Baby in a Basket

I had this idea that I really wanted to take Easter pictures of Nolan actually sitting IN an Easter basket. There was conversation about bunny ears, but in the end I never bought any. I wish I'd paid better attention to the background, but I'm pretty happy with them regardless.

Easter Egg Hunting

Some shots of the fun the kids had finding eggs:

Tanner

Aubrey

Nolan
(not hunting eggs as much as looking cool)

The traditional group photo on the steps of the porch with all of the kids who hunted eggs

A group shot of the Webster grandkids. . .
The sun was very bright, their eyes were still watering from the big group shot.

And one more bright spot in the day. . .

My mom comes from a family of 6 girls. Each of those 6 has an average of 4 kids. One year, exactly to the day, in fact, 5 of those 6 had a baby. This year the grandkids one-upped them. 6 of us had babies in a year. But the really impressive thing is that 5 of us had them inside of 4 months. Aubrey and Nolan are 7 months apart, and they are actually the first 2. The other 4 babies in this picture have all been born since Nolan was. Crazy!

Cupcakes, Easter Edition

I had 2 different cupcake endeavors this weekend that I'd like to share.

First, for the Easter egg hunt at my grandparent's house on Saturday, I decided mini cupcakes were the way to go. That way, little kids could get their mouths around them, and I could make a lot of them quickly.

They were yellow cake with chocolate frosting, dipped in chocolate jimmies for the "nest" look, and with jelly bellies added as eggs.


The second set was for Aubrey and Emily's birthdays that we celebrated on Sunday. I have had this pan from Williams-Sonoma forever and have never used it. I decided this was the time. How perfect are these cute little bugs for a little girl's birthday?! Decorating them is a little bit tricky. Thank goodness Jenny was willing to help. I made her start on the lady bugs, and it turned into a huge process. I did the rest of them in the time it took to do the red. Bleh. But they turned out so cute. Not Williams-Sonoma cute, obviously, but we are amateurs. . .

The Whine

The battle is on.

Nolan doesn't want to sleep. He's never been a good sleeper, really, but he's generally been quick to go back down when he wakes up in the middle of the night, and has, at least half of the time, napped OK. Sometimes even in his bed. . .

Lately, though, there is a war raging. between 4 & 5 every morning he wakes up and doesn't want to go back to sleep. He ends up in our bed with us after about an hour of fussing, and often sleeps on his father's chest for the next couple of hours. On days I work from home, he is a mess. As long as I'm looking him in the eye and playing with him, great. But if I look away for more than 30 seconds. . . He becomes the king of whine.

There are very few things in this wold that I despise more than a whining kid. It's a little bit better when it's my own kid. . . but only a little bit. It is all I can do sometimes not to yell "WHAT?!" at him. And I mean ALL I can do.

The thing is, he's tired. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to see what all of the eye rubbing means. The problem is, he won't go to sleep! He fights it. It ranges from whining in the morning to screaming in the evening, with varying degrees in between. He has little patience for any form of distraction. It only takes 5-10 minutes before he is decidedly done. And though the fact that he can roll across the floor now is exciting to him, he sort of picks a direction (usually toward the television) and will only roll that way. Which means he gets stuck a lot. Usually up against the entertainment center.

All of this adds up to parents who are particularly exhausted, and therefore lacking in patience (at least in my case), and a baby too stubborn to just crash. I am officially ready for some cry-it-out sleep training. . . but as we'll be at my parent's house for the weekend, I'm not sure if I have it in me to try in on a week night.

4.5 months of this is plenty. I have to get a good night's sleep. Otherwise, I may snap.

(and yes, I sense the irony in the fact that my sleeplessness is also causing me to whine. I'm done now. Sorry)

Welcome, Spring

Today is the first day of Spring, officially speaking.

My tulips are starting to come up in my garden
(the ones in the photo are decidedly NOT mine)

I'm so excited to get out there and clean the beds out so they have plenty of room to grow.

Hooray, Spring!

Stats

We went to Nolan's 4 month check up today

Yes, he's actually 4.5 months old,
but we had to wait for an appointment

He's a big boy

17 lbs 7 oz
26 inches long

He goes higher and higher in
his percentiles every time
we go in
He's now in the 90th % in
weight and the 80th
in height

Easter Egg Dying

We dyed Easter eggs last night for family night.
Ironically, I didn't take any pictures of the eggs,
just the dyers.
We're planning on making deviled eggs with all of the spoils of the evening.
Yummy.

Nolan

Jer & Emily

Steven & Molly

Jenny

Nathan playing guitar hero
Tanner is obsessed with the game and now sings the songs all the time. . .
He no longer likes "girl music"

Jules & Nick
self portrait by Nick

Bath Time

Yeah, I'm not running out of Nolan cuteness from our weekend. . .

SO, these are shots of Nolan's Sunday morning bath. Unfortunately, the light in the bathroom is really hard to shoot well in. . . so this is also an example of

color corrected from no flash



and super bright with flash
(I love how intensely blue his eyes look in this one)

Sundance Memories

Back in January of 2007 Jen, Whitney & I were in the festival store looking at all the swag. . . There were the obligatory t shirts, sweatshirts, bags, posters, etc. . . I knew I wanted a poster, and that was all I was planning to buy. But then I came upon this darling black onsie. . . Who would have guessed they'd make Sundance onsies? I had to buy one for Aubrey (who would enter the world in March)

I found out I was pregnant about 6 weeks later.

I don't know if Aubrey ever wore it, but my sister sent it home in a bag of stuff she no longer needed the other day, and I had to put it on Nolan this weekend. And, of course, document the wearing of it. He didn't totally want to cooperate. But we managed to mostly capture the coolness. These other 2 shots are just because I think he's cute. . .

Peeking

I know, I know. He's 4.5 months old. He's probably a little old to be swaddled. But the truth is, he just sleeps better that way. A LOT better. And they make the swaddle blanket that's big enough, so we can't be the only ones. . .

Saturday morning he took a crazy long nap for us. We were less than productive in the 2.5 hours he afforded us, but it was nice to have a lazy sort of morning for once too. . .

When I went in to check on him at the 2.5 hour mark, this is what I saw


He usually fights one or both arms, as well as at least one leg, out of the swaddle when he wakes up. This time, though, he was totally quiet, just peeking out over the top of his blanket, staring up at his mobile. He even stayed that way long enough for me to call Ben in and go get the camera. . . He was starting to bust out by the time I got one that was in focus in the darkened room, but it's close enough to give you an idea.

Incredible Hulk

Is it me, or does this new version of The Incredible Hulk look even worse than the Ang Lee version?

WHAT was the point of remaking it AGAIN, if it wasn't going to be significantly better?

And what was Edward Norton thinking?

Expressions, again

I can't get over the faces. . .
He's so crazy expressive.

Swingin'

He doesn't spend much time in his swing any more. . . look how big he is in it! He doesn't last too long in it because he just wants to move around. The swing is a little too confining. But I got a few shots of him today. . .


The one thing he is fascinated by is the mirror. He stares up at it and talks to himself. . .

She & Him

It's been a long time since I've been this excited about an album release. . .

I love M. Ward. I love Zooey (I mean, does anyone doubt her singing prowess after watching Elf?)


I am pretty darn giddy about it.

It's not out yet (it will be March 18th), but a sneak peak is streaming here.

Stupid

It's 9:16 am and it's still darkish outside.
It looks just as dark as it did at 7:30am.
So much for the sunny days we've been having. . .

Stupid March.

Also, how stupid was America last night?
Was David Hernandez honestly the worst one on AI?

No, I say. NO.

I want that last barbie girl gone.
She's boring me to death.


*picture borrowed from www.tsbvi.edu/Education/vmi/tactile_symbols.htm*

Hats

So, this was a thread of the week on BabyCenter. I had to join in.

The theme was hats. . . obviously.

Last Week

Last week was all about photo shoots at work. We were playing a bit of catch up now that we have a new art director. Between photo shoots and Tanner being sick, so we had to juggle Nolan's schedule a bit, it was a crazy week, and it's been a while since I took a good Nolan picture. I need to remedy that.

In the mean time, enjoy these:

Nolan modeling his Merrills that Grammy gave him

Sporting the sunglasses.
I was surprised he left them on, but he did.

Me acting "fierce" during test shots on our photo shoot.
The cheetos had to be added for irony.

Lunges

Nolan used to be pretty easy to hold.
He didn't squirm much, and he would hang out and watch tv without any trouble.
Recently, however, he's started to lunge.
He lunges at my computer, whatever food we're eating, and when nothing else is going on, he'll lunge at his father's knee. As he was doing here.

But when it wears him out, and it's time to just chill. . .
He cuddles up with dad on the bed and pretends to sleep so Ben doesn't fee too lazy.

Netflix Update

I've had a much better run with Netflix this past month, thank goodness. I was starting to wonder if my tastes had just totally changed or what. . .

Here's a brief synopsis of this month's picks:

I was a little surprised how much I liked this. Granted, I am a big Jennifer Gardner fan, but I was surprised how much I liked the supporting cast. Especially Kevin Smith. He was almost charming. . .


December Boys was a little bit slow, but still watchable. Daniel Radcliffe was surprisingly good, and the plot was sweet and sad. . . It was worth watching once, though I don't need to own it.


Creepy and suspenseful. . . I liked this movie quite a lot. It helps, though, that it was Anthony Hopkins and Ryan Gosling. With lesser actors it probably wouldn't have been as good. They played off of each other brilliantly.


I'm really not into westerns, generally. I like Tombstone, but it's pretty much the only one I've ever been able to get into. This was great. Again, the cast made the movie. I love both Russell Crowe and Christian Bale, so I was there with them from the beginning. It's also very well made, though, and I have to admit to shedding a couple of tears at the end.

Holy cow, what a brilliant actress! She SO deserved the Oscar. I was so very impressed with how well she played the changing ages. . . For a French film, too, it was incredibly accessible.

This was such a quirky movie. Very Spanish. I really liked it. Penelope is such a great actress when she is speaking Spanish. I wish the transition to English was easier for her. I always love to watch her in Spanish films to remember how talented she really is. This is a fun story, and was totally worth staying up late for.

On the horizon for the next little while. . . Michael Clayton, The Brave One, and Martian Child. Hopefully soon to be followed by Atonement.