B&W Photography Laziness

I honestly have no eye for photography. But I'm trying! I've been playing around with black and white for my photos of Rhett. I'm not very good at editing yet (or picture-taking in general) but I do like these photos of Rhett. Though of course, it could just be that I love the subject so much! 

Some Photos of Daddy and Rhett

As I've constantly mentioned in my monthly update posts, Rhett and Josh have something special going on. They have so much fun together. When I was pregnant, and shortly after Rhett was born, Josh used to talk about how much fun they were going to have playing together. Well Rhett is finally at an age where it is happening, and they have a blast! 

Nine Months

I really don't want this blog to become something I just update monthly. I promise I'm going to start sharing more soon. I think it will be even easier because as of this week, I have a brand new camera! I've had so much fun snapping photos of Rhett this week, and I know I'll be taking a lot more photos in the months to come (which means I can share them with you!) Sorry for the long PSA, but it's true--I want to update more, and soon. But back to what's important--Rhett is nine months old!

Big Boy!

I've already started to mourn Rhett's babyhood. Two of my friends have had babies recently, and I now work in an infant room with babies under the age of three months. I can definitely see day by day that my little baby is not so little anymore. He has a personality. Likes and dislikes. He can move around and choose what he wants to do. He doesn't need me to bring him toys anymore...he can go and get them for himself!

the best toys aren't toys

My mom and husband call me crazy, but sometimes I can see myself in him. Something in his lips and nose and certain expressions. Everyone has said from the very start that he looks exactly like Josh, but I'm not so certain anymore. I am still pretty sure that we have a total daddy's boy on our hands. He lights us when Josh holds him and plays with him. 

Rhett's completely off of breastmilk this month, and doesn't seem to be aware of it. He still eats the same amount, at the same times. We've been trying to introduce table food, but for the most part, he's very content with being spoon fed. He did eat a few crackers today, but that was the first time he's ever fed himself an entire serving of something. When I held the cracker out to give him, he kept simply opening his mouth. He obviously likes being fed.

Here's some photos I've taken since getting my new camera. I hope to keep improving my skills, but I'm already pretty psyched with what the camera has done. I shoot on aperture priority, using autofocus. I'm nowhere near talented enough to focus the camera myself yet (at least not on a subject as challenging as a nine month old baby!)  

8 Months of W.T.F.

I swear my baby smiles. In fact, he's one of the happiest babies I've ever met. He smiles a LOT. Almost constantly. But you wouldn't know it from looking at pictures of him. Whip out a camera and he instantly goes from this:

To this:

When he was really little, I used to think that he was just so perplexed and fascinated by the camera that all he wanted to do was stare at it and try to figure it out. But as he's getting older, he's had his picture taken thousands of times. And I'm starting to think he's doing this just to annoy me. Regardless, I've always called it his WTF face, and here's some great examples of it over the past eight months. 

Rhett's First Christmas!

This Christmas, we were blessed to be able to travel all the way to Phoenix, AZ to meet up with Josh's whole family for Rhett's first Christmas. Rhett has had a marvelous time getting to know all of his cousins. They like to put various hats on him:

Rhett thinks the kids are pretty funny. He laughs and chases them all around. The girls love to give him various toys to hold. They've been having a lot of fun with him. 

Rhett also loves to open Christmas presents. His latests favorite activity is ripping paper, so opening gifts is right up his alley. He has a lot of fun with the wrapping paper. After our Christmas celebration, the floor was covered in tissue and wrapping paper. He was in heaven. 

Josh's brothers and sisters have also enjoyed seeing him. We are so excited to get to spend this holiday season with everyone. Everyone loves to see the baby and he's getting in a lot of quality time with all of his family members. 

Rhett go home. You are drunk.

Rhett at Eight Months

Rhett continues growing and changing before our very eyes! We love him so much. We are very blessed. He's turning into a little boy, and we could not be more thrilled with him. This month he finally started crawling! He scoots all around the floor grabbing at anything that catches his fancy. He loves playing with his toys, particularly small ones that he can pick up and pass from hand to hand. He really likes books that have large faces--he laughs at his books. He also really enjoys paper of any kind--ripping it is his favorite activity.  He's also starting to become quite bossy. He doesn't much like his diaper being changed and will get very angry and let you know it!

We switched Rhett over to his larger carseat this month, which has made car rides much more tolerable. He likes someone to talk to in the car, and likes to have something to play with. He's been eating well and made the transition to formula without any fuss.

Rhett is SUCH a good baby. We're very spoiled. He's so happy with life all the time. He laughs and smiles all the time and is equally happy to play independently or with mom and dad. Josh's favorite game is give-mom-a-heart-attack, in which he flips Rhett completely over in his arms. Rhett thinks it's a BLAST, but I'm certain that Josh is going to break his neck one of these days. I'm trying to nip it in the bud.

Here's some photos from this month! A lot of them are repeats from facebook, but with my Christmas money, I am planning on purchasing a DSLR, and I'm going to devote a good amount of time this spring to learning how to shoot with it, so expect lots of photo posts to come!

Sandy Hook Reflections

It's been almost two weeks since I logged onto the internet and first got word of the evil that left a nation heartbroken and parents like myself desperate for comfort and hope for a better future for our children. I wanted to write briefly about my thoughts and feelings over the incident, not because I feel like my readers need my comments, but because I believe that some day my children will have sons and daughters of their own, and they will have to learn how to raise them in a world where such occurrences are possible. I want to remember what it's like to hear about destroyed families and lost children so that I can turn it into some kind of wisdom about how to live in such a world. I thankfully don't have to explain Sandy Hook to Rhett right now. He goes on his merry life, not knowing anything of the pain and devastation that the nation has felt over the past two weeks. But some day I will. No matter what gun control laws are (hopefully) passed, some day, Rhett is going to turn on the news and see a falling tower,or a school shooting or a building with a bomb. He's going to wonder how their can be such evil in the world, and how we can believe in a God that allows such evil to exist. Along with millions of Americans, I wept for the city of Newtown this week. I wept for parents who will never hold their children again. And I wept to think about Rhett realizing some day that life is sometimes just so shitty.With my son in my arms, I wept and prayed and screamed until I didn't have the energy to do it anymore.  True and deep evil exists and it is all around us. And there's nothing that we can do but cling to the hope of our lives in heaven. In difficult and evil times, there's nothing to say that makes sense other than this: someday, all of our pain and tears will be washed away. We do have the joy of looking forward to our life in heaven with Christ.