Baby Thomas 10.5 months

Here are a few pictures I took of my friend's baby, Thomas last week.  He is getting ready to turn ONE, and his birthday party theme is going to based off his favorite Peek a Boo book.  So we did some Peek a Boo shots and shots of him with his favorite book.  And for my photography-buff friends (and family....Kevin) I know I totally screwed up on the white ones.  I didn't shoot in raw and I tried my best to fix them but I could only do so much.  For anyone who cares ( I got lots of Mama friends with nice cameras, so perhaps they do care!) when you have alot of white in a shot, the camera tries to make it more of a grey blue if you let it.  The camera likes to have everything in the middle tones, so you have to trick it by focusing on something that is a medium shade of grey or even grass works.  Then you take whatever settings work good for grass and shoot away at your white scene and it usually won't turn everything a blue grey.  This obviously requires that you take it off Auto and shoot in manual.  I, obviously, didn't do this correctly!    Sometimes I forget what the heck I am doing when I am trying to get the baby to smile, stop from crawling away, or even keep from eating the props!  Not in this case though, Thomas is a dream to photograph... so really I have no excuse.  Luckily his Mama loves the pictures anyway.  It's hard to NOT love a picture of this little guy though, huh?!

Baby Brock at 4.5 Months

Maybe in my next life I will have the confidence and talent to become a photographer.  Until then I will just pretend and take lots of pictures of every single baby I can get my hands on.  Please enjoy some of the pictures I got of my friend's baby, Brock!

Are you ready for some Football?

If it were up to me, my boys would be Gator fans.  But with a Daddy who loves Florida State as much as Paul does, I am pretty much guessing they will be Nole fans.  Boooo.  Let's just hope they atleast realize that they can't pick a college to attend based on their football program and they go to UF like their Mama. 

Family Resemblance

I have had a few people tell me that Drew looks like me, but for the most part every one says both boys look like their Daddy.  I think Drew looks like I did as a baby, and these pictures totally prove that theory.  Sorry Drew!!!  I know Daddy is handsome, but you look like your Mama!!

Almost like it's not 100 degrees here in Florida!

It's almost as if it's not 100 degrees here in Florida, at least according to Evan.  He wanted to wear his winter Elmo jammers last night, and there was no talking him out of it.  They are pretty cute though, I must admit, and they look super comfy.  So of course and early morning (waaaay too early in my opinion... as you can see it was still dark out so I had to use my flash) photo shoot was in order. 

Embracing the Camera

Evan is really into taking pictures with my phone.  The one of Drew and me, he took all by himself.  And he is actually willing to give me some kisses if it means he can hold my phone.  I'll take what I can get.  Funny, he asked the Massey Termite guy if he could have a hug, but I can barely get him to snuggle with me for two minutes.  My little shy boy asked the "bug boy" to "take a hug" before he left on Tuesday.  Too cute!!!  Anyway, back to the pictures.  They obviously aren't the best quality pictures, but I will treasure them nonetheless.

Exhibit A, B and C

 According to exhibit A, B, and C, Drew has his first tooth. 

Disclosures of a Stay at Home Mama: Lock Up...Starstrom Style

It's been a few weeks since my last addition of Disclosures of a Stay at Home Mama.  This week, I got some doozies. 

Ever seen the show Lock Up?  It's a reality show taped in prison.  They often times highlight the life of the criminally insane, for instance an old guy that has been in solitary for like 12 years who writes on the wall with feces.  I felt like I was in an episode of Lock Up a coule of weeks ago.  I walk into Evan's room and he is sitting in his bed after his nap.  At first, nothing out of the ordinary jumps out at me.  I proceed to put away his laundry.  He is telling me about something that's on the floor, I am half listening.  Then I hear, "look Mom, mud".  I immediately flashed back to a few days prior when I was showing my rental house to a nice family when Evan tells me, "look Mom, mud" and I look over to see that he has soiled himself and it's dripping down his legs.  Nice... empty rental house, nice family, I have nothing to clean this up with....OK, back to the present time.  I look over and Evan has taken his poop and smeared it on the wall.  It's on his sheets, down his legs, all over his hands (he sucks his thumb people and will stop at nothing to suck it, poop or no poop, the boy doesn't care).  I wanted to D-I-E. 

Picture this, 3 hour road trip with my boys and 2 dogs.  3 bottles of water later... crap, how do I go to the bathroom at a rest stop with two boys, without roasting my two dogs in the Florida heat in the car?  You pull over to a gas station and you find one of the 12 empty sippy cups laying around and you just suck it up.  OK, there was really only 2 empty sippy cups laying in my back seat, but I exaggerate to make the story a little better.  Evan asks me, "what are you doing Mom", so I tell him.  Big mistake, cause instead of using a potty chair himself, he wants to use a sippy cup too, "like Mommy does".  So I have to transport 2 sippy cups full of urine all the way home.... but at least my bladder got some relief.  OK, that was probably way too much information, but I seriously have no shame.  No shame at all. 

And finally, I took Drew to the urgent care last week because I could swear that there was a hair wrapped around his "junk" and it looked red and swollen and I couldn't for the life of me get the hair off.  2 hours later and a $50 copay, I was told it was a crease and he had a simple case of diaper rash.  I almost felt like a new Mom that wasn't a health care professional... almost.

And now please focus on the cute picture of Drew showing off his new talent, holding himself up in the standing position, above, instead of focusing on our poor hygiene skills.  Mkay?

Fly on the Wall

Oh how I wish I could be a fly on the wall sometimes in Evan's classroom.  Wonder if he listen's to Ms. B, better then he listens to me?  Here I was trying to take a picture of Evan and his buddies before their first day of school, but the mulch was much more interesting.  And here are a couple of pictures I got through the window of the door to the classroom.  He looks so sweet and quiet here.  Ahhhh.  That didn't last long. 

Negotiating Skills

Today was an important day.  Not only was it Drew's 11 month birthday, but it was Evan's first day of school!!!  He is still attending Little Fishes, a Parent's Morning Out program at a Presbyterian church.  He has 8 children in his class, 3 of which are his best buds from last year's class; and he has one of the same teachers from last year, Ms. B!!!  Evan had a ball.  When I asked him who his best friend in class was, he said Ms. B.  She is amazing.  Today she took pictures of all the toys and put the picture on the front of the cubby where each toy went and told all the kids to put the toys away in the correct cubby.  And they did.  And she got Evan to eat a granola bar and an apple.  So she is my hero.  Eating and cleaning up... who is this kid? They played games, painted pictures, played outside, read books and sang songs.  And Evan loved every minute of it.  Here is his "first day of school picture".  Not the traditional backpack shot on the front porch.  But Evan is not too keen on getting his picture taken lately, so I told him he could wear both of his sheriff hats if he gave me one cute smile on his favorite blue chair, and that seemed to do the trick.  But honestly I am a horrible negotiator, so I think I could have probably done a little better.  Oh well.  Maybe for Kindergarten I can get the traditional first day of school shot.  Sheriff's hat pics will have to do for this year.  Let's hope this year is as much fun as last year!!!

The Days are LONG, but the Years are Short, People (a wise woman once told me that... SO true).

Moments like this make my Heart Swell.They make up for all the tantrums, toy-swiping, and time-outs.

Sure... It'd be nice if either of them were making EYE contact with the camera, or if Drew would not look so overly concerned and put a smile on his face. But I will take what I can get.  It almost makes up for the MONSTER tantrum thrown by Evan at a certain Barnes and Nobles yesterday, and a SUPER fun trip to the vet this morning with two dogs (equaling 110 lbs between the two of them) and two boys in tow, one of which had to go pee pee every 5 minutes (one of the boys, not dogs)..... almost.

And, for every cute picture I get of the two of them, there are at least 87 bad ones outtakes. Enjoy!!!

This Pretty Much Sums it Up.

These pictures pretty much sum up our month week.

 

Evan.  Sir Crank-A-Lot. 

 Drew. Easy Peasy, Happy as can be.

Need I say more?