16 Months

You weigh 21 lbs and 3 ounces.

You still eat really well. You love pineapple and bananas. You don't like grapes (you really haven't even given them a fair try).

You go to sleep at 7:30pm still and have started to sleep in a bit (6:45-7am). We have been trying one nap for the last week and you have been a tyrant. We are going back to two naps, unless we have something to do in the morning and then we will just do the one.

You are still wearing the same size clothing (12 months). You did go up a size in shoes. You are now wearing a 4, although they are a little big.

You wear a size 4 diaper during the day and a size 4 overnight diaper at night.

Your hair still hasn't been cut and its pretty shaggy.

You are officially walking. You started walking and then a few days later finally figured out how to get to a standing position from the floor. You were very proud of yourself. You love to walk from room to room. You pick up things in one room and drop them off in another. Its pretty cute.

You have added "up" to your vocabulary. You say it when you want up on our bed.

You didn't run any fevers this month. You weren't sick at all. I think this is the first month where that happened.

The main things that you love are going outside and reading books. You love to swing and now that you are walking you just love to walk around and explore. We have two rocks on your shelf in your room, because you picked them up on walks and would not put them down. Reading to you has gotten out of control. You bring books to us constantly. I seriously read about 40 books a day to you.

Trying on our new hats.

This is what happens when you play in your room.

Just because.

Just because number two.

Ready to go to Little Swimmers.

Still ready to go.

Chillin with Daddy.

1st time to poop in the tub.

I got you these nice sandals at a Garage Sale and you started crying once I put them on.

Crying picture number two.

Crying picture number three.

Still upset.

Having fun with the sand table

Having fun outside.

Walking with Daddy (taken a few days before you started doing it on your own).

Trying to get a cute picture.

Playing outside with the sand/water table.

Still playing.

1st time eating pizza. You loved it, but boy was it messy.

Your leg got stuck in the bed.

Teething. Sometimes you will keep a pacifier in your mouth for a few minutes when your teething.

Teething.

Water table fun.

Water table fun (2).

Forever & Always Update

I've been pretty quiet about the photography business. For some reason, I doubt myself on actually saying it's a "business". I think because I'm not making a ton of money, not really marketing and just kind of going. My goal for this year is to shoot two sessions a month. The goal of those two sessions are to really improve my skills. I want to be confident going in to every shoot. I want to take photos that are worth something. I don't want to be the $50-75 a session photographer for much longer. I want to be the $300-600 a session photographer. I want to be known as the go-to photographer for newborns. Lofty goals? Yes! Attainable? Yes! I will have to say that I feel crazy for putting this out on my blog, but I also feel light-hearted about it. I'm sure Luke will be relieved that I can "talk" to someone else about this. LOL.

I haven't wanted to put a whole lot in to marketing so I haven't had as many shoots as I had hoped for. I have had four inquiries within the last week, so that has been good. I have three sessions on the books: a two-year-old, 6 month-old twins and another newborn session. I'm pretty happy with that.

Luke is almost finished with my website. I think we will be able to launch it early summer. I've been holding him up on quite a bit, because I can't make myself resize pictures for the site. I also have a to-do list that only I can do, but it isn't done yet. So, some of it is on him, but some of it is on me as well. Once the site is up, my pricing structure is going to change. I am going to start charging for prints and make that a part of the whole package. Everyone knows that photographers make their money on their prints, but what they don't understand is that the quality of the prints you get from the photographer greatly exceeds the quality you can get as a consumer anywhere else. I printed through two different professional photographer's labs and then compared the prints to Walmart, Walgreens and Target. I was blown away by the quality and color difference.

I choose my lab and calibrated my monitor to their printing machines. That makes sure that everything that I see on my screen and in photoshop will match what they see when they print. Eight months ago, I would have never guessed that all of this goes into printing. Crazy, isn't it?

.... and that's it!

Quiet Book Activity Pages

I've been working on activity pages for Greyson. I think it will help keep him entertained when we go on the trip in May. I hope to have 10 pages done, but we'll see how far I get. I taught myself how to sew in a zipper which I am quite proud of. None of them are perfect, but they will be fun for him.

1. Gator - mouth unzips

2. Burger: All pieces have velcro. They all come off and then he can build the burger how he wants.
3. Fish in a tank: Fish have velcro so they can come off.
4. Lion: Different textures used in his hair.
5. Noah's Ark: Noah and animals can be taken in and out of the ark.
4. Ladybug: Big ladybug zips and little ladybugs are inside. Little ladybugs have crinkle stuff inside of them.

The Hunt is On!

We had the big "hunt" yesterday. On Saturday, I asked Luke if we were going to do an egg hunt. Neither one of us has thought about it, but we decided to go ahead and do it. I got up on Sunday and went outside and placed nine eggs filled with either one gold fish or 1 animal cracker.

We got Greyson bundled up and put his basket on his arm and went out. He did enjoy getting the first two eggs, but after that he was more excited in walking (yes, he is walking now - we can't slow him down) outside. I had to pick up the rest of the eggs myself. =(

We went back inside and decided to try the "hunt" again. I hid the eggs around the living room and that went over much better. He wasn't distracted by being outside and he actually found a few eggs. They were all hid in plain view of him, but after finding two he gave up. We still have eggs sitting around. I know he will get a kick out of opening them over the week. He loves finding his surprise in each one.

I'm sad that I have no pictures of him in his Easter outfit. We went on a walk on Saturday and my allergies have been killing me ever since. We decided to stay home from Church yesterday, because it was either that or blow my nose every five minutes in Church. How annoying is that?

New Tooth + Going to 1 Nap = Cranky Baby

WALKING!!! Well, sometimes anyways and only at our house. lol.

Birthday Fun

Today ends my birthday fun with Luke and Greyson. Luke cooked me my "birthday dinner" of fried chicken, homemade mac and cheese and green beans. I feel stuffed but it was really good. We have seriously been celebrating for over a week. lol. We decided to go to STL last weekend on Saturday, because it was going to be a gorgeous day and we didn't want to take a chance at not having another one. We always go to STL for my birthday. Shopping, eating and more shopping are always on the menu. This year, we added in going to the zoo. Greyson had a great time in the play area, petting zoo and the penguin house. He didn't much care for anything else. I think it was a bit overwhelming for him.

Here we are at the zoo.

Mesmerized by the penguins:

After the zoo, we headed out to lunch and then to the mall. Overall, Greyson did a great job throughout the day. I got quite a few new things, so I was happy.

Saturday the 9th (day before my birthday), we had a great day playing at the park and then going out to eat.

Quick snapshot before dinner:

On my actual birthday, we went to church and went shopping again. I still had birthday money since I got a few cards in the mail.

After church:

After shopping:

Happy Birthday to me for the final time in 2011. lol.