Family Photos

As promised, here are few of our photos that we had taken in Kaneohe a few weeks ago.
I'm so surprised that there were so many with Charlie looking at the camera considering he was so all over the place that day! I can't wait to get settled into our home in Connecticut so I can frame some!

3 more weeks left!

Holy crap! We have just over THREE WEEKS left on the island! I seriously can't believe it...even more so I can't believe just how much we still have to do to prepare. Moving was so much easier before a baby was involved. I think my biggest anxiety comes from trying to figure out how I'm going to entertain Charlie our last week on the island while stuck in a hotel room without the help of Yo Gabba Gabba and all of his toys...and a baby gate to contain him! Not to mention, we just FINALLY got him in a routine of sleeping in his room by himself, now after the movers come, we're going to have to go at least a month and a half before we get his crib back! But, if we were able to survive dealing with crazy Charlie up until this point, we can survive anything...even a move across an entire ocean and continent!

Charlie has a mouth full of teeth now! I think 5 broke through in a matter of a week. I hope that when the time comes that we decide we want another child, God helps me to forget this teething process.

He's still not walking, although he's been cruising for a couple of months now. I honestly don't think he'll ever walk...as soon as he figures it out, he's just going to start running. Even when he's pushing his walker, he takes off like he's starting off in a marathon. But... he's never done anything slow so why am I even surprised?

We had family photos taken by another photographer on the island. I figured that maybe someone else would be able to grab his attention long enough for us to get a decent family photo. Who was I kidding? Charlie was all over the place looking everywhere but the camera. Here's a sneak peek of our session:




I've also started obsessively planning Charlie's first birthday party. I kept going back and forth about whether or not we'd even have one because we will just be settling in Connecticut and not knowing anyone. Ultimately, I decided that we've already missed entirely too much this last year (baby showers, friends and family meeting Charlie, etc) that we need to have a party, if anything just for Dennis and I to celebrate that we survived. That being said, what better theme to celebrate Charlie turning one than to have a monster-themed first birthday party! Our plan is to drive down to Virginia Beach on a Friday night when Dennis finishes at work, have the party that Saturday afternoon, and head back to Connecticut on Sunday morning. It's going to be crazy, and we're going to be exhausted...but he'll only turn one once!

Here are a few photos of Charlie I took a few of weeks ago..




and one that Dennis took:

wow... it's been AWHILE!

I apologize for my lack of posting... I've been SOOOO busy with my photography business and I've neglected taking any pictures of my own child! Here's a quick recap of our last 2 and a half months:

Charlie is now 8 and a half months old!
He's crawling all over the place, standing up and cruising everywhere! I've gotten him to balance without holding onto anything for a couple seconds here and there but otherwise he's pretty content just holding onto the couch or our hands.


He's got 4 teeth and 2 more on the way!

He acknowledges me as mama and Dennis as dada.

We've finally transitioned him to his crib and what a huge relief that has been. I actually get some alone time now!

Last month he took his very first plane ride when he and I went home to Virginia for 2 weeks. The flight to Virginia was complete hell. He was that baby that I had always rolled my eyes at when flying previously. I would like to take this moment to apologize to every mother I've ever thought wasn't doing enough to quiet their child on the plane. Our flight back to Hawaii was MUCH better.

We had a great time in Virginia, Charlie got to meet my brother, and so many other people who have been waiting to meet him! He even went to his first birthday party for Gunnar, his future best friend and partner in crime.



We FINALLY received our orders for Connecticut! In less than 8 weeks we will be getting on a plane (thank God Dennis will be there this time) and leaving this island FOR GOOD! I absolutely cannot wait to start this new chapter in our lives and to be back on the same body of land that the rest of our family and friends are on! We've missed out on WAY too much living here in Hawaii.

Swinging, Cars, and Monsters!

Tonight we decided to take Charlie over to the park to see if we could get some of his energy out on the swing. He LOVED it.

The other day, we bought Charlie his first car. Only 6 months old and the proud owner of a bright yellow mustang GT. What a spoiled baby!

Don't forget the helmet!

We've been mildly obsessed with Yo Gabba Gabba ever since we learned that it had magical powers to keep Charlie quiet when he was 2 months old. Since then, DJ Lance Rock, Brobee, Muno, Plex, Foofa, and Todee have become regulars in our house. After crocheting the owl hat that I posted about previously, I decided to attempt some Yo Gabba Gabba hats and they turned out SO cute! From left to right we have Brobee, Muno, and Plex.

Happy Valentine's Day!

6 months!!!

I'm a few days late but....

HOLY CRAP WE'VE SURVIVED THE FIRST SIX MONTHS!!!!!!


On January 31st we reached the halfway point of Charlie's first year.
Have things been easy?
No.
Has he kept things interesting for us?
Absolutely.

So here's a run down of what we've been up lately:

A couple of weeks ago, he got his first two teeth and judging by his (psychotic, screaming, makes you wanna pull your hair out and wish you were deaf) behavior the last few days, I think there are even more about to break through!



Charlie has been sitting up for a couple months now but a week ago he decided that he could sit up on his own.

He's been ready to crawl for a few weeks now...always up on his knees and rocking back and forth. Crawling backwards has been easy but today he finally mastered the forward crawl!

...and Standing.
Yep, I said it. Last week our 6 month old started pulling himself up to stand. I was sitting on the couch and he was on the floor. Next thing I knew, he was grabbing onto my leg and pulling himself up to stand in front of me.

He is definitely our little monster and is always keeping us on our toes! Before we know it, he'll be running all over the place! It really seems like just yesterday that he made his crazy entrance into our lives!



In the last week I've found a new hobby... crocheting! If I'd known that all it would take was a pattern and a youtube video to teach me how, I would have started a long time ago! Here is a hat I made for Charlie:

Me Time

I had a break-down last week.

Charlie had been screaming all day (thanks teeth!) and my nerves were shot. In that moment, it hit me hard that I have had zero time to myself since Charlie was born. I had spent just about every waking (and sleeping) moment with him for 5 and a half months. Throw in the first 3.5 months of breastfeeding hell and a baby that never slept longer than 45 minutes at a time, the last 2 months of teething and what was left of me was a frazzled, stressed out, physically, mentally, and emotionally drained new mom. I know that working moms would kill to be able to stay home with their kids and would tell me to get over it, but it's really, really hard being stuck in the middle of an ocean, with no one around to help with Charlie and to give me (and Dennis) a chance to breathe. I absolutely LOVE Charlie, but I am so glad that Dennis and I waited 4 years before having a baby. That gave us 4 years to learn about each other and to strengthen our relationship. Charlie is the kind of baby that if he was born to a couple that chose to have a baby in order to "fix" their relationship, they would have been divorced before they could even blink. He has definitely put a lot of stress on Dennis and I, but if we can survive Afghanistan, we can survive anything! I am counting down the days until June when we are all in Virginia before we head to Connecticut so I can have a date night with my husband!

But back to me...
After having a complete meltdown on Dennis last week, we decided that I need to make an effort to do something just for me. I have been in such a rut because I have had no outlet for creativity. I put it out there on my photography facebook page that I wanted to start building the 'Maternity' and 'Couples' part of my portfolio and would be doing 2 free sessions if anyone wanted to help me out. Immediately, I got a response (who doesn't love free stuff!) and I set up a maternity session for this past Saturday afternoon and a couples session for Sunday afternoon. I had such an amazing time getting out of the house by myself, blasting the music in car, and being about to focus on something that did not involve feeding or changing a baby. I am absolutely in love with how both sessions turned out. You can see them here.
It turns out, I have done something the last 5.5 months. All that time stuck on the couch feeding Charlie and holding him when he wouldn't sleep anywhere else, I had spent browsing the internet, reading and learning as much as I possibly could about photography. I didn't realize just how much I'd learned until I got out there again with these last two sessions. I am blown away at how far my photos have come since I started a little over a year and a half ago.

A couple of weeks ago Dennis and I also started running in the evenings. I learned that even though, running SUCKS... I love that it gives me some chance to blow off steam. In the last 3 weeks, I've lost 10 lbs of the 50 that I gained with Charlie and even though I have a long road to go to lose the rest...at least I'm going in the right direction!

....and just because no blog post is complete without a picture, here are a couple shots of Charlie from the other day:

Out and about in Hawaii

Last week, I bought an Ergo baby carrier so that we could start getting out of the house and enjoy Hawaii with Charlie. The only thing I can say about it is that I wish we'd gotten it sooner! Charlie loves it, and it's so nice being able to do some of the things that I didn't think we'd get a chance to do before we move back to the mainland.

We started our weekend with Diamond Head. Our original plan was to hike it on Saturday morning but by the time we got there, the lot was full so we decided to try again later in the afternoon. I'm so glad we did because the weather was perfect and it wasn't even close to being as crowded as it had been that morning.

1 3/4 of a mile and 175 steps later, we had finally reached the top!

By the time we got back to the car, Charlie was passed out.

The next afternoon we decided to go to Makapu'u trail where the Makapu'u lighthouse is on the windward side of the island. It was a BEAUTIFUL afternoon, the water was so blue and it was a little cool out because the sun was starting to set.

I can't wait to find another hike to do next weekend!



I just have to include this picture that I took of Charlie yesterday afternoon. Just when I think that he can't possibly have anymore facial expressions, he comes out with this one:

He is definitely not camera shy!