Better Late Than Never...

So, I had planned on participating in 12 weeks to better photography when I first read about it on my friend Lindsay's blog. However, life got in the way and now everyone is beginning lesson 7 and I am just getting started with lesson 1. But as I said, better late then never! We got our camera as an early Christmas gift so that we would have it in time for Seamus's arrival, that was in December and I have really been wanting to learn how to use it and get the best pictures that I can. Having a little one really makes you want to take lots of pictures and since they move and grow so fast you don't always have a second chance at a great picture. That said, here goes the first lesson on basic aperture:

For this first picture I used a low aperture setting. I set my aperture at f4.5 and you can see that just the front rock is really in focus.

For the second picture I set the aperture at f8. You can see that the trees in the background are more in focus and you can also see some pine straw.

For the last picture I used an aperture of f22. In this picture you can see clearly all of the trees in the background as well as the pine straw.

I took all of these pictures at my parent's house on the new rock wall/patio that my dad has been working on. On to next week's lesson :)

Dinner Time

We started giving Seamus rice cereal about a week or so ago and he has really taken to it! I was feeding him the other day and we had to break out the video camera because he had lots to say during dinner!

I was very hesitant to start the rice cereal since everything I read said that you should wait until 4 months to start. There are too many reasons why the "experts" say you should wait and not enough to tell you what to do if your baby needs more food! I spoke with someone I work with who sees the same pediatrician we do and she told me as long as your baby has doubled their birth weight then you are good to start stage one foods. Seamus has always had very good head control so I knew that it would be no problem getting him to start using a spoon and sitting up a bit more. He wanting so much to eat during the day that I knew I needed to start giving him something that would stay in his belly :) Needless to say he enjoys his cereal and is a much happier little boy now that his belly can stay full!!

If you are questioning whether or not to start solids, ignore the internet, ask your doctor and go with your instinct. The Gerber website still tells me that Seamus is not ready for solids, and that the milestones he has hit (being a supported sitter) are not typical for his age (just over 3 months) and that I need to call them for assistance to find the right milestone group for him (the only one lower is newborn).

Through all of this I have learned that all babies are different, do not let a website tell you that your child cannot have reached the milestones that he has because of his age.

Crusin'

At one of my baby showers we received an awesome car activity walker. We have started putting Seamus in it every now and then and he LOVES it!

Seamus has discovered that he can bounce and use his feet to push the wheels and move around the room. He loves sitting up in it and looking around at us, the TV and anything else he can see.

He is one cool dude sitting in his little hot rod!

His smile just warms my HEART every time I see it!

He has developed the sweetest belly laugh and my little boy is quite the little flirt!

He looks at people, smiles and then turns and buries his sweet little face!

Oh so happy!

Snow Day

This past week I realized that I haven't posted in over a month...OOPS!!

On Tuesday we got to come home early from work and got to take some pictures of Seamus in the snow. They were all pretty similar, but this is my favorite!! I promise I will update more from now on!

Gowing Up

My little man seems to be growing so fast! It seems like just yesterday I saw him for the very first time, and now I find myself almost 6 weeks later looking at him with the same wonder as those first moments. He has changed so much over the past 6 weeks and it amazes me every day. He has started smiling and cooing and it warms my heart every time I see his smile and hear him coo. I put him in his Bumpo seat for the first time yesterday and he sat up and just looked around at the world in wonder. There is such innocence when you look at a child and see the wonder that they are and the amazement as they discover new parts of the world. I never really understood my parents when I heard them say how fast we grew up...I completely understand now. It is truly amazing to see Seamus grow up before my eyes.

The love that I feel for this little boy is indescribable. I see him and think about the wonderful gift that God gave us in Jesus. How blessed we are! He gave the life of His Son so that our sins would be forgiven. And Mary...right after I had Seamus Chad's oldest sister came to visit and we had a talk about Mary (she has 2 boys of her own). We talked about Mary and how she gave birth to Jesus knowing he would die for our sins...How!! The faith that she had is amazing! I see my son and cannot even imagine it. The gift of Jesus Christ is one that we should be thankful for all year and not only during the holiday time. I am happy to be raising a son and a child of God.

We will raise Seamus is a home where he will know everyday the gift of Jesus Christ.

Seamus Knox 1 Month

Last week Chad and I went to our friend Jennifer's house and she took some pictures of Seamus for us. They turned out AMAZING. We are so thankful to have such talented friends who are willing to take pictures of our sweet little boy. He is already growing so fast and we want to capture as many moments during this time as we can. I have about 2 and a half weeks left until I return to work... My classes have already started so I am getting slowly used to being away from Seamus for little bits a few days a week. I am hoping that we can get a little more of a schedule down before I start back to work. I have been letting Seamus take the lead up to this point and it stays the same most days. He will have one long sleep time at night (somewhere between 5 and 6 hours) which is great...if it didn't start at 8:00 at night :) We are hoping to move this time up to about 10:00 so that we get some more sleep along with him. He makes the cutest noises and faces!! We are so in love and it only keeps getting better!

Here are some of the pictures:

Our New HD Video Camera

We received several gift cards for Christmas and we were able to purchase a pocket video camera so that we can capture all the fun things that Shay will do over the next few years. We will try and post videos as well as pictures of Seamus so that our friends and family can watch him grow with us. Seamus is already doing lots of funny things and we will try to catch them and post them so everyone can enjoy!!