Easter Photo Shoot

So this is how our Easter shoot went yesterday. It was designed to be adorable - we're both wearing pastels, there are tulips in the background and the baby has a tie on.

First take:

Oh look! He's found his nose!

Let's try again.... and again .... and again ...

Needless to say, none of the pictures made the final cut but how hilarious is that final photo? He looks like he's scrunching and cringing at the same time.

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter from our family to yours.

Jamisen was absolutely WOWED by the little Easter chickees. He pounced on them like a little kitten with catnip. It was rather charming.

Yes, we know that Jamisen is a boy and this photo shoot might be a bit over the top (I'll admit, the pink ears aren't helping) but the Easter Bunny will hopefully forgive us (we can't say the same for Jamisen when he turns 13!).

We super-glued the cotton ball bunny tail to his diaper. Not to worry, no babies were harmed in the making of this costume. Funny true fact? The white eggs are real, raw eggs. No eggs were harmed in this photo shoot.

Grandpa Faiola had a fun time designing the set with hot glue gun, dollar store materials and some creativity.

Watercolor for Jamisen

I was so amazed, delighted and honored when one of Jamisen's fans (from Italy, no less!) saw the photo below and was inspired enough to paint a beautiful watercolor of the scene.

From the artist, Marisa Gabetta: “I loved this image at first sight, being a watercolorist I love dramatic light so I decided to give this wonderful ‘couple’ a try. The goal in this painting was to render the tired face of sleepless Anne-Marie, and the backlit kissing mother and son in a sort of magical aura. I also decided I’d change the background, artistic license, they say!”

Happy First Day of April

It's normal to dress up to celebrate the return of the sun with a sunflower outfit, right? 

We had a great time planning out this outfit - it was a team effort! Chris found the amazing pot, I bought the sunflower suit and Grandpa Faiola was the photographer.

Even though it looks like Anne Geddes showed up in our living room and that this last photo was professional lit, this is the natural lighting in our own living room and just a humble point and shoot camera.

Wait! What is that Orb?!

Hello from the end of a wonderful weekend. We had a great two days with family. I made the epic "Oh She Glows" Kale Weekend Salad (my go-to salad for everything now - it even has Goji berries. I know! You're sold, right?!) and Grandma and Grandpa Faiola contributed by making an insanely weird/cool Ricotta Carrot Quiche (trust me, it worked). I also made an (epic?) Browned Butter Butterscotch Pie that will get its own blog post. Grandma and Grandpa Faiola were, as usual, completely over the moon about their only Grandbaby and got up two mornings in a row at 6 a.m. so they could spend extra time with their Jamisen and Chris and I could sleep in (heaven and thank you!).

We visited Otion where Jamisen had fun with soap.

It was especially lovely to see the great job Kat and crew have done at the full remodel of the store (new paint, new set up, new carpet, new flooring). Read more about their remodel here.

Since it's starting to show some sun in Bellingham (wait, did I jinx that?! I'm pretty sure it just started raining!), we did get to go outside. Jamisen was excited about the new sight of a big yellow orb in the sky.

We also had our first play date. Jamisen LOVED Ms. Eliza Rose (who is an older woman at almost a week older than him). This is the kitchen cabinet drawer that we have just for Jamisen to play with. He was happy to share his toys and tools with Ms. Eliza. Also, as an older woman, she is walking. He crawled extremely speedily after her all over our house. It was adorable.



He shared his cracker with her which elicited "Awwwwwws" from all of the adults in the house (yes, that's why his hands are shoved inside her mouth, perilously close to her teeth). He was quite happy to share his toys which made me extremely hopeful for future play dates.

We were SO delighted to have Ms. Eliza and her Mama over and we're hoping we can do a repeat play date next weekend. Since Jamisen is an only child (for now!), we really want him to play with other children as much as possible to get some socialization skills. First play date was an unqualified success!

Ms. Eliza Rose's Mama is my friend Rachel. We've been in book club for over a decade now. She and I got pregnant right at the same time, went to the same yoga classes and are now enjoying sharing parenting stories and milestone stories. Ms. Eliza Rose seems to be hitting the major milestones about 6 weeks ahead of Jamisen so it's nice to have a preview of what we're in for!

Baby Needs a Haircut

We've also had a splendiferous week at home. Jamisen is just starting to really acknowledge that the gibberish coming out of his parents' mouths has meaning. The video below is a twofer: he appears to understand English and he shakes his little baby booty.



Jamisen is also well past 10 months old now so I've been remiss in not sharing his 10 month photo shoot photos with you. Behold our rapidly growing little person. Yes, I recognize that his hair is getting long but seriously, how do you cut a baby's hair?! No really. That seems like a disaster and/or missing ear waiting to happen.

He is just as happy as ever though has added a new facet to his personality: impatience. If we don't feed him fast enough, we hear about it. If we don't let him play with our cell phones, he tells us in no uncertain terms that he expects to play with cell phones and not those silly kids toys. Luckily, he recovers quickly and with a small distraction, he's back to his normal, smiley self - cell phone or no cell phone! This month, I'm excited to start up family sit down evening meals again since Jamisen's finger food abilities have improved so rapidly in the last 30 days. If you have any thoughts on hair cutting for babies, I'd love to hear them - it seems fraught with potential peril!

Baby Giggles Just For You

Jamisen loves Peek-A-Boo (as well he should because judging from the video, it's clearly hilarious).


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Email subscribers, you need to click through to the blog to watch the video. It's totally worth it.