Photography and Sleep

The past week Cole and I spent time dealing with photographers and their crazy rules. Well, at least one photographer's craziness. She took AMAZING photos but unfortunately we didn't find out her pricing until the picture viewing. You have that one chance to order at discounted rates and the pictures aren't posted anywhere online so family can order what they would like. Well, the discounted rates are still ridiculous. The cheapest "package" was an 8x10 and 5x7 of one pose for $115. Usual prices for a 5x7 is $70 and $120 for an 8x10. Needless to say, as much as I loved the pictures (I totally got teary looking at them) I walked away with none. I just couldn't reason spending so much money on a couple of pictures for just the 3 month sitting when we would have another at 6, 9 and 12 months. The package with the amount of pictures we would want would have cost $600-800. That's insane. Even if I was rich I'm not sure I'd spend that much. What would I do with all those fancy canvas prints when he grows up? So I spoke with other photographers and we even did a photo session at JCPenney to see if cheaper versions would suit my taste (um, they didn't). We did a photo session with the photographer that took our Rees family photos last summer. She's great but she's also 8 months pregnant. We hope she can finish up the pictures and post them for family and orders before her baby comes. Keep your fingers crossed! But until then, we will have to be satisfied with my camera and cheap lighting. I'm sure you don't mind though! I'm just a photo snob really. I would love to gets some books on photography to learn more and be able to take better photos or do retouching after the fact, etc. Ahh...someday...

Cole is pretty much on a regular sleep and nap schedule now which is GREAT for mom. He goes to bed about 8:00pm and wakes somewhere at 7:30am. We were putting him to bed at 7:00pm but that just isn't sufficient time for Rick to always be able to see him or spend time with him even though he is tired at 7. He naps around 9:00am and sleeps for 1.5-2 hours. His second nap is about 1:00pm. He usually gets another small nap around 4:30 or 5:00pm but not always. I am LOVING schedules. However, I have issues with my sleeping. It seems that now when I nap while he naps I can't sleep at all at night. Grr!! So I'm just pushing myself to make it through the day without naps. He wakes up twice during the night. We were down to one waking but I don't know what happened because we're back to two. I don't mind though because they are short and he goes back to sleep quickly.

In other news, Rick accepted an offer for a new job at the Austin Country Club. So we've been making decisions surrounding that this past week as well. It's definitely been eventful. Interstate Hotels and Resorts made him a really great counter offer but in the end he just felt the decision to go to the club was best for now. I'm excited for him and hope that he'll be happy there. He doesn't start for a couple of weeks. He is however getting a new phone from the job and is UBER excited about his upcoming iphone! :-)

Now for more pictures and video!

Cole upgraded from his carseat in the stroller to the big boy seat!! He really is growing up too quickly for our liking.

I bought a couple of baseball type outfits for Cole but Rick didn't think he was big enough for them...ahem...just see for yourself!


We love Austin weather. We go from 80 degrees to 40 degrees in one week. How can we say we love it? Well, the cold and rain don't ever last long. We're back up to 80's! But the cold weather gave Cole a chance to wear this cutie outfit from Grandma Solotes!

Cole is very ticklish on his thighs. He even laughs when I'm changing his diaper because he's so ticklish. I was tickling his thighs with one hand while holding the camera with the other so forgive the shoddy views. Also, I think the music definitely needs explanation...we were playing with a Baby Einstein CD on in the background.

**I have no idea why I lose all video quality when I upload to YouTube. Any techies have any genius solutions?**