Adventures By Design

Today we had a photo shoot with a photo studio near our previous apartment called Ivision Photography. We had heard good things about the studio from friends and colleagues, and we liked their style. When we lived near the studio, we had often seen the photographer, Happy, shooting photos on the grounds. He even tried to get Inca to pose with clients a couple of times (Inca was not cooperative… we think it’s because he hadn’t properly compensated her, in bones, for modeling.)

We planned on taking photos of the whole family, and so brought Inca with us. Unfortunately the flashes, noise, and general busyness of the occasion made her nervous. Thankfully, Mark and Lyndal live really close to the studio, so I just ran Inca upstairs for some quality time with Mark.

Within a week we’ll see the proofs, and then we’ll chose which photos we want, and what kind of prints. We’re thinking of getting mostly prints for our apartment. Once we have something to show you, we’ll post them.

Our sincere apologies… we don’t know how more than a month has gone by without an update about Aria. Life’s been busy we suppose.  We had Ric’s mom, Marie here to visit for a couple of weeks and at the same time Ric was off school for the Chinese New Year holiday.  You’d think that during that time collectively we could have pulled off a blog post, but nope, didn’t happen, sorry.

Aria has changed so much in the last month. She’s sitting up by herself for a few minutes if she is propped up with a few cushions. Once she starts to slouch over, the game’s over, and much to her constant annoyance, she’ll need help righting herself. She’s getting adept at sticking things in her mouth, and anything that comes within her event horizon is fair game. Aria continues to develop her ability to laugh and scream, and has quickly married the two in her ultimate expression of pleasure: the ear-piercing shriek. She still is eating only breast milk, however she seems to be definitely curious about solid food: Ric was offering her a piece of bacon to smell, and she immediate opened her mouth and made a snatch for it. She was also drooling over Gin’s coffee earlier today. (Don’t worry, she won’t be getting bacon or coffee as her first foods!) She still requires significant coaxing to sleep at night, but once she gets to sleep, she generally stays that way for a few hours. Gin has been making a concerted effort to teach Aria how to take naps in her crib, and is making slow but steady progress (ten minutes today!). In the past, Aria’s walks consisted of only three states: sleeping, crying, or being carried while Mommy pushed the pram with her other hand; however, Aria’s recently discovered a love for her pram/stroller, and will sit back and enjoy the ride. She is getting much better with strangers, and will allow anyone to hold her, as long as mom and dad are nearby.

Every week Gin and Aria go to a meeting of moms and babies to hang out, share poop stories, and drink coffee.  It’s a great time and a highlight of our week.  Below are some photos from last week’s meeting.  The baby to Aria’s left is Luke, and yes, he did try to eat her hair. To Luke’s left is Matilda, a perfect English lady who was holding hands with Aria a few minutes before this photo was taken… so cute! (but no photo, sorry).

Now that Aria is over three months old she’s decided that laying around is for little babies, and she is not a little baby.  Her favorite activities these days are sitting and standing up (and dancing to Kings of Leon with mommy but photos wouldn’t do that justice). Of course she can’t sit or stand by herself yet so she requires a little assistance. Fortunately for her mommy or daddy is always around to help. Lately though Aria’s been thrilled with sitting by herself propped in the corner of the sofa.

So I figure it’s my right and responsibility as a parent to take naked photos of my baby having a bath.  This way when she becomes a teenager I’ll have something to show her boyfriends love interests and mercilessly embarrass her.  My parents have a photo of my bare behind having a bath in the kitchen sink, classic.  Aria bathes in the tub but these are still pretty good.

Back when she was only a few weeks old (weird saying ‘back when’ about my 11 week old) Aria hated baths with a passion.  She would scream through the whole thing and then sulk for at least 10 minutes afterwards.  Now she’s learned to embrace the bath and is starting to play and kick her legs around.  It’s just a matter of time before she learns how to soak the entire bathroom!

Yes, I know that New Year’s Day was a week ago, I’ve been a little busy (and lazy).

Plus bonus footage of Inca!

Please excuse Ric’s silly incredibly sexy facial hair, he did it for Movember and apparently didn’t realize that November finished 2 weeks ago! (he has shaved it off since then, and is looking a little more normal).

So Aria has begun smiling socially… it’s the coolest thing.  Today she was hanging out on the bed while I brushed my hair in the bathroom.  When I walked back into the room she smiled at me (TMI warning: I had my shirt off and I think she may have been smiling at the sight of her food source).  On Saturday she smiled at Ric and so he did what any father would do and spent the next 20 minutes with a camera aimed at her trying to get her to do it again.  He didn’t quite succeed, but surely we’ll get a proper toothless grin up here for you soon![gallery link="file" order="DESC"]