My favorite outfit(s)

Look how sweet my babies are. half shirt on Noah:
They're so playful


What good babies.
I'm impressed with myself that I got one of Noah sitting in one place.

Isaac just sits and smiles for me.

This was 4 months ago, when these 3-6 mo and 6-9 mo outfits actually fit the 2 mo olds

Aw, how sweet my little blobs were.
I knew I wanted to wait 'til they could sit up for better pics

(the ones you looked at first at the top of this post)

Because . . .

I liked these pictures

from 2 years ago. The same outfit.
Dylan was just 5 months old.
(Malia was 8 months old)Did you see how big the shirt was on Dylan? I even tucked it in hereI liked the fabric so I bought overalls the next size up for Dylan.

See the date?

And the poor quality of pictures?

And how tan baby Dylan was?

And his cute "surfing" nursery walls?

Time flies. All I have left is the outfits. The babies grow up and out of them and turn into walking/talking toddlers.

6 Months

Ok, so these are his real 6 month portraits.

Corrie gave me a gift certificate to Portrait Innovations,

so I figured I should do the below spaghetti pictures at the same time

I got his 6 month portraits done.
Isaac weighs 1oz less than Noah did at his 6 month appointment 2 weeks before.

Weight 18lbs, 12oz
Height 27 1/4"
He's in the 75th percentile
(if I remember correctly)

Isaac is sitting up perfectly. He reaches for things beyond his reach and slowly falls over in his quest. He sits there for a while content until he realizes he's a beached whale and can't move. Then I have to rescue him. Usually Dylan comes running announcing "i-gik fell ov-uh, Mom, uh-oh, go get him. i-gik sad, Mama." Isaac still loves to nurse. He does not have anything else that soothes him like a pacifier, blankie, or thumb. I have been loving it, but now realize that I've spoiled him. No really, I have. I put him in the crib on occasion, but give up and bring him in bed with me. He wakes up lots and lots. I have let him cry it out, but a half hour later, he is still so upset and is DREANCHED in sweat. The house is cool, but he just gets SO worked up and upset. Just holding him tight calms him down a bit, but it isn't until he's nursing that he feels save and secure again.

At night, he rolls over with a wide open mouth like a blind little baby bird. I watch it on the monitor, but I feel it more b/c he's right by me. I'm the human pacifier. I wouldn't mind if my milk slowed down b/c I made it 6 months. I only lasted 5 months w/ Dylan b/c we stupidly switched to faster flowing bottles and he liked that. He refused to nurse in the day, then didn't want to at night either. I felt like it was time for baby #2 at that instant b/c I wanted a baby to need me. Well, I got more than I asked for with Mr. Baby #2 here:)

It's hard getting a babysitter. Dylan sometimes says "I don't like new house." When I ask him where he wants to be, he says "Dita house" or "Mia-ma house" (Abuelita/Steven's mom or grandma/my mom's houses). Isaac likes our new house just fine though. He doesn't mind other houses, as long as I'm there with him. He's happy unless he gets tired, so I hear. He doesn't like to go to sleep.

Isaac loves to laugh. Dylan makes him laugh the hardest and longest. Gotta love that!

Isaac eats some real foods, but it takes forEVER to feed him. I usually have to smush his cheeks to make his mouth open. Sometimes I give him a waterproof toy so that when he goes to taste it, I sneak my spoon in his mouth first. For such a chubby baby, he sure is a picky eater. Dylan ate everything so quickly and easily.

When I put Isaac up in the crawling position he will rock. It's so cute. When I put him in the standing position, he rocks even more. I laugh so hard because it's like those dancing santas from Halmark. He just moves his tummy and hips all around in jerky silly movements like he can't control it. I think I have a video of it if I get around to posting it. It's so funny. How can he not have that ballance?:)

I LOVE that he loves me and he's such a cute sweet baby.

6 months

4-1/2 months

2 months

1-1/2 months

1-1/2 weeks

Look who's cookin'

Better than Peas!Dylan: "eew, clean spaghetti is touching my leg!

I want a warm bath now, Mommy."

Isaac: "cool!"Dylan: " here, you try it first."Dylan: "Do you like it?"
Dylan: "Ok, I'll try it"
Isaac: "Ah, this is nice and relaxing and squishy" Isaac: "and cold now, I'm full"
Tummy time, or, Isaac's 6 month portrait

Dylan doesn't like to be messy. Isaac and I had fun though:)

To answer some questions:

It was actually Steven's idea. We had family pictures done and I was all excited to frame them and hang them on our blank canvas-of-a-dining room wall. Well Steven said he wants a big picture or two of our boys making a mess with spaghetti. This is Steven's first photo shoot idea (besides Christmas card pictures back before we were parents). I couldn't believe that he was not only okaying another photo shoot, but it was HIS idea! So I called a portrait studio and asked Portrait Innovations if I could make a mess. Some studios let babies make a mess with their first birthday cakes, what's the difference? They said if I take my own white sheet with plastic under it. I took one of those cheapo white plastic table cloths and made like 10 boxes of spaghetti. I didn't have time to find chef hats and kid aprons. I didn't look too hard because I thought those may make the pictures too busy. I borrowed a big pot from my mom, but then found this one in my cabinets (shows how much I cook, huh.)

Dylan seriously doesn't like to be messy. He sits on one hand so he only has to get one hand messy if he's eating something that might spill. When I go to wipe his hands, he hides the clean one because even the wet wash cloth is too much for him. He has been like this since I can remember. Malia is the opposite. She will drip everywhere and will get food in her hair most every time she eats. She would have been throwing the spaghetti for a real food fight. If I took her, THEN I would be brave.

I feel like I learned from this and would work WITH Dylan's dainty side next time. I would let him just feed Isaac or something. I put a pile of noodles on his leg and he freaked out. I would use more sauce and would mix it in before hand so there's more color in the pictures. I would also warm the sauce. The spaghetti was still warm, but not by the end. The in the pot pictures had potential, but Isaac was too messy for me to pick up and cuddle. I picked him up and he thought he was done. When I put him back down, he was disappointed. He was ok, but not happy after a while.

I can't wait to get the large prints. I'm not sure if I'll do gallery wraps or frames with black and white checkered mats or something. It has to be big and will definitely make a statement. I don't know how we'll enforce the "don't play with your food" rule when the time comes though.

Newborn Days

The days are flying by. I can't believe my maternity leave is already half way over. I want to remember every phase of my new baby. Isaac is growing so fast it's like I can see him filling out right before my eyes when I feed him. He's got a double chin now and chubby cheeks. He's growing eye lashes and can focus a little bit.

I really wish that I had a resident photographer like Lacey here to capture what I'm going to forget. I'd much rather that then a nanny or a maid etc. I have a regular camera that's perfect for most things since it's water proof and compact for my back pocket, but I covet big cameras that can focus where you want them to focus or let as much light in as I would want. Steven said I should start a website to get donations to help me buy a camera. I'm not sure if that's his way of telling me that it's not in our near future or that he feels my pain. Any get rich quick ideas?

My aunt is starting a photography business and came and took free photos for me. They're really good except Isaac was WIDE awake the whole time and was still a little cross-eyed. I didn't get what I had envisioned. The pictures are great in general and I'm using them for my birth announcement, but I wanted more. Here are some from my Aunt Robin.

Sweet sleeping baby

I want to cuddle w/ him!
Opening his eyes and discovering
warming back up with Mommy
tiny on a platter

I went to a portrait studio for more. Babies are only truely newborns for the first 10-14 days. They're still all scrunched up (face and legs/body) and sleepy (so I thought) and have peely skin (not much for Isaac) and still have their cords. I am so happy with both of Isaac's photo shoots. I spent more money than I had anticipated, but have no regrets. It really isn't that much money, but it's hard when I'm not making any at the moment.

I wanted naked baby pictures but the studio had a policy where they had to leave the diaper on. I should have maybe kept his clothes on b/c when I took them off, he woke up. At least he's not cross-eyed any more!

So thise were taken on his 2 week birthday - the last day of my true newborn. His cord fell off the next day.
my scrunchy baby
little yawn
sparkel in his eyes
perfect fit
looking at my rings

I love how the camera captured his fuzzy hair. I've been trying to get it. They also used that blue satin fabric. Dylan would have been in heaven! I wonder if Isaac will like silky blankets too. I had wanted to do a picture of him on a stack of towels but had given up on the idea. I was going to ask Lacey how to make it look like a tall tower like she did for Abbey. Look what they did with the blankets - no trick photography! They also did a cute creative pose with his feet, but I'm using that on the announcement. The one of him on my hand turned out much better than I thought it would. he had just opened his eyes and started trying to scarf down my hand. He decided he was STARVING and kept turning his head and shaking it back and forth so fast. He looks calm though. The photographer let us take a break so I could nurse him. I didn't feel rushed at all and yet I was in and out of there in about an hour - WITH prints in my hand! I reccomend both my Aunt Robin and Portrait Innovations.

Thank you, Aunt Robin! Your leg was in a cast and you didn't complain at all about all the poses I wanted to try out.