The Annual Photoshoot

My friend Andrea has been taking our family pictures for Christmas cards since 2008: the first year it was Nate, me and Henry and we missed the first snow of the season by one day. The second year I was pregnant and just starting to sport a baby bump and I remember thinking that life could not get any better since we were incredibly happy and excited for 2010 to arrive. That feeling of anticipation and holiday fun and visits with family was absolutely priceless and I'm so glad our pictures reflect that happiness. Of course, we missed snow on the ground that year, too, by a few days but our pics were still fab. This year we planned the pictures a little later in the year mostly because I really really wanted that white stuff to be in our pictures because darn it, we live in Wisconsin and nothing says Merry Christmas! like a blanket of snow.

And so on December 5 we had Andrea come to our place, which was literally the day after the first decent snowfall. Perfect! I knew I wanted some outside shots of our family in front of the decorated duplex to remember our home in the years to come. This is where Truman was born, where we've had so many milestones as a family, and who knows if we will still be here next year at Christmastime. And so we bundled up and snapped pictures outside.....then inside by our tree....and then just Truman and I headed to the nursery for some mommy/baby shots since we never did get to that newborn photoshoot. It's safe to say our pictures this year are phenomenal and Andrea just keeps getting better and better at photography.

For a sappy little side note: although I thought life couldn't get much better last year around this time, it absolutely did. As I look at these pictures of my happy little family I catch myself getting a little choked up, wondering how I got so lucky to be blessed with these boys in my life. While we are far from perfect, and life still feels like a whirlwind of hectic days strung together to make a year, I am reminded that God has given me a beautiful life---even when it's totally crazy.

Enough sap. Let's look at the pictures.

The happy Wisconsinites, pretending to be warm.


Probably one of my top two favorites, mostly because of Truman's face.


Score!! The snow. The decorations. The Christmas cheer. Love.


And if you are one of the 80 people on our Christmas card list, you will see that this is the one I chose to display. It took much deliberation to decide on just one shot but you can't go wrong with the snow, a sled, and two Santa hats. :)


Cannot handle the cuteness. Nate pulled him around the front yard for fun and he loved it until he tipped over backwards. Whoops!


My little Grinch----the colors are just too perfect.


And the family back in the warmth of indoors. I love our Christmas ornaments, by the way. And Truman's argyle sweater.


The mommy and baby shoot! Love my little man and his belly.


He loves mommy's necklace!


Love.


Happy baby boy, obviously the light of my life.


I wanted some of me lifting T up like this and my triceps are still burning from this task. :)


Just hanging out----my idea of heaven, pretty much.



So that's that. A Christmas shoot plus a nursery belated newborn shoot. Hope you enjoyed and if you live in Milwaukee, you need to hire Andrea to shoot your family asap.

Now to decide which ones to frame...

best year ever

2010 was a pretty good one for us, no?

more to come from this photo session with the fab Andrea....including Christmas card pictures! :)

Nine Months

Niner. Three-fourths of a year, people. And let me tell you, the month of November brought us a whole new baby in many ways. Never a dull moment around here and I wouldn't have it any other way.


I wasn't noticing a huge difference between months until I realized that every monthly sticker is the exact same size. So if you compare the first month to the ninth you can see how much bigger his head has grown compared to those circle stickers....dang!


Let's begin with the mecca of all topics: SLEEP.
At his eight month post I reported that T was down to waking twice per night and I hoped that by this post we'd be talking about once or none at all. Then everything fell apart and we almost drowned. But then we turned a corner and I cannot believe that I'm typing this, but Truman sleeps through the night about half of the time now. The other half includes just one wake up time followed by a quick return to sleep. A-MAZ-ING. Life is suddenly happy again, the birds are chirping (through the snowflakes), and I remembered how to smile all because we are getting more than 2 hours of sleep at a time.

Our strategy? Well, first of all, if Truman does wake up at night, Nate is the one who goes into him. No mommy. Nate will offer Truman a bottle to see if he's truly hungry and since T knows there will be no boob time for plain old comfort he will usually take some of the bottle, or perhaps all of it. I have been getting up at the same time the boys are awake to pump. I know it's rather crazy but it let's me have a little bit of control in the situation and I'm awake at that point anyway. Some might wonder why I don't just nurse Truman if I'm going to pump instead but honestly, it was not working at night for us anymore. He'd only nurse for a little bit then fall asleep and sometimes he'd never even get a let down. But of course, if I tried to place him back in bed he'd wake up and freak out so really it wasn't accomplishing anything. With the bottle at least he doesn't have to wait for my milk to come in before he falls asleep again. Works for us!



Also, I nurse Truman before work like always (usually still a good successful session, too), he gets his two 6 ounce bottles at daycare, then we nurse after work around 5 pm and then I will offer a bottle to him right after that. The nursing session we have here is a short, distracted, quick one and most of the time he will take some of the bottle I give. Then he has a solids meal at dinner at 6 pm, nursing at 7 pm for a short session again, then bath, jammies, books, and a bottle. This extra bottle before bed in addition to nursing is the key to our sleeping success, I just know it. I really think my supply is just lower at night and Truman's attention span is even shorter and thus a nursing session plus a bottle equals a full baby who can sleep better. I pump again before bed to make up for that bottle and although I thought I was pumping a lot before (with my three sessions during work) I am now the queen of the pump with sometimes 5 or even 6 sessions in 24 hours. INSANE. But at least my supply is sticking around for now and at least we still do get to nurse three times in a work day.

(Hi, stuffed Henry dog!)

At his 9 month well-baby check up I asked our doctor about possibly starting whole milk before the one year mark if my supply can't keep up with Truman, and if our stash disappears like I think it will. Our doctor is awesome and was totally supportive of my goal to avoid supplementing if possible and gave us the green light to start mixing whole milk into breastmilk bottles slowly. Obviously, I won't go there until my stash is almost gone but at least I know we can push the cow's milk a little early if needed. It just seems silly to switch to formula for a month or two and then go to cow's milk after that. Gotta have a plan! And really, I'm just trying to take this thing one day at a time to avoid a major freak out moment. I want my baby to be fed and happy and sleep well and if bottles allow that to happen more than my boob, I need to accept that. I mean, we are still nursing for now and it's lovely to also get good sleep at night so I shouldn't complain. The evolution of our nursing relationship is becoming an easier pill to swallow for sure. If anything, I cherish our quick nursing sessions even more now and hope they continue but we shall see.

(Trouble-makers)


Next topic: FOOD

I already beat the breastfeeding horse to death in the above paragraphs, so I think I've covered the milk part of the food equation. :) But also, solids are a huge hit for Truman right now. This month Truman decided that eating purees from a spoon is SOOO last month. He really only wants to feed himself finger foods now which is great but also a little stressful. I mean, when he ate three cubes of purees in a sitting I knew he was getting enough without a doubt. But now he just munches on random things and half of the food ends up on the floor for Henry. Great for the dog but not for the kid.



I've been sneaking in a bite or two of purees between his finger food experiments and it's working okay so far. The doc said that was fine, too, and really Truman can just eat finger foods if that is all he wants. I just have to be creative in figuring out healthy foods that are chopped up now instead of blended. So far peas, blueberries, and apples are the biggest 'healthy' winners but graham crackers and animal crackers are like crack to this child. He definitely has a sweet tooth like his mom and dad, big surprise.

He eats three meals of solids a day and at least one 'snack', too. It's so cute to see him eating big boy foods in his high chair and it doesn't make me as sad as it once did back in the day. This is just such a fun stage it's hard to be sad about the passage of time!

Oh, and the stats from the doctor's appointment affirmed my thought that baby boy is really thinning out.

Weight: 20 pounds, 13 ounces ( 56th percentile)
Height: 28.75 inches (67th percentile)

The doctor assured me that this drop from the 88th percentiles when T was 2-4 months is totally normal. He said breastfeeding babies who start solids and become very mobile will thin out and especially considering that Nate and I are both fairly thin, it makes sense that Truman doesn't stay at the top of the charts forever. I miss my chunky monkey fatty baby but still, a long and lean dude fits in well with our family, too. He's still 'big' I'd say, since he is wearing 18 month clothes but he is less of a hippo apparently, too. :)




MOTOR MILESTONES:

Truman's favorite new things this month are clapping, waving, throwing his arms overhead for 'so big' at random times, pointing, high-fiving his dad, shaking his head 'NO' with avengence and slamming two toys together for fun. He also loves to say, 'da da da' over and over and sometimes I swear he looks right at Nate as if he gets it. Who knows. No 'ma ma' just yet but that is okay. We all know I'm his fave. :)



He gets around like a wild man now and this is the first month we really had to worry about babyproofing things. But the weird thing is, he isn't technically creeping or crawling. He doesn't pull up to a stand yet. And yet, he is totally mobile on his belly scooting around, spinning, rolling, and successfully getting to where he wants to be. I was worried that he isn't getting up on all fours yet, isn't really army crawling, and doesn't pull to stand yet because I'm a psycho first-time mom who worries incessantly about her child's development. But the doc did ease my mind a bit to say that Truman is not delayed at all with these tasks. He wasn't worried and so I guess I won't be, either. Do you see a theme here? Doctor calms crazy mom and tells her to chill out about all worries regarding babe. Good things at that appointment, my friends.

He can go from sitting to his tummy with ease now (less face slamming into the ground at least) and is much better at sitting and turning around on his butt to see different things without toppling over. This child can entertain himself with toys for minutes on end which is pretty good for a nine month old I think. His fine motor skills using his hands to manipulate any and everything is astounding and I just love watching him explore the world.



He also tries to eat the ottoman at times, but whatev. Obvi he is a genius.




So that's that: nine months of fun. A mobile, independent baby who is changing before our eyes every day. He proves that old cliche is true: It just keeps getting better. :)



Bring on December and our first Christmas with baby. Can.Not.Wait.

Thankful Mommy

I could write one long mushy post about how blessed I am to be his mother. Or I could just show you how wonderful he is; how loved he is; how adorable he is (as if you don't already know).

I was playing in iMovie the other day, trying to figure out how to add music to videos (thoughts about a one year birthday slide show are brewing, my friends). And then I got carried away looking at old Truman videos and voila---this NINE MINUTE long movie was made.

It's rather random, as it starts in April right around 2 months old and ends in September around 7 months old. But the point is: Truman videos set to some of his favorite music make me laugh and cry all at the same time. Emotional roller coaster, what? Sometimes my words can't express the love I have for my son but videos and music might be able to capture it. Happy 3/4 of a year, Truman. And Happy Thanksgiving.

Warning. It is NINE MINUTES long. But so worth it, in my humble opinion. :)




{obviously, I am thankful for other blessings in my life aside from my precious babe. But on our first Thanksgiving with Truman, it's only fitting to focus on him. :)}

Hanging on for dear life

The frequency of blog posts: it's a good measure for the amount of chaos in one's life. So it goes without saying that life has been a roller coaster of emotions full of ups and downs in the past few weeks. And thus, one huge post for you to read is a result of this chaos. Settle in for the ride, folks.

There's nothing major going on over here--nobody is sick or dead or hurt. But the main issue we are enduring is related to sleep, or more specifically, the lack thereof. Truman has never been a great sleeper, but we were fairly adjusted to frequent wakings at night and everyone was functioning at an acceptable level during the day. Then things got a little better and T was only waking about once or twice per night, for very short nursing sessions, as I announced in his eight month post. And then? All hell broke loose and the bottom fell out and we started to drown from sleep deprivation. It all started about two weeks ago but I can honestly say that the days on the calendar are like one giant blur and my brain hasn't worked well in what seems like forever.

He began to wake four times in a night, with at least one of those times including an hour or two full of fighting the return to sleep. He'd nurse each time in the rocker, pass out in my arms, and when I'd go to place him in the crib his eyes would snap open and he'd begin to chat or fuss for what felt like an eternity, until I'd cave and nurse him again to start the process over. So basically, we got about 4 hours of broken sleep if we were lucky. And then to top it off, his normally painless bedtime routine---the one that used to result in him falling asleep the first time pretty easily---became another time of fighting the sleep fairy. All of a sudden he wouldn't fall asleep nor stay asleep and the nights were our worst enemies.

Nate and I were at our wits end. We just couldn't understand what happened to our happy baby. Who took our Truman and replaced him with a grumpy, over-tired, clingy baby who wasn't even himself during the daytime anymore because he was so tired? I took him into the doctor AGAIN last week for another ear check (third time in the past few months if you are counting) because I needed to hear that something wasn't seriously wrong with little man. His ears were fine but the doctor did listen to my concerns that something just wasn't right. He said that if Truman wasn't back to his old self in one week to bring him back in and we'd investigate further.

It could be teething. It could be a growth spurt. It could be separation anxiety. Or a combination of them all in one big ugly ball of sleeplessness. But whatever it was, Truman wasn't sleeping and just wanted to nurse all night long---sleeping with boob in mouth only. It wasn't working, my friends. Something had to give.

And so this past weekend we were supposed to travel to St. Louis for Tilly's one year birthday party. We were so looking forward to this trip and had planned to drive down after full day of work on Friday and drive home on Sunday. Midway through last week we started to wonder if being confined to a car for that many hours with a fussy baby was a good idea; not to mention, having him sleep in an unfamiliar place, to further throw off any sense of normalcy. We decided to see how Wednesday night went before making our decision and Truman made it for us when he woke at 9:15, 11:00 and from 3:00-4:30. Ugh. No St. Louis trip for us and we had to miss Tilly's party in the name of our sanity and potential sleep.

It was a tough pill to swallow and reality smacked us in the face pretty hard with that decision. Times have changed. Gone are the days when a 'quick' getaway to Missouri is possible without consequences in baby-land. All of a sudden the distance between Milwaukee and St. Louis seems a whole lot farther and yet, I know we made the right decision---the responsible, adult-like decision. But it still sucks.

I started to really feel sorry for myself. One giant pity party, complete with wallowing, sadness, and of course when you are so sleep deprived you can barely form a sentence life seems pretty bleak. I could barely function at work because all I could think about was falling into bed at night. I was a grumpy mommy with puffy bags under her eyes and a snarled lip at all times. Twas ugly, my friends.

In case you haven't noticed by now, I am a very Type-A, black and white, control freak who needs ANSWERS people. I needed a straight up reason for Truman's decline in sleeping so that I could come up with a nice little solution, one that fit perfectly in a box with a big stamp on it that said 'guaranteed to work'. As I sat at the doctor's office and informed our doc about this need for point-blank answers he sort of smiled and I knew what he was going to say: 'Parenting is fully of gray-areas. And sometimes there are no definitive answers.' In laymens terms: roll with the punches lady and try to sit back and enjoy the ride.

On Friday I decided we needed a new strategy: we would eliminate the boob variable at night, thus eliminating a mommy-appearance all together. Only daddy and only a bottle would be offered to Truman in order to see if he was actually hungry when he woke, or if he just wanted the comfort of the ta-tas. Truman woke twice that night and took a few ounces the first time and a big fatty 6 ouncer the second time. And that morning when I woke up I had a total light bulb moment that made a lump swell in my throat...

Breastfeeding wasn't working well anymore. Gulp.

You see, Truman has been nursing for about 3-4 minutes max for a few weeks now. He gets totally distracted and fussy like, 'Oh, Mom! There's Henry! There's this awesome pillow I must touch! Did I hear a door close next door? What is that interesting picture frame doing over there? Must.Go.Explore!' Typical nine-monther, right? He doesn't want to sit still and after the initial let down he would pull away and I figured he'd had enough.

But after our 'daddy-only' trial I had a feeling of dread that told me something else was going on. Truman wasn't patient enough to wait for more milk to flow from the boob because he is the typical nine month old. But that didn't mean he was necessarily full after such a short feeding. What if he was totally famished at night after a few sub-par nursing sessions in the evening, which is why he would wake up and want to nurse but fall to sleep during the process? What if my baby was just hungry? I had always been so resistant to upping Truman's intake during the day in order to help him sleep at night because I just thought it was a crock and didn't work that way.

So we decided to do another 'trial' of sorts during the day on Saturday: after every nursing session I would offer him a bottle. And sure enough, he'd take anywhere from 1 ounce all the way up to 6 full ounces (in the evening, when my supply is at it's lowest). Which meant that my son who loved to nurse was basically starting to wean himself from the breast, preferring the bottle, because he just isn't patient enough for my slower flow. Weaning? Ouch.

You can guess that I took this pretty hard. I might have cried a bit and moped around and mourned the loss of our old breastfeeding days---even though he IS still nursing a bit. But I just love nursing Truman so much. It's our sweetest time to bond after being away during the day and watching him look up at me with those big eyes, reaching up for my face makes my heart melt every time. Giving him a bottle of my milk just isn't the same even though I know that is what he needs. And I guess we'll still have our 3 minutes of bonding for now. :)

So all day Saturday T got the boob followed by the bottle, including right before bed. Do you want to place a bet on what happened next?

Truman slept through the night that night.

I will pause and let this sink in. This is my son who has NEVER EVER slept through the night in his nearly nine months of life (well, I think he did one time at 3 months but that might have been a dream).

When Nate and I woke up on Sunday we were seriously delirious with happiness. We had heard T 'talk' for a few minutes at 1:45 and 5:30 but he fell back to sleep before we even knew what was happening. He woke for the day at 6:30 and all three of us were like different people: we were actually happy and well-rested! Life was good again and we were beaming with pride as if T had landed a spacecraft on the moon or something. For reals.

Sunday we continued with our new recipe of boob-then-bottle and sure enough, he slept through the night again that night. There is a God.

I'm not naive enough to think that this will always happen from here on out. But I do think we've paid our dues to the sleeping gods with this child and deserve a few nights of blissful sleep in stretches longer than 2-3 hours. Of course we've gotten all kinds of superstitious about this and have to place him in the same type of jammies now, performing the same exact routine at night, etc etc to ensure more nights of success. It definitely feels like it's too good to be true and might be a short-lived fluke but we are trying to just enjoy this restful time while it lasts.

And so that is what has been going on, my friends. My baby is sleeping at night but it cost me my breastfeeding ego. Once I finally realized that maybe my breastfeeding journey will take a detour before I'm ready to go astray, I think the missing piece of the sleeping puzzle was found. I'm going to miss the days when Truman would nurse until he was totally full and satisfied but I knew it couldn't last forever. And you better believe that I'm crazy enough to continue 'exclusively pumping' my milk for him to have in bottles so that I can avoid formula if possible. I mean, I have about 12 more weeks to go until he's one year old and won't 'require' formula. We could go right to cows milk at that point (and maybe a little before his birthday if needed) and then I can decide what to do from there. And yes, I do still have my 300 ounces of breast milk in our deep freeze. I suppose I will have to release my death grip on those baggies, too, in the name of making it to one year.

Nate sweetly mentioned that he's proud of me for handling this so well. I guess he knows that it's hard for me to admit my boobs just aren't cutting it for T-man anymore. It's hard to move on to the next phase of nursing plus bottles, and even MORE pumping. But I'll live. I know some of you won't understand why I'm making this such a big deal and others of you will totally get it, and that is okay. Bottom line is that I still have a happy, healthy baby boy and life is good. Especially when there is sleep in that life---then things are shiny and happy and glorious again.

No-it's not the end of the world but it's definitely the end of an era---one that I thoroughly enjoyed sharing with my first-born baby boy. I hope he obliges me the short but sweet nursing sessions for a few more months and I already find myself soaking in those times more than I have in the recent weeks. I've loved nursing you, Truman. Be kind to mommy and ease off slowly, okay?

Gained: sleep
Lost: sufficient nursing sessions

A lot can change in a few weeks, huh? And in my nine months of motherhood I have learned that just when you think things are figured out, the babe goes and changes it on you again. So we'll enjoy the lull before the next storm for now.

ramblings/updates/follow up

Thank you for all your input on the photo contest! After much debate I decided to submit photo #5 (the BIG winner in comments), #6, #3, and #9. I was going to take brand new pictures this weekend and add two more to my submission, to make the six total that is allowed, but now that I've added the four initial pictures I don't think I can add anymore to an existing album. The whole site over there isn't the most user friendly---I mean, I couldn't even pick which shot was the cover to my album (totally wanted it to be #5, but it randomly selected #9 for me). Oh well. He's still cute.

Here is my 'album' of four photos I put on the site. I think you can 'vote' for me if you'd like, but that is just for a weekly winner contest of $250 prize money (which I wouldn't HATE, but the NYC trip is the big dog). And um, does anyone else notice that there are 9,100 entries for this thing? Gulp. It's sort of mind boggling how many cute kids there are out there, and how many proud parents want to win the contest. Obviously, I'm not actually expecting to win but it was still fun to select some cute pictures of our man!

So I did take those 'new pictures' this weekend, planning to add more to the album but instead I will just showcase them here. :)

with an awesome new 'fair trade' hat from Uncle Jon in Oregon:







the rest of the winning 'plaid shirt' photo series:


which shows his new favorite 'face crinkle' smile that totally cracks me up:






And then his new big boy 'vest' outfit from Grandma Lois, in size 18 months from Carters. I put it on yesterday just for fun, to see how big it is, and was shocked at how well it fit. (tear)


dancin






my new desktop on this computer...fave! I love that you can see the gorgeous coloring of his eyes--still not quite brown, nor blue, nor green, but one big complex mixture.


And then I tried to show off his two new teeth for you. Again, why do I do this to myself? He totally hated it:







You can see that the top two, side teeth are officially through the gums. Isn't it odd how they sort of come through the front of the gum and not from the ridge underneath? His middle two upper teeth are 'right there' and so are his two bottom side teeth, as per Lori. Oh, and even his little canine teeth are moving down into position. Great, just great. As of now we have four teeth out of the gums within 1.5 months of teething hell. Let's just get it over with already!

And for a little update: it seems like there is a pattern with Truman and teething. Step one: get really horrible at sleeping because of painful teeth. Step two: teeth finally pop through, but not before Truman's hands are in his mouth more often and his immune system is down. Step three: Truman gets a cold and cannot breathe through his nose with all the baby snot in there, and thus sleeps really horribly and feels awful. Step four: mommy and daddy get the cold too, and the whole house is miserable. Step five: mommy freaks out that Truman is also getting an ear infection because of the added crying and drainage. Takes him into the doctor for an ear check and this time, we were in the clear. Hooray. Still only one ear infection on the books for this baby and I hope it stays that way.

I admit that I am that crazy mom who bought an otoscope online, so that I can peer into Truman's ears when I'm worried about an infection. I mean, obviously I'm not a doctor but I have potential to learn like the best of them:) I even admitted this psycho-ness to the doc at our appointment and he sort of laughed at me, but he gets it. I hate running him into the doc just to have him look at his ears and tell me they are fine. So a little more practice with the otoscope and maybe I can save myself some trouble. What? I'm a medical person and love that stuff anyway so it's not too crazy, right?

We are all feeling much better these days but for awhile it was pretty rough around here. I HATE baby colds with a passion. I know compared to other serious illnesses, colds are not that bad (and I tell myself to be thankful it's nothing worse very often), but this is our fourth cold now and every time I cringe when Truman can't breathe well. I gained mad nasal aspirator skillz this time, though, and was able to pull out a bunch of nasty boogs for him multiple times per day which makes me feel less helpless. And the doctor said that within the first year, you can expect 10 colds/infections just because their immune systems are so immature. So really, 4 in an 8 month period isn't TOO bad I guess. I know it's one of the perks/curses of daycare, too, to have him exposed to more germs---hopefully once he gets his immunities built up we won't have so many sicknesses as he ages. Not sure what is worse---a sick baby who can't tell you what is wrong, or a sick and whiney toddler. (Actually, I think a sick husband trumps all of the kid scenarios, no offense, Nate---but seriously).

I feel like this is the worst time of year for colds and flu viruses. Everyone I know is sick, even my friends and family in Missouri and tons of folks on Facebook, too. Props to all moms and/or wives dealing with sick kids and/or husbands---hang in there, ladies. It's no joke!

After a particularly horrid week of sleep (or lack thereof, since I think we averaged about 3-4 hours of broken sleep total each night) Truman rocked it last night and only woke ONCE at 4:30 am to nurse and was back to sleep within 30 minutes. Not only that but he slept until 8 am (or actually 7 am with daylight savings) after that. Woah, dude. That was AMAZING and I hope it continues but I probably just jinxed it by blogging about it. We'll see. It's funny to me that most kids sleep so great at night and then with daylight savings, they get all messed up and it's worse---but for our baby it was the exact opposite last night. Ah, Truman. Why are you so 'unique'? :)

And finally, an update about family: my mom is currently in Africa (Senegal to be exact) for a 10 day trip supporting missionaries over there. She was very excited and nervous for this trip and I hope she's staying healthy and enjoying her time over there. I know it has to be hot, they have to wear skirts, and the 'hotel' they are staying in sounds like a total joke (holes in the screens, sporadic electricity, etc)---but I know she's making the best of it. Keep her in your prayers if you would!

Off to enjoy this amazing gift of an extra hour tacked onto this day today. Wouldn't it be nice if every day had an extra hour (or six?). Not happy about the sun setting at 4:30 or whatever inconceivable time it sets now, but oh well.

Photo Contest

I never do things like this but after so many friends, family, blog readers, and my patients tell me that I need to enter Truman's pictures into a contest, I decided it was time. I just didn't know which contest to try and then I found it today at the Pediatricians office (ahem, a cold that I feared had turned into an ear infection, but so far so good---just zero sleep and lots of screaming, that's all).

I picked up an issue of American Baby magazine and saw a page saying they have a photo contest for a baby to win a cover shot, $1000, and a trip to NYC for a photo shoot. Score!! We've always wanted to go to NYC and Truman is a great traveler. And do you know how many disgustingly cute outfits I could get for Truman at Baby Gap with 1K? Or a college fund savings account would be nice, too, I suppose. I'm totally going for it. But now, you must help me, dear readers. I can only submit one picture. ONE FREAKING PICTURE out of the thousands I've taken of Truman in his 8 months of life. Gah. Decisions are hard, for real. And I'm SO that mom who thinks her kids is abnormally cute and should win every contest, by the way. :)

{Er, actually, after reading the fine print it looks like I can submit up to six photos but they all have to be within the last month or so. Even harder!! Some of the ones that were my faves were from a few months ago. }

Please let me know which you like best----the guidelines they will use to judge the photos are 1. Appearance of the child in the photo, 2. Personality of the child expressed in the photo, 3. Quality of the photo. Not sure that helps select your fave but whatev.

Also note: just picking 10 pictures to select from was seriously difficult for me and a little stressful.

1. (Can't go wrong!)


2. (Grumpy old man)


3. (the pout)


4. (I just like this one)


5. (The newest one of the bunch! Just love this face)


6. (not a ton of personality here, but he's just too precious)


7. (lots of personality here....stubborn)


8. (Signature eyebrows)


9. (Nate's fave for some reason)


10. (his face here just cracks me up)