept...looking down at his little mouth sucking a binky that wasn't there, haha.  :)  It's the very definition of bliss.  He is SUCH a funny little boy -- always getting into things, babbling, grabbing.  But in that moment he was so soft and sweet.  It was the perfect way to spend the quiet moments before putting him to bed.

Anyway, I know I can't make a habit of letting him sleep in my arms -- Stephen and I really enjoy the fact that we're FINALLY getting some solid sleep -- but as a special (early) birthday treat to me, this was pretty darn close to heaven.

Gavin vs. the Tickle Monster

We wondered for the longest time where Gavin learned to growl...

We now blame the Tickle Monster.

(PS - How stinkin' CUTE is that laugh?!)

My Most Expensive Hobby

A few years ago, my friend Morgan had her first baby (Emrie).  Rather than hire a professional photographer to take monthly/milestone photos of her little girl, Morgan bought a DSLR and had her brother and sister-in-law (who have their own photography business) teach her some tricks of the trade.  It was amazing to see how great her photos were from the very start -- but more than that, she seemed to be having so much FUN setting up these various photo sessions for her beautiful daughter.  I started to think that learning photography might be something I'd want to do when Stephen and I decided to start our family.

Flash forward a year and Stephen and I found out we were pregnant.  He was really wanting a nice, handheld video camera to capture moments like first steps -- but I was still pretty set on getting a nice DSLR (with video capabilities, of course).  Still, when a baby is on the way, you always have somewhere else to put the money.  For us, it seemed more important to buy a crib...a dresser...mounds and mounds of adorable baby clothes...  I was pretty disappointed, but we both understood that it didn't make sense to spend a ton of money replacing our point-and-shoot when we had ACTUAL necessities to buy.

Then my sister-in-law, Erin, bought her DSLR and started taking some beautiful photos.  I mean, really beautiful.  She's an optometrist, so the optical aspect of photography really makes sense to her, and she spent tons of time reading up on how to take the best photographs.  When Doug and Mindy welcomed Quinn in November, Erin took some photos of the new family that so perfectly captured the moment -- and I knew then that I really wanted to be able to do that with my own family.  (As a sidenote, Erin and Ken just came back from a trip to Rome and Amalfi and Erin's pictures are AMAZING.  She took one of the Sistine Chapel that is literally breathtaking.)

We got our Canon T3i for the December holidays and, thanks to a crash course from Erin, I started to navigate through the various camera settings.  We still had newborn photos taken of Gavin -- and actually just went back for six month photos -- but I've taken what seems like thousands of photos of my favorite little one in between those times.  It's something I really enjoy and something I really want to excel in.  It's been fun to see how I've grown as a photographer as the months have passed...Gavin's most recent photos, his seven month portraits, are some of my favorites.  It also helps that Gavin is a HUGE HAM in front of the camera.  That's what happens when you have a lens in your face from the moment you're born!  :)

So, like I said, I've taken thousands of photos.  I'm obsessed.  As such, I've been posting tons of photos on Facebook for friends and family, particularly those who haven't gotten the chance to meet Gavin yet.  We do a lot of fun things, so there are always opportunities to take pictures.  The thing is, I'm fairly sure that my friends without kids don't really care about our latest trip to the Cincinnati Zoo, so I've decided that instead of crowding their newsfeeds with more photos of Gavin feeding the giraffes, I'll post them HERE.  I like sharing my pictures, and I've had a lot people say they enjoy keeping up on how Gavin's growing, so I think this might be a more appropriate forum for that.  That way, I can reserve Facebook for complaints about the weather and birthday notifications.

Anyway, for those of you who are new to this blog, thanks for following and I'll do my best to post photos of my cutie pie son as often as I can!

One of my first portraits of Gavin, at just over one month old!

Four months old.

My most recent portrait, and one of my favorites!  Seven months old.

The Best Part of Motherhood

I am often asked by friends without children what the best part of motherhood has been.  I spent a majority of Gavin's first few months with us lamenting the colic, the lack of sleep, the perpetual spit-up, but truly, there is nothing I enjoy more than being Gavin's mommy.  I am constantly amazed by the power of my love for such a little boy.  And so THESE are the best parts of motherhood, the reasons to fight through sleepless nights and sometimes-tearful days:

- Nothing, literally nothing, beats walking into your baby's room in the morning and seeing his big smile.  It feels AMAZING to feel that sense of recognition and excitement.  Gavin is his happiest when he first wakes up in the morning or from one of his naps, and my favorite moments are spent cuddling with him as he stretches and slowly wakes.

- Smiles are wonderful...belly laughs are better!  Gavin started belly laughing -- really just going at it -- when he was around three months old.  He laughs at the cats, he laughs in the bath, he laughs when he's tickled, he laughs just because...  His laugh brightens my whole world.

- That moment before he falls asleep, when he's just sucking on his binky and grabbing onto my finger, calms me more than anything else can.  It reminds me that no matter how big he's getting, he's still my little angel baby.  The more independent he gets, the more bittersweet this whole "growing up" thing becomes -- but that moment where I can look down in my arms and see my tiny sweetheart fading into sleep makes me feel as though he'll always need me.

- Seeing things through the eyes of a baby is such a fun change of pace.  When we go to the zoo, we think about the things that Gavin might most enjoy (train rides, bubbles, exhibits that allow him to touch and feel various things).  When we plan out our weekend, we think of what might be fun for him (a park opening, a road trip to Indy, splashing in his baby pool).  We are doing things that we haven't done in years and relish in the look on our son's face as he experiences things for the first time.

- Watching the video monitor as he plays in his crib is particularly gratifying since he used to wake up several times in the middle of the night just wailing his little head off until we'd come and hold him.  Now he's learned to cuddle with his lovey, press his musical seahorse on and off, and talk to himself until Mommy or Daddy can come to get him.  It usually earns Stephen and I an extra half hour of sleep -- but really, it's pretty fun to stay awake and just watch Gavin make his own excitement.

- The way people react to Gavin has been really heartwarming.  He's a pretty happy baby, and a BIG flirt, so it's no surprise that he's a big hit anywhere we go -- but it's also nice to hear from others how well-behaved they think he is, how charming he is with his little dimples, etc...  Stephen and I are pretty obsessed with him, so it's neat to hear that it's not just parental bias.  :)

- Watching Gavin interact with other babies is one of my favorite things.  I totally understand why people have more than one child now.  He's just so CURIOUS about other babies.  We're not ready to expand our family quite yet (hey, we are JUST NOW starting to get some sleep) -- but I get why people do this more than once.

- The feeling that no one knows my child the way I do is pretty special.  I know what his different cries mean.  I know what to do when he starts pushing away his bottle.  I know how to soothe him to sleep when he's fighting a nap.  The best part of motherhood?  Knowing that I can make my child happy, keep him healthy, and make him feel 100% safe and loved in a way that no one else can.  (Stephen obviously achieves the same goals -- just in his own way.)

The list could go on and on, really.  Gavin is an incredible kid, and motherhood is a incredible job.  Right now, I'm sitting in bed watching trashy summertime television and praying Fourth of July fireworks don't wake my baby while watching Gavin on the monitor splayed out in his crib, lovey in hand.  He's my little angel and I'm blessed to be his mommy and to be able to share him with the world.