Buzz is Nine Months Old!

Every month, I take a photo of our son sitting in his Uncle Chris’ childhood rocking chair, just like I did with our daughter.  Here he is at nine months…

This month, I fully intended to take Buzz and Tink to a nearby pumpkin farm so that Buzz could have his October picture in a field of pumpkins, just like his sister did.  His monthly birthday fell on a Friday so we couldn't all go apple picking like we did with Tink.  Still, I figured I'd venture out and get it done anyway.

Then, it rained.  A lot.  And a week of little sleep (thanks Buzz) had everyone's schedule off.

So in the morning, before running our must-do errands that day, I nabbed a few of him in front of a buffet in our dining room just in case.  And a few more in front of our china cabinet too.  Both of these items had warm tones in them and, I really wanted a picture with an Autumn feel to it.  We did our errands, and I put my kiddos down for their naps.  Since neither one had been napping lately, I figured I would give it the old college try for an hour and then off to the pumpkins we'd go.

Then Buzz napped for three and a half hours (ooooooh old routine.... come back and stay)!

Buzz napped for a half hour, nursed, and then was a raving lunatic for an hour before nursing again and falling asleep on me.  He was so exhausted and had been waking every time I transferred him to his crib (unusual for him), so I just let him sleep.  It was soooooo lovely.  I'm big on kids sleeping in their cribs and having routines and all that, so it's rare I get to have him sleep on me anymore.  While I knew it could make things worse, I had a feeling it might make things better.  Maybe this was the mumma-love he needed.  Maybe a good old fashioned snuggle would reset the clock.  He slept for an hour and a half and woke up happy as a clam.

Then he started screaming again.  Something is bugging my little bugger and I don't know whether it's teeth (two popped through but so many more are right under the surface), belly troubles (he's been having some of those), or, you know, some sort of alien eating him from the inside out (that seems to be where our minds go when we're worried about our kiddos... to the extreme and most ridiculous).  But, he was still struggling with whatever it was.  That, coupled with the late hour, determined that we would not, in fact, go pumpkin picking.

I mentally went through my home's outdoor surroundings.  None of my shrubbery looked golden or red enough for what I wanted.  I had no warm-toned walls in the house (we're big fans of greys, blues, and greens).  Tink was still napping so we couldn't just seek out someplace else.  The sun (what little there was of it) was setting.  Where was I going to get my shot?!!?

Light dawned on Marblehead.  THE GARAGE!  Every year I setup a Fall scene for the Halloween Mini Sessions in my garage because the wall is aged exposed wood.  It was perfect.  I had been communicating with people all day about it, and never thought of it.  DER.

We went to the garage, shot a few shots, and we were done.

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After all that, we picked one of the first shots I took in the morning, in front of the buffet.  HA!

You'll soon see there were fun shots from each "location" but we chose the one we did based on his expression.  There weren't any like it yet in his monthly collection, and we just really liked it!  So, all that trouble and I had already had the winning shot in my camera.  Isn't that the way life goes?

Still, I did get some good ones later on so it wasn't a complete waste.  And, unlike last month, he was more animated so the runners-up are a little more varied and interesting.

Let's take a look!

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Navy calls this one his modeling pose.

Zoned out.  This was the last shot from the morning attempts.  Clearly he was somewhere far far away.

This next one isn't a great shot, he's not really in focus, but it cracks us up.  It looks like he's trying to hypnotize us or something.  Something about his expression and his right hand makes me giggle.

There's our smilin' boy!  This was the shot Navy picked for his "phone picture."  That's the one he has in his phone to show people when they ask.  Yes, I said, "the one."  Meanwhile, on my phone...

This one is so him.

Aaaaaaaand this face means it was clearly time for me to knock it off and head back inside.

Honestly, even though he's upset, I think this one is my favorite of the bunch!

Let's see the recap shall we (let's just not talk about the fact that we're on the last row and there are only 3 slots left mmmmkay?)

(Month #2 is so freakin hilarious).

Hooray!  I got this post out right away!  I actually got this done Saturday night but scheduled it for today so maybe it would brighten up the Monday blues for some folks.  Did it work?  I hope so!  It definitely brightened my mood...mostly because it's done though hahaha.-Kerry:)p.s. Today I'll be taking Tink's 2.5 year photo.  It will not be in the rocking chair since I stop using that after they turn one but, I thought I'd share this photo since she wanted her picture taken when Buzz was having his done.  For those of you who've been following along since the beginning, isn't it HILARIOUS to see this giant in the chair?!!?For any of you new to my monthly photo collection, I have taken a photo of each of my kids on their monthly birthday for the first two years of their lives.  The first year involves the rocking chair.  The second is a candid shot from our day - no setups, no props - just a shot from that day.  At age two, the monthly photos stop and then my plan is to continue doing one every six months.  Tink turns two years and six months today.  I think I have a fun plan for it.  We'll see if it works out.  :)Ok, I am really signing off now.