Tuesdays with Jacob: 11 Weeks Old

Labor Day was this week, so we thought it would be fun to dress you up like a little chef. Maybe it will be a future career for you :) Plus Mommy needed new measuring spoons and cups for the kitchen anyways, and these ones are bright and fun. Thanks Target!

You are holding your head up and rolling front to back better than ever!

You are sleeping much better at night, 7-8 hours consistently now.

You are much happier and less fussy during the day when you've gotten enough sleep!

Nap times are still a little bit of a challenge. Mommy would prefer you take longer, less frequent naps. You prefer to cat nap all day long.

You got a little lovey blanket in the mail this week from our friend Jennifer Lopez. (not the singer) You LOVE it and anytime I put you in your car seat you grab onto it and won't let go.

We went to the Gill's this week to work on a little project (more on that in a few days). You had fun watching Colin play, and we even put him to work rocking you in your stroller!

You loved watching their fan because it's nice and big and easy for you to see!

We met Daddy downtown for lunch on Saturday. We had a little picnic in the park with chicken fingers, pasta salad, fruit salad, iced tea, and cupcakes for dessert!

You were happy as a clam to be out and about, and we even made a squirrel friend :)

On Sunday we went to Pop-pops and Mimis for a Labor Day BBQ. You love watching their fan too, and you got to meet Nanny Myrna... maybe she'll babysit you someday ;)

Monday was your first Labor Day!

 Daddy worked during the day and we relaxed at home.

11 weeks old and cute as a button!

Baby Photoshoots: Taking the Pictures

When we last talked about Jacob's baby photos I told you all about how I planned out his first 52 weeks and first holidays.

Today I'm going to tell you about how I actually take his picture. I'm definitely learning as I go, and (I think) my pictures are getting better. As of today, I've taken his picture for 11 weeks now. 

First up our supplies - we use a point and shoot camera (CanonSX510 HD), his quilt, and occasionally some props.

As I mentioned in my first post, I got this idea from YHL. They take their kiddos picture on a day bed in their sunroom in the early evening. This way it's nice and bright, but there's no direct sunlight causing big shadows. 

photo from Young House Love

In the beginning I was taking Jacob's picture in his nursery. It faces the front of our house and gets the best light in the morning so that's when I was taking the pictures. I laid his quilt down on the floor, set him on top of it, and leaned over to take the picture straight on.

The pictures ended up pretty dark and needed lots of editing to be what I would call 'passable.' It was also hard to get a good picture because Jacob hated laying on the flat floor. I would take 100 pictures hoping to get just one where he didn't look miserable.

Sometime around week 4, I tried laying the quilt on top of his turtle rug because it is nice and soft and he likes laying on it. That worked better, but the lighting still wasn't great.

Finally, I waited one day during week 7 till Dan was home and had him drag our ottoman out on the front porch in the early evening. (Thus mimicking the daybed in the sunroom during early evening from YHL)

 I draped the quilt over it and plopped the baby on top. Voila! Much better (and more natural) lighting.

In the beginning, it was easy to take Jacob's pictures. He moved very little. In fact, I would sometimes have to sit and wait for him to move his arms or make a different facial expression. Around week 9 I started needing Dan's help to hold his attention. Dan would stand next to me with some kind of toy and rattle it around to get him to look up at us.When we got desperate, we brought out our little dog, Leo.

Week 11 he started to get too big for the ottoman. I would have to zoom out enough to get all of him in the screen thus showing the quilt hanging off the edges of the ottoman.

It wasn't anything that couldn't be cropped out, but it made me think about what we would do in the future when the ottoman wouldn't be big enough. So week 11 I dragged out his mattress from his crib (he isn't using it yet anyways) and that worked a lot better since it's the same width as the quilt.

So that's our current set up - mattress on the porch, covered with his quilt, and baby on top!

You'll notice in this post that all his pictures start out with just a plain white onesie. The numbers and weeks get photoshopped onto his photo after I've chosen a final shot. In my next post I'll show you how I do that and finalize each photo!