new trick - sitting up!

Out of the blue, we went to play group on Tuesday (where most of the other babies are a few months older) and Smoosh decided to sit up by himself! I held his hand some and he toppled over a few tines, but he sat all day and all through music class as well - so funny. I thought he would go straight to standing since he hates bending his legs, but I guess he saw that sitting could be pretty fun too. Now he is going to much easier to photograph! I took these quickly on the bed yesterday afternoon - not quite enough light.

new trick #2: sucking toes -so funny!!

Awwe love his smile and his Buddha belly..

It is snow flurrying this morning. It is so pretty but I wish I didn't have to go move the car in it.

Practicing..

Smooshie is practicing eating, and I am practicing my photo skills! We put together the gorgeous Svan high chair the other day so Smoosh could sit with us at meals. Then I decided to go ahead and give him some utensils to practice with... I think he is getting the idea! It is really cute, he totally mimics us eating (although not always with the right end of the spoon in his mouth). It is so exciting that he will be eating real food soon, but I definitely don't want to jump the gun. My mom, Mrs. La Leche League, is totally adamant about waiting the full 6 months. I have to agree, I haven't seen any evidence for starting sooner so why risk the allergies and complications just in case his little tummy isn't ready? Plus, breast milk is totally convenient and totally free.

Photography - wise, I am thinking about watermarks.. I hate how they look but I do want to protect photos of my little guy. With my fashion photos, I would NEVER put a watermark. It screams "cheesy internet photographer" and no professional fashion photog would ever use one, but with kids it seems a little different. Advice anyone? For now, I am trying a little copyright text at the bottom, but it doesn't look very cute. Hmm

1st edits...

First Photoshoot!

This wasn't really planned, I was just taking some pictures of Smoosh at the table and I noticed the gorgeous morning light, so I pulled out a sheepskin and hung the shawl over the side of the sofa and got in there!

I realized that I have too many pictures of him in this random outfit, so I stripped him down..

Great light, funny expression!

He was mostly interested in pulling down the blanket and eating it, but we ended up with some cute shots that way!


And yes, he did end up peeing on the sheepskin at the end, but oh well!

There were some better shots but they had a little too much nudity going on so I didn't want to post them. Now pleasse let him stay asleep for a little while so I can get some of these into photoshop!

Furniture Lust

I thought that once I had the baby, my lusting over nursery furniture would be over, but no. Why would it? We have decided to split our open loft into two bedrooms- for a little, ahem, privacy -so Smoosh will finally have his own room. Right now we have a book case up as a divider, which looks beautiful but is certainly not much of a sound barrier. Anyway, since we might have actual walls someday, it makes me want to step up the baby's room a little - change the wall color maybe, add some more artwork.. And his clothes are certainly not all fitting in the 3 drawers of the changing table for long.

And so I stumbled upon the new line from Argington (of which we have the Delphi crib and changing table) and this gorgeous new dresser!



It is a new collection, but the color is the same so I think it would fit in perfectly. I love that it is a little more organic looking and would transfer well into any room or work as a dresser in Smooshie's room pretty much forever. And of course the fact that it is eco friendly and non toxic is huge.

I have a few months before my Daddy is coming to do the construction (have to love a contractor dad) so I have plenty of time to obsess and plan :)

4 Month Check Up

Smoosh had his 4 month check up yesterday and that went quite well. I still miss our previous pediatricians with their hip office and organic wooden toy area. Now we have hideous office with creepy bear paintings and are the only people there who don't speak Polish. Come ON health care reform! Anyway...

Smoosh the beast is still in the 95th % for height and weight. He is 18 lbs and 27 inches. I was honestly worried that he might be even bigger than that!

I told the dr that I want to spread out the vaccines, but he still ended up with 2 shots and an oral. He helped the nurse by grabbing the dropper and feeding himself the vaccine which was pretty cute. He was very brave with the shots and at least I didn't cry this time. I gave him some Tylenol because he seemed pretty cranky during music class. He insisted on standing the ENTIRE time, even through the lullabye with the lights out. Then actually slept quite well last night - drugged I guess. Poor thing. Now he seems back to his happy little shrieking self.


Enjoying the hideous excersaucer.




P.S. When is this child going to get some hair?!

No Sleep Till Brooklyn..

or once in Brooklyn. Wow, so I am possibly as exhausted as I was the first week home. MAJOR regression in the sleep area. Actually I can't even call it regression because we have never had this problem before. Smooshie DOES NOT nap anymore. He doesn't fall asleep at all during the day except for maybe a few minutes after breast feeding. At night, we were down to two feedings(11 ish and 3 ish) that I barely remember since I would just feed him and slide him back into the co sleeper. Now it is so impossible to get him down at all, and then he proceeds to wake up at all hours screeching, talking, gurgling, thrashing around and wanting to play. I pulled the miracle blanket back out and stuffed him into that (he really doesn't fit at all) and got a few hours with him in his crib in the other room but he woke back up screaming. THEN the last week or so from about 4-7 AM he cries and has to be feeding at the boob constantly. He also seems to be especially gassy during this time and holds on to his feet and turns over and fusses.. what the hell is going on??

I ordered a LARGE swaddler so we will see if that helps. I am also going to read some sleep books I never really got around to reading before. Ugh. One one hand, Smooshie is the most fun and interesting and delightful he has ever been (and getting better and better), but on the other hand this is the most difficult time we have had so far. No sleep, no break, no more swing, no more playing with activity matt. Constant rolling over, shrieking, laughing, attention, attention attention!

First book on my list, No Cry Sleep Solution. I like the sound of at, as crying is not something we are interested in. Especially since we have no doors to close. Baby crying + open loft apartment = torture

Time to break out the "real" camera...

I have been so inspired by the beautiful photos I have seen of babies and kids lately. I am embarrassed to admit that I actually majored in Photography in college, but I am have been pretty pathetic at really keeping up with it. I mean, I shoot ALL the time for work and for fun but pretty much just with my wonderful Canon G9 - an AMAZING point and shoot. I am especially pathetic with my photoshop skills, but come on- I graduated over 10 years ago- we didn't even have digital photography then! I DO however have a Canon Mark II, not the newest model but still a pretty hard core professional digital SLR that I have yet to even take a single photo of the baby with. So today I broke it out. I didn't try very hard, just took a few shots on the bed. I am charging up the batteries and getting ready to do more very soon. Smoosh is also becoming less of a slug and therefore more fun to take pictures of. :)



I thought there was something nice about this photo. I messed with it a little bit in PS.. that was fun. More to come soon!

Over and Out..

Well, I never thought I would say this but I was totally inspired by another blogger yesterday - The Heir To Blair- and I called and cancelled our Direct TV. Goodbye saved movies on the DVR, goodbye HGTV, goodbye tempting Nick Jr. It feels SO good!

Bad news, I have a cold and couldn't do my shred yesterday. We will see about today. Yucky.

My baby!

This is what I did today during Smooshie's nap when I was supposed to be working on my website. :)

Elephant in the Room, AKA The Baby Weight Post

I haven't talked much about weight, because I assumed it would naturally melt away and it wouldn't be an issue. I partially blame this on my one BF who has a had a baby and who was back to her college weight a month after giving birth - thinner than she was before getting PG. This has NOT been the case for me. I have always been naturally pretty tall and thin and not had to worry much about what I ate or do much exercise. I always just trusted my body. So when my body told me I needed to eat ice cream EVERY day the last three months of pregnancy, I trusted that that what clearly what my body needed. For nourishment, you know? After giving birth, this continued. In fact, I have never been so hungry in my life! AND the sweet tooth has stuck around as well. Still, I figured " I just gave birth" ! But by Thanksgiving, a stranger in a store asked me when I wad due. Then over Christmas, a friend of my parents asked if I was expecting again! NOT cool! Still, I continued on a chocolate and cookie binge like no other.

Finally, on New Year's (how typical), mom broke out a new DVD she had gotten "The 30 Day Shred". She actually ended up giving me the video to take home with me and only now do I realize she may have gotten the video for ME in the first place but didn't want to be rude. Tricky. So, I am 17 pounds over my pre-pregnancy weight and on day 9 of the shred. I bought a scale for the first time in my life and I have made a "no dessert after lunch" rule. Just a small pudding after dinner! It is hard to reduce calories in the cold weather since I try to eat mostly local and organic - AND I AM CONSTANTLY STARVING! But anyway.... There it is.

We babysat last night for the Co Op which was great. I think I got the better deal, since her baby was fast asleep by the time we got there. He took a bottle in his sleep around 10 and that was about it. Meanwhile, Smoosh played with all his toys and DH and I ordered Mexican and watched movies. Unfortunately, he fell in LOVE with the MOST hideous baby toy that has ever been invented - The Exersaucer. I swore I would NEVER have one of those things in our house, but the look on his little face! He loved it. We will just file that under thing # 8904566 that I have changed my mind about since having the baby. Oh, and I ordered some Baby Einstein videos. Snap.

Smoosh has fallen asleep in his Johnny Jump Up again, so I better go get him out of there before he strangles himself!

17 weeks old I think?

I must say, I totally lost track of how many weeks old Smoosh is somewhere around 10 weeks.. I prefer months, half months or "almost" months. Smoosh is almost 4 months old! He is getting cuter and sweeter and I love him more every single day. Not that it is getting easier, some days are harder and I miss when he was an infant and actually slept for hours of the day. I think we are in the throes of the "4 Month Wakeful" right now, but isn't it always something?
We have hit a difficult patch where I can't really leave him to play on his activity matt because he just rolls over, tries to crawl (scoot) and gets mad and freaks out. He is having none of the bouncer at all. The jumper is good for 10-20 minutes, longer if I watch him the whole time. The bumbo usually gets me enough time to make something in the kitchen, but he is now reaching for things, pickingup tupperware and throwing it and trying to get out of the seat!
So, we are back to the Moby to get things done around the house, but now he has to face outward to check everything out. He doesn't want to miss a thing!

Some wonderful news, my baby group has started doing a babysitting co op so I got to go to one of DHs shows the other night and have a free babysitter yayy!! Tonight we go over there and watch her baby. Unfortunately I got a little over excited and had the WORST hangover yesterday. I forgot I can't drink like I once did ugh. I had to stay in bed most of the day. I won't make that mistake again. I was too ill to do my "30 day shred" video. More on that later. ;)
Today I have a baby shower to go to. The problem is that she registered at Diapers.com and Amazon.com so I can't show up with a gift. How does that work? Maybe just bring a card and write that the gift is on it's way? Did everyone else buy their gifts, have it shipped to her, and she will bring them? I don't think so. Hmm.. :trots off to ask on the Baby Shower board at the Bump... :