The Lack of Family Pictures

My husband is a photographer enthusiast so since the birth of our son, he’s been very active taking pictures of little Ollie. We have some fantastic pictures of Ollie. Looking at my online stash of photos last month, I realize that we have zero frameable family pictures. I want my son to be able to look back when he is older of pictures of him with his parents.

Our challenge is that when we ask someone else to take our photos, the photo composition always seem a little off. Granted, my husband has a complex camera. Regardless, we don’t have sufficient family photos for our keepsake.

We decided to do an exchange with another photographer friends of ours since she has the same challenge as us: lack of good family photos. We  will take turn taking family pictures of each other’s family. Each family will post-process their own photos to accelerate the exchange of photos.

Last Sunday afternoon we decided to pick a local park that has a variety of setting to take the family photos. Memorial Park in Cupertino, CA became the designated location. It was fun and relaxing afternoon where both little boys, more or less, cooperated during the family photo session. We were able to capture a couple of nice photos.

I think I’m going to have to regularly schedule these joint family exchange photo session with my friend, Nancy. =)

Make Baby Raspberries

I was finally able to catch Ollie in the act of making baby raspberries! He spit out so much that the raspberries just comes out in drools and he would try to wipe it away. He is such a little character, which makes me love him so much. =)

2 Hours Break With The Girls

Since Ollie turned 5 months old, I decided that I needed to start reconnecting with my friends. I need some time to feel like an adult again since I’m home all day with Ollie. I’m making the effort to spend couple of hours each weekend with my girl friends — no kids or significant other. I’ve done this two weekends in a row already and I realize how much I need this for my mental sanity. Just for those 2 hours, I get a glimpse of my old life that I thoroughly enjoy.

Over the last 5+ months, which includes the last few months of my pregnancy, I feel so removed from the world. My life has been just a blur of feeding, burping, diaper changing, and entertaining the baby when he is awake. It doesn’t help that Ollie refuses to take bottles right now so I can’t be away from him for too long.

I love my son and, for the most part, treasure every minute I spend with him. However, selfishly, I care about me too. I want to be a good mother and part of the challenge is to remember who I am so that I can one day be a role model for him.

Fearful of Virtual Self

I have the cutest video of Ollie giving me a nice, full belly laugh. See video. You would think that if I show this video to him, he would find it funny seeing himself laugh. Instead, I get the opposite reaction from him. He would burst out crying when he sees and hear himself laugh. It’s the strangest thing.

I don’t understand why he is afraid of this particular video clip when he enjoys looking at himself in the mirror. How i would pay to understand what is going through his head when he sees the video clip.

Roll Me Over

Ollie learned how to roll over! He is very proficient about turning to the right and then roll flat to his tummy. He loves doing rolling now and seems to prefer to sleep on his sides if he can maintain his position. The trouble is the little fella tends to continuing rolling from the side to the stomach. Then he gets stuck because he hasn’t figured out how to roll back. He’ll wake himself up and start crying. I’ll flip him over and then he’ll repeat himself again: roll to side and then, oops, a little too much, he’s on his stomach again, cries for help. This cycle can repeat itself 3-4 times within an hour. It’s too cute. I was able to catch this one night while he was trying to sleep in his crib.