The little artist

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As I said in my previous post, I've been very busy with photography work these days. Just because life is busy, we still found some time to get Wesley in the studio for a birthday shoot. It isn't a cake smash like I usually do with 1 year olds, but still was a messy expression of fun and childhood. My plan is to for a big print of this one to hang in our house.

Wesley love to paint! It was so funny, at first he dipped his toes in the little dollops and then smeared them around. He wasn't that big into finger painting, which is what I thought he would do. Mostly smeared around with his feet until I gave him a paint brush. You can be sure he went straight into the tub after this session!

Under construction! but been very busy!

Hi readers,
my beloved readers,
my family and friends and some random strangers who find my world fascinating... or at lease semi entertaining,

Please accept my humble apologies for being a blog slacker. We went to Disney for a week, then were home for two weeks and I was WAYYY busy with work - yea my photography business is doing well!!! - and then we went to Rochester for a very long weekend and I returned to two photography sessions on the same day. I am VERY behind on my own personal photos and since the weather in Baltimore is pretty yucky right now, I'm going to try to catch up a bit. So, please bear with me as I update posts. I am starting off by adding lots of videos and then will fill in the posts with additional photos and supplemental anecdotal stories and text. And hey, at least you know I haven't left you!

This calls for a celebration!

Wesley and I picked up a few balloons for his birthday celebration. Poor kid had a blast being crowded in the back with all those balloons!

Twice as nice!

For Wesley, turning two meant two birthday parties this year. One in Rochester earlier in the week and one in Baltimore. Both parties were small and family only, but fun none the less! His Baltimore party was very small, just Grandma and Grandpop and Mom and Dad. We still had a yummy cake from Sugarbakers and took lots of pictures! It was quite festive!

He dove right into the presents! It is absolutely true what they say about the wrapping being the best part for little ones. He soon realized the good stuff was on the inside!

Grandma Great sent him a birthday bear. He LOVES it and plays the song often. His latest thing to say is "Hap Boo" aka "Happy Birthday." We're working on the full phrase...

And this just boggled our minds! Two days prior we learned that when asked, Wesley knew how old he was! We haven't really been stressing it with him, so it just took us by surprise that he responds appropriately when asked "how old are you?" Too cute!!!

Dancin' Dancin'

Wesley's birthday fell on a Friday this year. Even though Daddy was at work, the birthday celebration started early in the day with haircuts for Wesley and his buddy Nolan at our favorite kids' salon Pigtails and Crewcuts. Then we took the kids to Chuck E Cheese, where they danced their little hearts out, ate pizza and played some games. We had such fun! Thank you Sam and Nolan - for treating to lunch for Wesley's birthday!

Cell phone pics from the farm...

My "good" camera battery died, but these two were too cute to miss out on pics - thank goodness for cell phones!

Turning two - and blowing out the candle!

While we were in Rochester, we had a party to celebrate Wesley's birthday. I still can't believe he blew out the candle!

The other side of the lens

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One of my best friends, Erin, is also a budding photographer (her studio name is Charms of Life Photography). As a birthday present, she offered her services to help capture some images of myself and Wesley. So often I am the one behind the camera, today was my turn to be on the other side of the lens. A very special blog reader wrote me and told me about this sunflower field and suggested I check it out. It was a bit of a drive to Jarretsville, and I always get lost on Dulaney Valley Road, but we made it and oh, it was worth every effort!

Miss Erin was kind enough to leave a few of the files with me as we finished our session, but I do not have the full set. Now I know what my clients feel like, waiting in anticipation to see my full gallery... hurry up Erin! I can't wait to see more!

Birthday Magic

Excuse the videography skills here! I was doing my best to take it all in, with my eyes, with my camera and on film. If you can't tell, I was taking pictures while operating the video camera. Apologies aside, we had dinner at The Crystal Palace with Winnie the Pooh and friends. Pooh came by as soon as we sat down and then we ate our dinner. We were just about done when Eyeore, Tigger and Piglet came by. And then we got a second round of Pooh. I don't know how the characters timing got bunched up like that, but it worked out nicely that Wesley got to see Pooh twice. I love how, in the video of him with Eyeore, Wesley leans back and tries to get Eyeore to pick him up. And then in the second Pooh video he just plops himself down in Pooh's lap. I guess they are old friends by now! The food at The Crystal Palace was actually pretty good for a mass buffet. We especially enjoyed the mussels and the meatballs. There were plenty of children friendly options for Wesley and the characters made the evening extra special!

Wesley meets Mickey Mouse

It was beyond cute! What you missed in the first 15 seconds of their meeting that we didn't get on video - Wesley pointed to Mickey's eats, then his own Mickey Mouse hat "ears" and then back to Mickey's ears. It was so adorable!

When they let us in to see the big cheese, we were first in our little group. You might hear a little girl in the background exclaim "That's Wesley, Mommy!" I guess Mommy and Daddy and Grandma and Opa (and Mickey and Minnie) were making such a fuss over Wesley, the little girl got a little confused about who she had been waiting in line to see - lol! But we all know the truth - we were there to see Wesley!