Noah loves playing in our backyard. If I take my eyes off him for two seconds – to change the settings on my camera, for instance – he will have a stick, leaf or rock in his mouth. If you look closely you’ll see a stick or leaf in his hand in several of these pictures.

So after I posted about how great Noah has been with sleeping in his crib, he decided to be a totally different baby this weekend. He would NOT go to sleep in his crib! Maybe I jinxed it by bragging about having the perfect baby. We had such a horrible time with it the last three nights. I guess we’re still in an adjustment period. Darn!

Meanwhile, Noah has started to walk! He took a few steps here and there a couple weeks ago, and he walks more and more everyday. He still tends to crawl if he’s given the option, but he will walk if we hold out our arms and say, “Walk to me!” I’ve seen him let go of the furniture and walk on his own a couple of times now, too. Here’s a short video I made today:

Where does he get that energy? I need a nap…

This is what greets me every morning when I get home from work. I can’t believe how well he has taken to sleeping in his crib. He goes down about 10:30 or 11:00pm every night and doesn’t wake up until at least 7:30am, but most days he sleeps in his crib until about 9:00am. [Side note: some of you mommies might think we put him to bed too late, but we both work late schedules - Daddy gets home from work at 9:00pm, so our whole day is pushed back a few hours. Noah eats breakfast around 11am, lunch around 4pm, and dinner around 8pm. So this is just the schedule that works at our house.]

I was worried he would be sleeping in our bed forever, but once we moved to our new house and set up the crib in his new room, he has slept in his own bed all night, every night. We didn’t practice the “cry it out” method of transitioning him to his bed. Honestly, I couldn’t have done it. I’m just not that mom. But we figured out how to get him to sleep in the crib rather quickly – and tearfully. Noah has adjusted to it really well. It took about two hours of work the first night. The next night it took no time at all. We just rock him to sleep and lay him down. Now he’s used to the crib and goes down without any trouble at all. The best part: we are all sleeping better now that there’s room to move in our beds!

I really do have the perfect baby.

How could you not love those big blue eyes and chubby cheeks?

I am having a great time with photography lately, learning a lot of new things and just LOVING it. I can’t believe I found something I enjoy this much! I have honestly never been happier in my life than right now. I love my family, my new house, my new favorite hobby… I love life!

Spread some love today!

I encourage you to get out and shoot in the hour before the sun goes down, AKA the Golden Hour. The light changes FAST, but it’s so pretty! Also bring a lens hood. I didn’t bring mine because my camera bag is pretty much stuffed full with just my huge lens and my camera (I need a new bag!), and you can see how hazy the light was – hello, sun spot! This picture would have been a lot easier to edit if I had brought my hood. We didn’t have time for many shots with the sun going down and the kids running in circles around us!

After all this time, this is still my favorite picture of Noah. I know his face is chopped off, but all I see is my 6-month-old baby making little pursed lips at me. His eyelashes are dark and long (grown women should have beautiful eyelashes like that, but instead my baby has them), and there’s so much curiosity and wonder in his eyes. I still remember the way he toppled toward the camera because he wasn’t good at sitting up on his own yet. I was so lucky to get this shot before he fell and his fingers grabbed my lens.

Sweet, sweet baby… I love every second of you.

Just trying out something a little more moody and dark. Not so cutesy-baby. Every now and then I have to push away from my usual.

I love the results…

One year old. I can’t believe it. This morning I came home from work to find Noah still asleep in his crib. He actually stayed in his new room all night! He is growing up right before our very eyes. At his 1 year checkup, he weighed 26lbs and measured 33 inches tall. The doctor thought his height was written wrong on the chart until he walked in, took one look at Noah and said, “Wow, he is tall!”

Here are a couple pictures of him in our new backyard.

Mid-laugh. I can almost hear his little chuckle when I look at this picture.

What, Mommy? I’m not going to eat it, I promise. Look over there, Mama, there’s a doggie…

Ten seconds later he was eating the leaf.

I’m sorry for the lack of pictures and blogs lately, but this has been a super busy week. We finally got everything out of the old house and moved into our new house. Moving is such a huge job – even two miles across town! This week has been full of changes and big transitions for all of us, especially Noah. Noah has his own room at the new house, and we’re starting to move him to the crib more and more. It’s tough for him, but it’s honestly tough for me, too. He slept in the crib for four hours last night, and I was awake every minute of it. Every. Single. Minute. I have a hunch that most first-time mothers would react the same way to their baby sleeping in a different room for the first time. Of course all sorts of crazy thoughts were running through my mind: what if a fire starts in his room, what if someone breaks in and comes up the stairs and takes him, what if his blanket gets stuck over his face? Crrrrrazy. And by the time I was able to stifle these psycho inner voices and start to drift off to sleep, I heard his throaty cry on the baby monitor. Awesome.

Another big first for Noah this past week was his first word! He has been babbling for months, saying “ma ma ma ma” and “da da da da,” but this is the first time I was utterly convinced that he said a word and understood its meaning. Maybe it’s technically his third word – after mama and dada – but either way, it’s so adorable. We were all relaxed, getting ready to go to sleep, and Noah crawled over and put his pudgy little hand on my stomach, started moving his fingers and said, “Tiggle tiggle tiggle.” At first I laughed and said, “Ha! That sounded like tickle tickle.” Then he kept doing it, over and over. He can say tickle tickle! How cute is that?! He does it all the time now, to his teddy bears, to me and daddy, to inanimate objects like pillows and doors, and even on his own belly. I’ll try to catch it on video so you can see how cute it is!

I’d better get back to unpacking. I’ll take some pictures soon, I promise!

Here are three more photos from my session with Olivia.

Love the “Oh!” expression in this one when she heard a train honking its horn!