7.5 months

And my little crawl-monster is QUITE the handful. He is soo fast, pulls up on everything, pulls everything off the shelves, goes into the bathroom and tips over the trash.. He is a terror in his walker and zooms around the apartment pulling down more things. It is intense!

This week has been kind of rough with more teething (but still ZERO teeth) and horrible napping. He has only managed to sleep 15-20 min in my arms and scream when I put him in the crib. At night, not too bad. Waking twice to nurse then back to his room. But just as I was thinking "I have spoiled him! Where is the that sleep training book??!" .. this too has passed. He is sleeping happily in his room for morning nap as I type. And only 1 nurse last night, so it looks like we are back on track to STTN again. :)

I launched my photography website this week and so far I have 3 shoots set up for next month. My other business has picked up, but it looks like it is going to be another long summer completely devoid of shopping sprees. :( Luckily I will have warm weather and my little darling family which is really all I need anyway.

Totally mobile..

Smoosh is ON. THE. GO. It happened so quickly! Here he is stuck inside the barstool..



We had to bring out the travel crib and put him in there when I am cooking. I pulled my back out from lurching after him, but now I have gotten used to it. He is pretty good at catching himself, but we need wayy more babyproofing supplies. And a new china cabinet.

We were also all down with a stomach bug last weekend and into the week a little. I got it the worst and couldn't keep anything down or eat for a few days. On the bright side, there go those 5 pounds I was trying to loose at least. ;)

Inspiration..

Maybe it is the warmer weather and the the promise of trips upsate soon to come, but I am so in love with this aesthetic right now. These are from a NY Times piece on this wonderful house/farm/art gallery in rural Alabama. So inspiring!

7 months 1 day!

My little sweet pea is 7 months, and to commemorate the event he pulled himself up in his crib AND began crawling- like for-real crawling! He has been army crawling for awhile now, but this was a whole new crawl with his belly up and his arms sprawling out like a Clidesdale!
He is just getting more and more fun.. and more and more work. I pulled my back out from spazing around trying to catch him as he constantly pulls up on things, does downward dog, falls, crawls directly to dangerous areas and hurts himself.. exhausting!
Sleep has been pretty good. I am totally amazed that he is sleeping in his own room, in his own bed at all. He sleeps through the night most of time, getting up sometimes not till 7 or 8, sometimes around 6 to nurse and back to sleep (with us since I am too lazy to put him back). The last 2 nights he has nursed around 2 or 3 as well, but he has been doing a lot of extra work with these milestones so I understand he must need some extra late night milky. ;)
Yesterday was wonderul. We had our new class, Dancing Babies, then went for lunch with some friends from class/group at the most delicious new place Saltie - yum! Then meet up at the park for awhile, then a long walk to a cool bookstore in Greenpoint, Word, and all the way back home. Bedtime routine, some Lost, and a nice long sleep. Life is pretty awesome these days. :) Oh except we are out of money again. Oh well.

Today's mission is to exchange our latest 1 hideous piece of plastic baby gear -EXERSAUCER - for another - the WALKER. The former has been great, but he is totally sick of the toys, too big to do much jumping in it, and now that he is mobile it just isn't cutting it anymore. We need to try a new contraption to help me get my work emails and phone calls done a few times a day. Thanks to craig's list and mommy group, the switch should be done by the end of the day.

Here he is, QUITE pleased with himself :)



And yes, I have now removed the bumpers...

Home Again

Wow, those 10 days in LA felt like forever, like another world kind of. We got ourselves totally immersed in the idea that we are moving to LA .. asap. We looked at some houses, found one we LOVED, and mentally sort of "moved" there already, we spent every day deciding how to make the leap. Then we got back home to our new walls. And 70-80 degree weather, meet ups in the park and all that is great about New York as soon as the weather gets nice. We will see. I don't want to spend another winter here! So we will plan and plot some more. Look at Craig's list for houses, look for jobs and other signs that we should move on along.

It was so nice having family around to help with the babe. We looked at the most amazing pre school in Bel Air and I think MIL even put Smoosh on the wait list. We saw the most adorable house right up the hill from the school and the ILs. Private, gorgeous views, big brick fireplace, wood beam ceilings..

ANYWAY, enough daydreaming We had a great trip all together. Passover was great, we ate tons of great food. DH and I got to go to the movies (Crazy Heart finally), out on the town, and relax a little. We saw my BF who now lives out at the beach and I photographed her son. :)

Smoosh's first Easter did not disappoint. We woke up to little felt Easter basket a trail of Easter Eggs and candy all the way into the house where there was a big basket with gifts for everyone (see why I want to live close to me MIL?). Smoosh got an adorable bunny and a set of Peter Rabbit plate, cup and bowl from Pottery Barn kids. So sweet!

The new Stella McCartney for Gap also happened to come out while we were there, so we got Smoosh the cutest Western shirt for Easter!

Here is Mr. Man (or Mr. Mannington as we now call him) on Easter morning. I know you can't see it here, but I swear he grew some hair while we were away!

California Dreamin'

So, we have been in LA since last Friday, and we are loving it. Really loving it...

Parks and Recreation..

And a new look - for the blog. I just happened upon this and thought I could use a little make over around here. Never mind the squished heads over there on the side, I will fix that!

We had the most awesome weather EVER this weekend and spent Wednesday, Thursday Friday, Saturday and Sunday outside in various parks and walking all over. It was kind of a tour of NYC parks actually!

Wednesday I met some baby group friends at the East River PArk in Williamsburg/Greenpoint. It was so gorgeous being right on the water and not crowded since it was a weekday. Then DH met us and we walked to our 6 month dr appointment. Everything looks great. Smoosh though everything was hysterically funny - getting weighed, measured, poked, his ears checked, his tongue checked - all SO funny! I am somewhat relieved that he is now down to the 75th % in height and weight. The 97th was a little scary! I have to heave him up 3 flight of stairs for who knows how long and he is already 20 pounds!

Thursday I met more friends at McCarren park -gorgeous and so fun.

Friday we went to Clinton Hill to shoot our friends and their 2 month old. Now I know why no one does 2 month portraits. It's a pretty awkward age - lots of flailing and tongue thrusting. :{ I still got some good shots I think.. We went over to Fort Greene park which was just gorgeous with the huge old growth trees..

Saturday we went back to McCarren park for weekend meet up with the baby group + dads. We brought wine in Clean Kanteen bottles and lounged on blankets while the babes played and slept. DH brought his guitar and entertained the adoring fans - so cute!!

Sunday I decided to FINALLY take Smooshie on the subway into the city by myself, motivated by my 30% off Gap coupon. I didn't want to deal with stroller + stairs so I went with the Ergo. It was OK, but a bit exhausting. The F train wasn't running so I had to walk miles underground and up a million stairs. Smoosh didn't want to be in there anymore and was trying to escape - screeching and pushing away from me. We went to 34th street to the H&M with the kids department and got some cute things. Then DH called and was on his way to Central Park with his band, so he picked us up and we lounged at Central Park for a few hours while DH and his band filmed their new music video. :) Now the whole reason I went into the city was that GAP coupon, so I then made DH drive me around until we found one (Google maps is very unreliable) and I ran in and got some 6-12 month things which we desperately needed. All his PJs and onesies are stretching off his neck. I think he is kind of long waisted maybe?

Ahh now today we are off to Hope Depot and Lowes to get paint for Smoosh's nursery and doors for the new wall!

my shoot :)



my guys :)