Happy wife, mom and Alabama transplant. By day, communications, HR and organizational effectiveness professional. By night, writer and wannabe gratitude guru.
We've been trying to get Diana to try new foods: sweet potatoes, green beans, carrots, avocado, cereal...
So far, she's not a huge fan of anything off of a spoon. After some assurances from my mommy friends, I know that she's not going to starve, and that this phase of eating is mostly about developing a palate and learning the skill of eating off of a spoon.
She's found a good way to let us know her opinion about the food we are trying to serve her. Do you think she gets her stubborness from me?? (God help me...if she's like this at 6 months, we are in for quite the ride!)
It was a weekend of firsts for our little family: first trip to see the Easter Bunny, first trip to Oak Mountain State Park, first time in a swing. Of course, I had the camera going the whole time - I didn't want to miss a minute. The professional photographer at the Walgreens where they had the Easter Bunny set up even had to remind me to let HIM take his photo first (the one we paid him to take!), before jumping in with my camera.
There's a couple of reasons that I want to take so many photos (and post them). First, I do it because a lot of my family and friends live far away. The only way for them to keep up with all of her "firsts" and fun moments is for me to take photos and videos and post them. I wish they could all be with us all of the time, but the harsh reality is that we just don't get to see them that often.
The second, and more important, reason is because I know what it's like not to have them. As most of you know, I lost my mom almost 13 years ago to breast cancer, at the age of 50. It was long before I met and fell in love with husband, and long before I had the incredible opportunity to become a mom to Diana.
As we travel through the awesome journey of all of Diana's firsts, I would love to talk to my mom about them...but obviously, I can't. The next best thing would to have photos of them, but most of those don't exist or got misplaced along the way.
So, I've been taking photos of EVERYTHING so that Diana has a record of all of her firsts and fun moments along the way. I certainly hope I am around for a very long time, and that I am here to have conversations with Diana when she has her first child...but just in case, I am playing paparazzi and historian. If she ever wonders what her youth was like, you can just point her here. (I've also started her an email account where I email her fun photos and videos, and share thoughts about her growth and life. It's kind of like a virtual baby book!)
I'm also trying to make an effort to be IN the photos (totally against my nature), so that she has her mom as part of her memories. Too many times, I see moms behind the camera - and left OUT of the photos, and I want to make sure that doesn't happen to our family.
So, if you'll indulge me - here are some memories we made this weekend.
Dressed up for the Bunny!
"Hmmm...I am not sure about this guy..."
Bundled up and ready to roll at the park!
She's a happy girl hanging out with her mommy and daddy at the park!
First swing - Daddy's pushing!
Mommy's turn to push!
"Okay, now, I am starting to like this whole swinging thing!"
Saturday night, I was changing Diana - and she was talking up a storm! Just making noises, being cute...so, after I got her redressed, I decided to roll a little video so I could show S later that night.
Then, it sounded like she said her first word....
Does that count? Did she say what I think she did?? S is pretty psyched. Now, we haven't been able to replicate the moment...but he is claiming dibs on her first word!
Diana has been under the weather for the past 10 days (argh!), so I am having to get creative to keep us occupied and come up with fun things to do indoors, at the house. One of my friends sent me a photo and said "You have to do this with Diana...", that featured several shots of a very cute baby in a onesie with a heart on it, next to the letters that spelled out "LOVE".
Challenge accepted!
We had fun doing our little photo shoot - and I loved the result!
What do you think??
It was actually a lot more simple than I thought it would be! I used a tablecloth from Christmas time (yay for red being useful for multiple holidays!) - and taped regular 8 1/2" x 11" printer paper together to cut out the big letters to lay down next to Diana. I stood on a chair and zoomed way in and took as many shots as I could with each letter next to her before she rolled over on to it.
I sent them to my iPhone, and used a free app called Fuzel to pull them together into the 4-shot. I also chose a border and caption.
We like the way it turned out so much that we ordered cards for Valentine's Day for the family and friends that live out of town!
We went for a walk this afternoon with my friend Catherine - she and I can solve all of our problems in one spin around the neighborhood! It's like free therapy...
It was a little chilly today, so I wanted to bundle Diana up! She is officially the cutest baby alive - check out this hat!
