You had to be there

OMG, if there was such a thing as dying from cuteness overload, I totally would've been a goner tonight.

Sometimes when I put A down for a nap or to bed at night, I sing him a little ditty to help him drift off to sleep. Well really, it's not so much a soothing lullabye, what with the pitchiness and the being off-key and whatnot. It's more of a pep talk, per se. I don't know if you know this about me, but despite my complete lack of musical ability, I am quite the lyrical genius. So I make up Grammy-worthy songs with inspiring words, things like It's time to go to bed and go to sleep/Be a good baby, don't you weep/Go to bed baby, be a good boy/When you wake up, you can play with your toy. Mind blowing, I know.

ANYWAY, when I got ready to put Alex to bed tonight, as every night, I stood in front of his crib in the dark and cuddled him as I swayed back and forth. He laid his head down on my shoulder and started singing his own little lullabye, in the softest, sweetest voice that my ears have ever had the pleasure of hearing. His song had lyrics and a melody - both distinctly more sophisticated than my own - and as I stood there listening, I realized that I was experiencing one of those special moments that I would reflect on forever, until I am old and wrinkly and start telling stories that begin with, "I remember when..."

Once he started to quiet down, I said a little prayer, told him I loved him, and laid him in his bed.

I always regret not being able to capture moments like that on film, but then it occurs to me that one of the privileges of being a mom is having private moments with your child that you don't have to share with anyone else. Until you blab them over the world wide web, that is...

Gonna need the Family Plan

Alex has a couple of new tricks up his sleeve lately. One of them is talking on the phone, although he only does it with his play phone, not with a cell phone, where someone might actually want to talk to him. No, when he gets a hold of a cell phone, he just likes to press all of the buttons and watch the screen change, and when he ends up calling China for the tenth time and you try to take it from him, he's all, "Bu xing, mom, I'm tryin' to get culturized!!"

We didn't purposefully show him how to use the phone, but one day he just picked up his play phone and held it to his ear...ish area, then proceeded to holler as if he were speaking to someone. I can only imagine that he is imitating how we talk on the phone. As it turns out, the way that Tim and I talk on the phone is really obnoxious.

Bye Aunt Rach

We did two more photoshoots in addition to the ones I've already posted, but for various and sundry reasons, I won't be posting those until a later date. Yeah, I know, how cruel of me. Never fear, I have plenty of other Alex-related news and pics to tide you over until then.

Starting with saying bye-bye to Aunt Rach. She left last Sunday afternoon, after we completed one of the previously-mentioned photoshoots (ooooh, how cruel of me to bring it up again). Alex really enjoyed having her here and wishes that she lived closer, or at least, that she could've stayed a few more days. I, on the other hand, am not so sure. You see, they have the same mischievous tendencies, and I fear that if she were here much longer, she would've succeeded in corrupting him fully. Like letting him eat nothing but ketchup all day long. Or play outside in the dirt where, heaven forbid, he could get dirty. Maybe having her so far away means she will only be able to corrupt him slowly...

Anyway, we're so happy that she was able to visit and that we were able to take advantage of her fabulous photog skills. Maybe next time she visits we'll let her relax and have a real vacation. Naaaahhhhh...

All work and no play makes Alex a dull boy

We decided to abide by child labor laws and let A have some time off in between shoots. In his spare time, he likes to eat...

...relax with his dad...

...and cuddle with, laugh with, and drool with..er, on his Aunt Rachel.

Of course, with Aunt Rach around, even downtime turns into a shoot. We figured we could skirt labor law issues by shooting candid pictures that would not require A to do any posing. So we just let him do his thing and were able to capture Alex in his natural state of cuteness.

Note: For those of you who failed to notice Rachel's comment on the last post, I just wanted to mention here that I did not give Rachel the chance to touch up her photos before I posted them, which is a standard part of the professional photography process. Although I think they are excellent already, Rachel has the ability to make them even better. I plan on giving her that opportunity, but for the sake of my time-sensitive blog, I just posted the pics as is. Those attending Alex's one year b-day party will be able to view a choice selection of the best photos from last weekend's shoot, complete with cropping, retouching, color balancing - the works.

The Park

We were way past due for family pictures, so the purpose of shoot #2 was to prove that Alex does not live alone with Murphy, a tripod, and a working knowledge of how to set the self-timer on the camera. He does indeed have parents and we just wanted to document that fact. So we went to the most family-oriented free place we could think of - the park. So we headed to the nearest one, Reverchon Park, which had a giant playground, a baseball field, and some lovely bridges over a skanky creek. We were hoping to get some pics on the swings or slide, but a group of men were installing a giant tent over the equipment to keep out the rain and shine, so that wasn't an option. Never fear, there were plenty of other desirable "sets", as you shall soon see. Take a look at a few here, then go to my Flickr site and check out the set entitled "The Park" to see the rest. Or just click here.

Is Baby Spice available?

This is a new one. I guess A may be a ladies man after all...

The Pool

The first official shoot was in and around the pool because that is where A will be spending much of his summer and it only made sense that we document it. I was acting as photographer's assistant, which meant I had to wrangle Alex into position and try to hand Rachel valuable camera equipment while she was in and around the water. GULP. I basically held my breath the whole time because I was sure that she was going to fall into the pool with her...ahem dollar camera or that Alex would splash her or that some fat neighbor kid would run out and decide to demonstrate his canonball prowess mere inches from where she was shooting. Fortunately, none of those things happened and we got some great pics. I'll post a few here, and the rest can be seen by going to my Flickr site and viewing the set entitled "The Pool" or by clicking here.

Chillin' out max and relaxin' all cool and all sittin' in a big chair right beside the pool...

On to the pool. Yes, it was cold, but A was a trooper.

What can I say, the kid's got ups...

Perhaps I underestimated when I used the words "a few" in reference to how many pictures I was going to post. But you all should know by now that when I say "a few", that really means "a few plus a hundred". On that note, here are a few more...

That's it for "The Pool". Oh wait, one more. WORK IT!

Now that I've inundated you with photos, I am going to add a couple of videos to the mix. I got a lot of flack for cutting the last swimming video short (although that was really Tim's fault, I'm just the messenger), so here are a couple more clips from our pool shoot.