Cheese Monster

Basically in one week, our little baby girl has pulled herself up in her crib, started feeding herself puffs by the handful, and maybe, just maybe, said Momma.  She is terrorizing the dogs now that she is on the move.  They leap from couch to chair to other chair and finally give up, leaving the room altogether.  They still, however, seem to muster up the courage to sit under her highchair at mealtime, as puffs fly through the air freely.  I think the ratio of puffs eaten to puffs flung is about 50:50.  Cheese is another matter, however.  It is pure accident if any cheese falls to the floor.  SB loves cheese.  She is a junkie and cheese is her crack.  It brings squeals of unbridled joy as well as cries of protest when Mommy is too slow on the draw.  Mozzarella, Gouda, Cheddar, American.  The girl does not discriminate.  She is definitely my daughter.
Now that she is mobile, she is not stuck playing with whatever Mommy puts in her hand.  Oh no, she roams about to discover her own 'toys' such as her bedroom door (look Mommy, I can slam it shut!) and the diaper genie.  Her floor is littered with colorful objects of every shape and size with funny faces that make funny noises, yet she is wildly interested in pushing the diaper genie around.  She also loves my dirty old Rainbow flip flops.  I wear them at home all the time, but as soon as I kick them off, she makes a beeline for them and has these prized possessions in her hands before I know it.  I tried to trick her and give her a pair of clean flip flops I never wear, but she is obviously Mensa smart because she was not fooled.  Again, definitely, my daughter.  ; )

Gender Confused

So SB and I went to the grocery store for our weekly trip and she was precious and charming as always.  As I was loading the car, some old lady pulled into the spot next to us and SB was all smiles and giggles for her.  The lady turned to me and says, what a lovely little BOY you have.  Um, excuse me?  BOY?  Never mind the fact that she is the girliest baby I've ever seen, but she was also wearing leg warmers with pink polka dots.  I know times are progressive and all but does that lady really think I'd dress my little boy up in pink polka dots? 
Seriously.  From now on, baby will be sporting flowery pink dresses when we go shopping.

I've got a good excuse this time...

So I realize it's been over a week since my last post.  Yes, yes, beat me with a wet noodle if you must, but I swear I've been busy!  Here's the proof.  Drum roll please.........

http://www.newshoephotography.com/

Ta DA!

There it is.  Finally, version 1.0 of my website is done, courtesy of my dear husband/ web developer.  If you recall, part of my plan when I quit my job was not just to play with baby and eat bon-bons while watching Oprah.  (Where are those bonbons?)  I am starting up my own photography business.  My main focus is portrait photography, but I'll shoot anything that moves or doesn't move for that matter.  First step was getting the website established, along with that comes a blog (another blog jeesh), a facebook page, and lord knows what other social media I'll need to jump into.  But here I come! 

Step one really started a few months ago with deciding on the name.  So...New Shoe Photography.  What the heck, you ask?  Well, I didn't want to name it after myself and be another FirstnameLastname Photography business.  Besides, what if I expand my photography empire and have other awesome stay at home mommies turned photographers join forces with me?   I also wanted something catchy and unique that says something about me and oh yeah isn't already taken by one of the 50 billion other photographers on the planet.  Kurt and I were joking at the breakfast table one morning and I said, what about Baby Needs a New Pair of Shoes Photography?  A weak attempt at a humor referring to our shrunken income.  Well, New Shoe stuck.  It does rhyme after all so it's got that going for it.  It's kind of quirky.  New shoes are almost always a good happy thing, right?  And most importantly, http://www.newshoephotography.com/ was available.  Cha-ching!  Sold.  So, I got some super cute business cards printed up and a business was born. 

Kurt designed the site, including the logo at the top which I really love.  I've been working steadily on the portfolio pics.  My former photography teacher was kind enough to review the whole site and give me some great tips too.  We've gotten some folks to test drive it, so I think it's safe to say it's officially working.
That said, your assignment, if you choose to accept it, is to check out the site and let me know if you come across anything weird or broken or really slow.  I know old versions of browsers, and different PCs can make websites go all funky so if you will do me this favor when you have a few moments, and email me at jen@newshoephotography.com with any feedback, I will be forever grateful.  Or you can post a comment on this blog but only if it's nice.  My fragile ego can't take public criticism.  ; )

Ok with that out of the way, you are probably wondering how our superbaby Sarah Beth is doing.  Holy cow has she been busy!  Within one week she went from sort-of crawling to full steam ahead and also got her first tooth.  Finally!  We were worried she's be a toothless wonder forever.  It hasn't seemed to bother her too much although she's been waking up at night a few times this week so maybe her tooth is the culprit.  It's the cutest little thing.  Just breaking through the gumline.  When she laughs you can just about see it.  I can't wait for it to come in all the way and take some pictures.  Speaking of pictures, here's a few for you.  Guess who is all of sudden best friends with baby?  Coincidentally at about the same time baby is trying finger foods out?  That's right, distant and aloof Savannah is now BFFs with our messy eater here.

So sweet and innocent

Why hello baby what'cha got up there?

SB has learned to feed the dogs - note the in-flight puff in this photo? 

(I should win the Pulitzer Prize for this one.)

Savannah is never satisfied with just one.

Hello Savannah...

Close-up of Beggar

Feeding the dog is funny!

Don't forget to check out my website and let me know what you think!  Thanks readers!

Mother's Day #1

My first Mother's day as an official baby-out-of-the-womb Mother started off with 3 fabulous cards: one from Kurt, one from Sarah Beth and one from Moose and Savannah. Moose and Savannah always go in together on cards; I guess they don't have much cash and sometimes I think they share a brain, so I'm ok with that. My first card from baby was absolutely precious. It was all about how much I love her and take good care of her. I will treasure it always.
After baby naptime we wanted to take advantage of the picture perfect weather so we hopped in the car and headed in the direction of Latta Plantation. Kurt used to live near there and we spent a lot of time in that area when we were dating. There are a few, well two things Kurt misses about that side of town. #1: Latta Plantation. #2: Azteca.
Azteca one of those really fast, really good Mexican restaurants that everyone's been to, with a huge menu of numbered combinations and swimming pool-sized margaritas. This particular Azteca is fabulous because it's huge, clean and the food is delish. So, while we were in the neighborhood, what better place to go for Mother's Day lunch, right? Si. Well the place was PACKED. Apparently it is THE restaurant to take your Madre if you are of hispanic descent. We were the only gringos in the joint. Suits us just fine, but we did get a few odd looks as we rolled in with our blonde, blue-eyed baby. As usual, Azteca did not disappoint. There was even a mariachi band roaming about. I was a little nervous that the very loud horns would scare the crap out of SB, but she thought it was all quite interesting. When the band came to our table, they played "It's a Small World" for our little senorita and she didn't flinch. I don't know that she gave them a full thumbs up on their performance but she acted politely interested and I think graced them with a quick half-smile. SB was, however, quite curious about my giant margarita. She kept lunging at it, which made it hard to drink as she was sitting on my lap but somehow, I managed to down the whole thing. Perfect beverage before a hike at Latta Planatation.
After lunch we got to Latta and headed for the actual plantation house which was already closing for the day, so we'll have to come back another day. They have war re-enactments now and then so we may come back for that. I never thought I'd be interested in civil war re-enactments but ever since visiting Gettysburg a few years ago it's intrigued me. Anyway, with that plan blown, we just walked around the lake a bit before heading to Dairy Queen for a blizzard to top off the day of gluttony. The blizzard doubled as dinner so the calories don't count, right?

Here are a few snapshots from today at the lake. Stay tuned for an exciting post about my new business!

Great morning, but...

With the pollen count finally receding from terrorist threat level Orange and the beautiful blue sky today, I thought we’d venture out to Freedom Park for one of those Mommy/Baby mornings that I daydreamed about when I was still at the cube farm. We had a very nice walk, but there were a few things that I could have done without:

(1) Woman sitting in car in the parking lot with door open screaming into cell phone “If you don’t shut up I am going to reach through this phone and hit you in the neck.” I don’t know what the other party said but she was not kidding. I think she would have done it. How can you be that pissed at someone at 9 in the morning? Awesome start to our walk.

(2) The seventeen people mowing grass. I am highly allergic to grass. At the height of pollen season a few weeks ago I wouldn’t let Kurt add to my misery by mowing the lawn. I guess it looked pretty rough because our neighbor’s son-in-law went ahead and mowed it for us. Oops. Anyway, Thursdays are landscape days at Freedom Park, apparently. Remind me not to go on Thursdays. We stuck to the greenway and stayed away from the green death as much as possible, but I still must’ve sneezed 35 times on the way home. Talk about distracted driving.

(3) The BOBs. For those of you not in the know, BOB is “the” jogger stroller to have. We are in the have-nots because we can’t bring ourselves to shell out $350 for one, but I covet, oh do I covet as I limp along in my four-wheeled piece o’ junk Graco Metrolite. Sarah Beth seems to like it just fine, but if I speed up to anything more than a brisk walk, the thing wobbles like a broke-down shopping cart. Oh and by the way, all the BOB Mommies are skinny and cute in their little jogging shorts and tank tops. Damn them.

(4) The Junior Leaguer in the pearls. Ok, I don’t know that she was a Junior Leaguer and there’s nothing wrong with the Junior League – it’s a perfectly nice organization that does wonderful charitable things. But when I saw this girl bopping along in jogging pants, a white t-shirt, baseball cap and a long strand of PEARLS, all I could think was, give me a break, Junior Leaguer. I don’t even wear my wedding band to the park because I don’t want to attract anyone’s attention who may be looking for an easy target, and this chick is sporting pearls? I wonder if she wears them to sleep. I realize that I am a little obsessed about this but for some reason it really got on my nerves.

(5) Guy smoking a cigarette on a bench beside the Greenway. Um, dude did you not get the memo? Smoking is not cool anymore, James Dean, and it’s BAD for you, so put out your butt (throw it in a trash can please) and spare the rest of us, who are out here for some fresh air, not here to inhale the fumes from your cancer stick.

A personal message to the guy with the two little yorkies: When I say, awww such cute puppies, YOU are supposed to say, “and what a beautiful baby you have!” That’s how it works. Not just a nod and a smile. Got it? We will be back (not on Thursdays) and I expect a little more enthusiasm over my precious little girl. Thanks.

Fun at Home Depot

SB enjoyed herself at Home Depot yesterday. I think we need one of these for our backyard!