A Summer of Naps!

The last nap photo I posted here was August 3rd! I need to catch up! here are the rest of the August Nap photos. Looking over these just makes my heart sing. I LOVE how he cuddles with me. Thankful for the iPhone and how easy it is to take these shots right when he falls asleep without moving much on my part. Just closing my eyes and snapping the pic. I wonder how long Max will take these afternoon naps before he decides that staying up all day long is more fun. I take these nap photos because I know this time will end and naps will be a thing of the past. I will miss the cuddling. I will miss the sweetness. I will miss the big chunk of afternoon time to cuddle. I will miss how little he is and I want to document such a sweet time in his life and in my life....ok Max is letting me know that he wants to go swing in the backyard ( using his sign language ) so I must post these quick and get back to mamahood! here you go.....

 August 4th, 1:02pm

 August 5th, 1:40pm

 August 8th, 12:37pm

 August 9th, 1:57pm

 August 9th, 1:57pm

 August 9th 1:57pm

 August 11th, 2:38

 August 12th, 3:22pm

 August 12th, 3:24pm

 August 12th, 4:09pm

 August 16th, 3:29pm

 August 17th, 12:25pm

 August 18th, 11:19am my sobriety date - look at the gifts Sobriety gives to me! M.A.X !!!!

 August 18th, 11:21am

 August 19th, 11:18am

 August 20th, 11:33am after his swim lesson at Cottonwood Heights Rec Center.

 August 22nd, 1:25pm after his first Dentist appointment

 August 23rd, 12:01pm after our first playgroup at our house. It was hard for him. Too much noise.

 August 24th, 12:00noon last day of Summer music class

 August 25th, 11:00am

 August 26th, 11:46am

 August 29th, 11:46am

 August 30th, 12:11pm, after a wagon ride at Wheeler Farm

August 31st, 12:40pm after a trip to the Discovery Center

Looking forward to September naps - when the temp cools down and I can open the window and let the breeze roll in. I LOVE naps with windows open and my baby cuddling!
Happy day everyone...I'm off to push Max in his swing.
xo
*c

Lucky Me!!

 August 3rd nap, 5:26pm

 August 4th, 12:58pm

 August 5th, 1:40pm

 August 8th, 12:37pm

August 9th 1:57pm



Yep - still happily taking these iphone photos of our nap time together. Someone asked me if I was mounting a camera above us to take these - and the answer is no - not that complicated. I have my iphone shoved under my leg until Max falls asleep. When he is snoozing - I pull the phone out - and hold the camera up above us and close my eyes and take the photo. that's it. Then I go to my handy dandy instragram app. and turn them into old fashion looking photos and sometimes do a little tilt shift action on them.

In other news - we went to Lagoon this weekend for the first time. It's an amusement park. And you know how much I Love those! It was for Jerry's work so I left my " I don't wanna go " face in the car and decided that I'd make the best of it. The best part for me was taking Max on his first Merry-Go-Round ride. And on a train ride...( here we are on the train )

where we saw sleeping tigers, jaguars, and other sleeping caged animals. The cages just made me sad actually. And Max didn't see the animals. He doesn't see them unless they are moving...so - zonked out tigers just look like part of the landscape to him.

here's the one photo I took from the train.

It's a keeper. I'm going to post it over at the Superhero Photo eCourse right now. Did I tell you I'm taking that class right now? Andrea Scher is leading the eCourse and since I ADORE her I just HAD to sign up.

wanna see Max enjoying a little time in his swing?




And one more thing.....My Soul*Full eCourse is just about ready to LAUNCH! The website is almost finished and I am SO EXCITED to share it with all of you! If you'd like to get the details you can sign up for my newsletter which is coming out on Thursday.
Click HERE to sign up.

xo
*c

 Nap August 2nd 11:59

yes he is literally pushing his foot into my face. Actually he was doing this over and over again. After I took this photo I moved him, I'm not that into torture. But you will see over the span of the nap photos that this happens to be one of his favorite positions,,,,foot on my face.

Yesterday was a rough one. He wasn't feeling well. I'd go into it but you might be sorry I explained in detail. So we will just leave it at that.

He is feeling much better today but still not eating much if anything at all. We have him on a diet of Pedialite and anything else he will eat.

No fever so we are just letting this thing / bug work itself out. Poor fella.

 Nap August 1st 4:16pm

My parents came to visit us over the weekend. We did so much in 3 days it made all of our heads spin.
I think I might need a mini vacation in our hammock to just chill for a bit and get refreshed! I hope they come back soon! I'll post photos in the next day or two.

Right now I'm thinking about my upcoming 43rd birthday. After reading Andrea Scher's post yesterday ( her August 1st post ) I started to think about how I would want to celebrate that day and to really consider who I really am instead of doing what I think I should be doing.

I know I'm not as into having big parties as I wish I was. I much prefer taking mini travel dates - even if it's just to a part of town I've never been to, a picnic, finding a photobooth for the three of us to cram into, taking a new self portrait, going to a restaurant I've wanted to try out, or do some favorite things that remind me of my favorite people - like sip a decaf soy latte ( Amy ), Visit Manzanita, Oregon ( Amanda, Lori, Dara, and the other friends I made on my photo retreat ) or travel to Paris, France ( although I am in LOVE with the idea of actually living there for a year with my family like this girl is doing now ), a trip to Napili Bay, Maui, Hawaii to swim with the turtles, or just hang out in the backyard with my son and husband and sip lemonade and swing in the swingset with my son.......or go visit Minneapolis so I can play with my friend Amy, sip decaf latte's with her, watch sex in the city DVD's, power lounge and find a vegan cupcake and stick a candle in it.

I also like the idea of rituals, Like going to have a reading done with a psychic, or creating a wish jar and putting all of my wishes for my 43rd year on strips of decerative paper and putting them in the jar and seeing what the universe brings, or get a tattoo ( I've wanted a particular design on my arm for the past 15 years )

Do you have favorite ways you like to celebrate your birthday?

I'd love to hear your rituals - celebrations - favorite birthday memories - or what you'd like to do for your next birthday.

Sunday afternoon

nap 1:15pm
just finished up a big brunch with Grandma and Grandpa and a lot of swinging time out on the backyard swing set. Lots of laughing out loud. And passed out in 20 minutes when we went up for nap time. He always has a way of sucking me into taking a nap myself! This one lasted about 30 minutes for me - but 3 hours for him. Lucky fella!

I cannot be stopped!

My newest series is beginning to take shape. a few posts ago I shared a few nap photos I took with my iPhone and I just loved capturing that time with Max so much that I decided to make it into a series. So whenever I take him to bed for his nap I wait until he is asleep and then try to get a photo of the two of us. So they are self portraits - and documentation of our naps together. I think this series is important because at some point nap time will end. I want to print these out and make them into a book for my son. And for ME to remember the tenderness, the snuggling, the sweetness of this time with Max. I'd also LOVE to print this and have a show in a gallery. Still considering which gallery might be best for this type of thing....any ideas?? It can be here in Salt Lake City or anywhere in the world. I'm open!

 

Why I LOVED my day today so much....

one of the naps he took on me today. I love watching him sink deeper into his nap.

Now this is bliss.

for ME!

I took these with my iphone about 2-3 minutes apart.

listening to the rain.... Husband home from work because of the holiday....lots of ginger tea....taking my online Mondo beyondo class ( yes I took it in October and loved it so much I am taking it again! )and finishing up my 20/20 e-course ..... loads of laundry....chatting with friends through e-mail....catching up on my favorite blogs...all helped make this day pretty wonderful, warm and cozy....

but the best part of all is watching my baby boy nap and feeling him breathe on my tummy.

precious.

still in denial that we are inching closer and closer to his 1 year birthday.......I was looking through "old" photos of him at his birth and through the first months and I cannot believe how time is flying by and how blessed I feel to be this little boy's mama. It sometimes still shocks me that I am a mama....like "how did I get here" kind of moments. Not in a bad way - just in a "wasn't I just in college in Minneapolis wearing vintage dresses and combat boots - thinking my two nose rings were cool?" " wasn't I just living in Portland with Marcella and Joel, working at Portland Center Stage and complaining about something while NOT helping my housemates clean up the place?" or wait " wasn't I just living in San Diego working with Miguel Ruiz and helping organize his power journey's to Teotihuacan? " and YES all of these memories from my past are real - I've had MANY different versions of this life and I must say that this one is my upmost favorite.

I love you baby Max.

thank you for napping on me today ( twice! )

xo

*mama