Carving Pumpkins

We had such a fun Halloween today. I just had to share a few pictures. We've been so busy, we hadn't had a chance to carve pumpkins and we were almost going to blow it off. But just before trick-or-treating, we decided to let Eli help daddy carve a pumpkin. And I'm glad we did because he loved it! He helped daddy take out the seeds and even carve it (with one of those safe pumpkins knives). Of course I followed him around like a camera Nazi. I think it was worth it for these cute shots.

After carving pumpkins, we dressed both boys as giraffes and took them trick-or-treating around our neighborhood. There weren't many houses participating, but Eli didn't care. He had so much fun walking around calling "trigg-a TREAT!" He would say it over and over again until the we got to the doors, where he would become shy and barely whisper. But as we walked away, he would say "more house" and want to do it all over again.

Happy Halloween!

Have a fun and safe Halloween. Here's Levi saying "BOO!"

Which ended like this. Poor guy.

Newborn Levi

I know I have been neglecting my family blog with all the craziness of our lives right now. Little Levi is almost 2 months old!! I can't believe time has gone by so quickly. So I realized I better post Levi's newborn photos. He is 10 days old in these photos, and I think he's such a cutie!

Levi's First Bath

Amidst all our craziness of having a baby, going back into the hospital for a blood clot, buying our first home, and preparing to move - I have tried to be good about taking pictures of Levi's first few weeks of life. I figured that I better take pictures to avoid being accused of not caring as much about our second born. Whenever I get around to it, I also have some sweet sleeping newborn shots. But in the meantime, here is Levi getting his first official bath at home.

Happy Birthday Levi!

Levi Glade Baker

August 7, 2009
8:09 am
9 lb 12 oz
20 1/2 in

We went to the hospital on Friday morning for a scheduled cesarean section. My doctor thought this was the safest way to deliver because I had a previous shoulder dystocia with Elijah and this baby was measuring even bigger.

It was quite a different birth experience this time around. We scheduled the cesarean for Friday and were able to prepare everything ahead of time, like getting a sitter for Elijah. We even would have been able to walk into the hospital leisurely, except that we slept in and had to rush to the hospital so we didn't miss our scheduled time. After signing paperwork and getting hooked up to an IV, I walked into the operating room so they could prep me for surgery. They gave me spinal anesthesia, which started working immediately. After a few minutes they allowed Brian in and started the surgery. Brian brought the camera, and he documented the birth beautifully with these photographs. I am so grateful he has become such a good photographer.

I couldn't see anything with this large sheet in front of me. It's probably a good thing to not see what's going on. It was weird enough to feel all the pulling and tugging in my abdomen.

Our doctor allowed Brian to take a few photos of the baby being delivered. I love having these since I couldn't really see or experience what was going on at the time. One funny thing is that as soon as they started taking the baby out, he peed on everyone!

Cutting the umbilical cord.

When they weighed him, the baby was 9 pounds and 12 ounces! A pound and a half bigger than Elijah was at birth (8lb 3oz)!! Our doctor said it was a good thing we had the cesarean. With the baby so big, it could have led to some major complications with a vaginal birth.

Brian brought the baby over to me to meet. We were lucky our anesthesiologist was a hobby photographer, so he was able to take our first photos together as a family. That's the drawback of our camera - most people are not able to operate it to take a quick shot of us.

In the recovery room, I was finally able to hold the baby and start to breastfeed him.

We discussed names and finally settled on Levi Glade Baker. We both love the name Levi and Glade is my grandfather's name. My only concern was how similar Levi and Eli sound. After talking about it, we decided to just use Eli's full name: Elijah the majority of the time.

A few details.

Elijah is so excited to have his little brother here. He exclaims "brudder!" each time he sees him and asks to hold the baby. So far, he has been surprisingly gentle, though I'm sure that will change as he gets more comfortable with Levi. I'm just glad he likes his little brother. Elijah is even willing to share his cars with the baby, which is saying quite a lot.

On his second day, we took some portraits of Levi. Isn't he adorable?! Look at those bright eyes - he is so alert and observant.

And finally, since everyone keeps asking if he looks like Elijah, I'll let you decide for yourself. Here is Levi at two days old in daddy's hands:

And here is Elijah at 4 days old in daddy's hands.

What do you think? Do they look alike? I can see some resemblances.

Thank you everyone for your prayers and kind thoughts on our behalf. We are so blessed to have two amazing, beautiful sons. We are so grateful Levi is here safely and in good health. More photos to come soon, so stay tuned...

Eli's 2nd Birthday Party

Since our new baby will come right before Eli's second birthday, I planned his party a couple of weeks early. I figured I better post it early too, or it might never happen with the new baby coming and moving into a new house.

For Eli's party, we had another water party (really, what else is there to do in August?). We had sprinkler toys and pools and three pedal cars (and they managed to still fight over them!). Here are some pictures of Eli at his party.

Do you notice a car theme with Eli? Those were his favorite - especially when he could ride in the back. We took a few minutes out for Eli to eat lunch.

And jump on the trampoline. I love that his feet are all shriveled from the water.

And here are some of Eli's friends that came to the party.

Cake time!

We've taught Eli to say "two" and hold up his fingers when you ask how old he is. It's so cute!

Later that afternoon, after Eli's nap, he got to open presents. He was so excited. We had to try to pace him to get some pictures.

Because Eli LOVES cars, I was a little worried Eli would get a TON of cars. But he only got one set of matchbox cars. It was perfect.

He promptly wanted to open them and line them up and "park" them over and over again. He's been doing this with his cars for a while, so I was glad to get some pictures of his organizational skills. He can really concentrate on something for quite a while when he is interested.

Family Photography

We were so lucky to swap photo sessions with our new friend, Sarah, from Bright Waters Photography. It turns out that we are both pregnant, due within a few weeks of each other, and we both have a toddler boy. So we decided to swap maternity/family sessions near the end of our pregnancy. Click HERE, to see the maternity session I did with Sarah and her family. For our session, we decided to walk around the Pasadena farmers market. It was a lot of fun. Thanks for taking our photos, Sarah!

I am so blessed...

...to have such an awesome toddler that slept in this morning. He is such a sweet boy!

And to have a nice mom that helps fold my laundry, a sweet husband that organizes my freezer, and great friends that watch Eli so we can have a date night. And as an unexpected and totally awesome surprise, while Kim watched Eli last night, she also did my dishes. That may not sound like much until you realize how many dishes accumulate when you are trying to stock pile freezer meals for after the baby comes (I've got about 20 meals right now - sweet!). And how horrifying and smelly this HUGE pile of dishes were after sitting a week in hot weather. Kim, you are a saint! (See? They take up so much room, she had to dry some in our oven.)


Thanks to everyone who was concerned about how we were doing after my last post. I don't complain much, but when I get overwhelmed it all comes out. And since Brian has had horrendously busy days at work with his year end closing, I didn't want to bother him with a stressed out wife (like he didn't notice). So thanks to such nice friends and family. We are doing well and so so excited for this baby to come. Oh and since everyone keeps asking about a name. We are still not sure, but we've narrowed it down to Noah Alan and Levi Glade (I think). ;)

Piled High

My huge mountain of laundry looks about how I feel right now. A whole bunch of stuff that's mounting up with no time to deal with any of it. They are all clean. I just don't have time to fold and put them away. So they are getting wrinkled. I feel like my whole life is wrinkled right now.

I have lots of photo shoots coming up and several to edit, which is great. But I am starting to really feel the fatigue during this 7th month of pregnancy. Not to mention the feeling that my pelvis is grinding every time I move (a lovely new pregnancy symptom), which makes photo shoots a lot more difficult.

Which leads me to the freaked out feeling of being only 8 weeks away from having a baby. I don't know how I am going to manage anything with a toddler and a newborn, especially photo shoots. But I haven't even had a chance to think about that because I have been so focused on the delivery. With Eli I had every intervention short of a C-section, which eventually culminated in his shoulders getting stuck during delivery (called shoulder dystocia). Well apparently that's a huge deal, with some possible major complications including the baby having brain damage or dying if it happens again. So I have been reading and learning everything I can about natural childbirth, including taking some expensive, time-consuming Bradley childbirth classes in hopes of avoiding the interventions and hopefully another shoulder dystocia. I have been feeling good about it until my last doctor's visit, in which they said this baby is measuring big. I was just devastated. If this baby is measuring too big then I will have to have a C-section, since the risk goes up. I really wanted to try for a natural birth and now it seems thats not going to happen.

Amidst all this, Brian and I have been thinking about buying a home. We started looking at homes a few months ago, but all we can afford (using the word afford very liberally) are short sales and bank owned properties, which are such a long shot to get. Especially with the market right now. Just last week we saw a home the first day it was on the market, and it already had almost 10 offers on it! And it was a major fixer-upper! We just can't seem to compete, especially with our FHA loan, which is not as desireable as a regular loan or all cash offer like many investors are doing. We actually got an offer back on one of the properties, but it is a short sale so even though the owners accepted our offer - we still need to go through the long process of getting the lenders' approvals, which might not even happen. So we are still looking. And it's stressing me out at the thought of getting one of the houses because it is so much money and we would be VERY house poor for a while. What if something major happened or it is a money pit? And even if we get something - how are we going to get it ready and move in with this new baby coming?

And these are just the big things on my mind. I'm not ready for the baby to come - the nursery, the clothes or even a name! I am not keeping up on the house work - the dishes, the laundry, or even cooking dinner! Everytime something new comes up, all I can think is it's one more thing to deal with (making a gift for a shower, cooking a meal for a friend, or even our regular playdates). And then I feel guilty for not spending enough time and energy with Eli because I'm too busy and stressed with everything else. So today I let him play in the mountain of laundry, while I took pictures and tickled him. He loved it!

So here's to Eli, who reminds me to take a deep breath and enjoy this time because it's only going to get more busy once the baby comes. :p

Updates

There are several updates and new photo sessions on my photography blog (check it out HERE). This is one of my favorite photos from my recent shoots.