she does not have allergies

Click here to see an example of how photos that are sold on istockphoto might be used.

This clinic actually contacted me directly because they had seen the photo on the blog and wanted to purchase the right to use it....TOTAL coincidence that it is a business in Grand Rapids!

Kinda fun, huh?

she knows what she wants

Two firsts for Piper today, both discovered in bed while we snuggled this morning.

1. her first teeth are poking through---two bottom ones at the same time. finally some teeth! and they don't seem to be bothering her too much at this point (not that her sleep could really get any worse for an 8 month old, but oh well!)

2. her first unprompted sign! we did a lot of signs with Rowan, but I don't feel like I've been as consistent with showing Piper how to do signs yet. It's hard to be motivated to keep modeling them when the baby can't do them yet. I've been trying to do "more" and "nurse" and "please" and a few other simple ones.

This morning in bed, she was happy, crawling around, finding things to amuse herself. She was kind of nuzzling her head into me, then suddenly she got up on her knees with purpose, thrust that left hand towards me, and unmistakeably squeezed her hand together to indicate that she wanted to nurse. Joe and I both saw it. She had her paci in her mouth, but still gave us this cheeky grin of satisfaction when we both praised her with clear excitement.

I uploaded some family photos that we tried to take last weekend. Our friends Jeff and Ruby were visiting from MO, so I thought it would be a good time to set up the tripod, let the camera fire away, and have our friends yell and holler at the kids to get them to look in the right direction (occasionally). We got a few good ones! Click here to check them out.

The trick to getting her in photos

I've figured it out.

One pink, fluffy, swingy, totally girly skirt made of yards and yards of tulle.

Watching a few other pretty little girls be photographed in said skirt.

And there you have it, one 4 (and a half!) year old, actively participating in getting her photos taken! Wish I had figured this out sooner!



To see a few more photos of this pink skirted session, click here.

I have many other things to update on...and many other photos to upload...but I'm having this tiny little problem, which is...

TOO MUCH PHOTOGRAPHY WORK!!

A good problem, yes, but I can't seem to get on top of all the editing (notice the horribly outdated photos on the right side and top of this blog, for example), and my floors need scrubbing, and someone around here hasn't been cooking many dinners, and, well, I basically communicate with Joe while staring at a computer screen.

So I'll get there eventually. I have cute kid stories to tell, lots of photos from summer sessions to share (I'm thinking of starting a photography blog...never understood what those were for until recently, when I've had lots of photos from sessions I want to share, but don't know where to share them), and photos of the house-in-progress to post. Just stay tuned!