Jaden: 18 months Young

I am less than 3 weeks away from our due date. I'm officially on maternity leave...aka not shooting sessions, and I admit I got the bug to go out and shoot last week. I just couldn't help it! It's been a while since I've done a session with Jaden and it's fitting since he turned 18 months last week. Yes, 18 months. Can you believe it?



I sure can't.



Before the hustle and bustle of having a newborn gets here, I wanted to take a moment to note the accomplishments and development of our eldest pride and joy.



-At 18 months-
- can run, jump, climb, throw, and play the drums
- can point out specific animals, clouds, and foliage in books
- says mama, dada, uh oh, and nana clearly
- uses sign language for "please", "milk", and "all-done"
- has his own vocabulary for certain items/phrases - "Guh Guh" (kitty cat), "Guk" (kick), "ite der" (right there)
- jabbers constantly, mainly full of duh's and da's
- loves wrestling with daddy, pillow fighting with daddy, and peek-a-boo with mommy
- is great at picking up toys, stacking blocks, and putting shoes away
- learning more body parts - knows eyes, ears, head, hair, nose, hands, belly button, arm, fingers, toes, teeth
- is currently infatuated with bees and Mickey Mouse Clubhouse
- makes roaring noises for bears
- loves playing outside with sticks, rocks, and dirt (typical boy)
- likes holding mommy and daddy's hand



Jaden, my sweet boy. We love you more than you will ever know.

Jaden's First Love Letter

It's been a while since I posted something personal on the business blog. June has been crazy busy for me. The Lord has truly been blessing me in my business and I'm ever grateful for it. As I speak I'm waiting for images to export out of LightRoom.

That being said, I have been so caught up with work that I have hardly even taken any photos of Jaden during the month of June. I sadly admit that these were 1 of 2 sets of photos taken this past month...and they were in the same day.

Jaden has learned to walk and is practically running around now. Where has the time gone? It felt like it took him forever (14 months) to walk and now we can hardly keep up. Words are few and far between for him, but he has "ma ma" and "da da" down. He also says "ki ki" for kitty (in a high pitched voice), and "su so" (Sasha). At least he knows who lives with him. :) Speaking however is one of his favorite things. Let me rephrase...yelling, squealing, and belly laughing are some of his favorite daily activities.

I'm so curious as to how he will take to his brother. For now he seems a little uninterested in anything to do with "baby". He just wants to touch my belly button with his index finer so I will pretend laugh. He also is still learning that he can't climb on mommy's belly and bounce like he does to daddy. I am 25 weeks today and our second little boy hasn't been shy about letting us know he's here, in both appearance and movement. We think we may have settled on a name.

Stay tuned to the exciting conclusion.

I've been introducing Jaden to sidewalk chalk. He's learning. Basically it's an excuse for me to go out and draw pictures and write things on our back porch. Like a true boy, J finds some way to destroy it, cross it out, or scribble on my stick figures. It's all good though. Abstract art right?

Bouncing Baby

Just because he's cute.



Happy Wednesday everyone!

Jaden Turns 1: Part 2

Meet our littlest aviator. I have this fear. Maybe if you're a photographer you can empathize. Even though I feel like I find great locations and have unique ideas for clients, I fear that when it comes to my own kid's photos, or where family is involved, I'll go blank and not have a creative spark in me. Then something amazing happens. Random things happen- like a pilot leaves his vintage looking yellow airplane parked conveniently outside of the hanger at the airport. :) Good thing. ;)

So to the owner of this plane- I promise we did not touch it! We only used it for the background. Thank you for leaving it outside! You're the best. :)

Jaden's new trick

Guess what we'll be doing soon....

Moving the height of the crib. Today is the second day of our crazy blizzard. I've not left the house for 2 days now. The roads are getting cleared though and I think everything is pretty well back to normal. In the meantime though, I've been able to get a lot of work done. I'm caught up! Hooray!! :)

On a personal note, look at our little booger. He's getting so big. Today he decided he wanted to pull up on his crib- on his own for the first time. He's also been wanting to crawl up the stairs but has been unsuccessful thus far. Lowering the crib height has now moved to the top of the agenda.

Army crawling at 65 mph, Jaden gets to wherever he needs to go. We're unsure about when he may actually start to walk. I'm sensing a pattern. He rolled for what seemed like forever, and now it seems he's been army crawling forever. To make up for it though, he's extending his vocabulary and has learned how to play catch. "Dada" is at the top of the list still. He often says "Ba" when he plays catch, and "duh" in there occasionally when Sasha passes by. I am almost certain he said boob the other day too.

Awesome.

Being cooped up in the house all day has made me cook, clean and move furniture. Just today I've baked a cheesecake, mopped the floor (which rarely if ever gets done) and moved Jaden's room around.


Check out these crazy facial expressions....







And crazy hair.




Our sweet little boy is growing up so fast. Now, off to the kitchen to check on my chocolate cheesecake that's been cooling. Who said you can't have desert before supper??

Little Drummer Boy

There are certain things you need to do with your kids. One of them is the following.

I was a little worried that he was too young to enjoy this. I was mistaken. He loved it.
Jaden is still in character from his first Halloween . ;) Chunky monkey is almost 9 months old. He is in 12 month clothes. Oh boy.

Man's...I mean Baby's Best Friend

"Nothing to see here...just playing with my best buddy".







I don't care for my on camera flash, or flash at all really. However, when moments like these happen, I can't pass up the chance to freeze the moment.

I'm fairly certain they are going to be good friends.

Ahoy Matey!

Ok, I know, I know. He's my baby...but STILL! You can't deny that he is pretty precious. I think he makes the cutest pirate I've ever seen. His costume was composed of a onsie and pants he already had, 1/2 a yard of red material, felt, elastic and a vest that I sewed out of an old pillow case. The only thing missing was a mustache that he let me draw on him later. Unfortunately he was done with his photo shoot by then. Although we didn't go trick or treating this year, our little stinker was pretty adorable.

My Jaden {is 7 months old}

My Jaden was 7 months old yesterday. 7 months? It's crazy to think of how fast it's flown by. He's getting so big and so many days I take advantage of the time I have with him.







Here's what he's been doing lately....









Movement



J likes to roll around- a lot! Still no crawling but wow is he a little rolly poley. He's sitting up pretty well on his own now. I still don't trust leaving him sitting up in the living room on his own. He's bound to get distracted by something or the dog and lean towards her and fall over. Even though he's not crawling he is liking when I pull him up by his arms. He pushes on his legs to a standing position, gives a great big grin and squints his eyes. (that's my boy) He is playing with toys all the time and shoving anything he can reach in his mouth. (speaking of, I think a tooth will be making it's debut in a few weeks)



Grub



We've moved to the 2nd stage of baby food because this little oinker loves to eat. 1 serving of fruits and veggies a day, and 1-2 servings of baby oatmeal. When he chows down on just a bottle it's between 6-8 oz. We've also been incorporating a sippy cup (still a work in progress), puffs (another work in progress) and mum mums. He LOVES the mum mums. Puffs are too small for him to figure out yet. He gets them in his hands and goes to put them in his mouth but misses because his thumb is there, and because he can't see them.

Sleep


Little man is still sleeping 10-12 hours a night (sweet!) and takes 1-3 naps during the day.


Sound



Jaden squeals sometimes when he's being tickled. He laughs when we play peek a boo with him. His toothless smile in combination with his belly laughs make my day. He's making the following sounds:


ga


da


hu


ya


and ma (only when he's MAD)


and get this....He's mimicking "Hi da da" on a regular basis. Not mommy. Dada. He even stared at Stephen the other day for a long time and then said "da...da". I'm secretly waiting to write in the baby book his first word until I clearly hear mama. Just kidding. I frequently go around saying "ma ma ma ma ma ma. Say Ma ma ma ma." Jaden looks at me, makes a fart noise with his mouth and says "da da".








What a turd.