Falling in love with a new man...

Mr. Pro, MackBook Pro. *sigh* I never thought I would buy an Apple. Don't get me wrong, I love my iPhone but always thought I'd be a PC girl. Not anymore. Only took me about 5 minutes from the time he booted up for me to fall in love with him. Can't wait to start editing photos.

Already he has his own little nook on our kitchen counter, and counter space around here is prime real estate (our kitchen is tiny). But he deserves it. So far, he's done everything I've asked of him (and more) with great speed!

An Apple a day...

Sleep is NOT overrated!

I'm just not one of those moms who can survive on a few hours of sleep at night. Nor can I handle random night wakings. Maybe I've been spoiled with a really good sleeper as my first (Quinn). But I need a schedule to survive and feel atleast somewhat human.

So I work hard at it. Sleep training my babies. Quinn was easy. Started him at 4 months. Everyone laughed at me when I told them I was sleep training him. Who's laughing now? He is the BEST sleeper EVER (3hr daytime nap, 12-13hrs at night without a peep, like clockwork no deviation, no exaggeration). Lane on the other hand has proven to be a bit more of a challenge. Suffering from colic and not even being able to cat nap on his own, I definitely needed to take action!

We switched formula on the advice of a couple awesome momma friends of mine. That, combined with 6 chiropractor sessions, Lane is a completely new baby! It's so nice to finally be able to interact with him while he's awake and NOT screaming. We are even enjoying his smiles and hearing him "talk".

Here is a pic of him at his last chiro session, doing some pre-stretches while waiting for the doctor to come in.


So now that we have a happy baby we've been able to work on a schedule. Bedtime at 7:30pm. Dreamfeed at 10pm. Night feeding at 3am. Wakeup at 7am. 3 hr morning nap in crib at 9:30am. Afternoon nap in crib or swing at 4pm. All times slightly flexible of course but not much deviation. So far so good. Hoping it keeps up cause I really like this schedule!

And because it allows me some alone time with both my babies separately. And some alone time for just me! When Lane goes down for his morning nap I have 2 hours alone with Quinn. Quinn goes down from Noon-2:30/3pm so I have one hour to myself before Lane wakes up around 1pm. Then I have atleast 1 hr alone with Lane before Quinn wakes up. And again in the afternoon a couple hours alone with Quinn while Lane naps again. The. Best. Schedule. Ever!

Especially since both babies are in bed by 7:30/8pm and that leaves the evening free (and quiet) for the grownups!!!

Maybe a bit OCD,

Playgroup is exhausting!

I think more so for me than Quinn. We went to the Copper Cliff Best Start Hub this week (twice) for the first time and Quinn loved it. I thought it would be a great way for him to make a few little friends seen as though we have no other little people in our family.

Well he wasn't so much into playing with the other kids as he was into running all around trying to touch as many toys as he could. Which translated into me running around after him doing damage control.

Hopefully after a few more visits he starts to focus more on one activity at a time and maybe even sharing/playing with others! We {heart} playgroup :)

Picking a book to read then sitting down (for a microsecond) to "read" it.



I love this picture!


Playing with cars in the puppet house.




My well-rounded little man playing dolls with the girls.


Driving a car during Gym time. He loves gym time!




Playgroup lovin' Momma,

Just what I needed, more indecision!

As if I didn't have a hard enough time making up my mind before, now I've made it even harder on myself. So far I've learned to take pretty good photos straight out of the camera (SOOC) but then I discovered Adobe Lightroom! And of course after that followed her friend Adobe Photoshop! Then I met The CoffeeShop Blog... Presets & Actions, Oh my!

Really, is the photo editing ever going to end? I could edit a single photo 5 different ways (or more) and love them all! Which ones do I post to share? Which ones do I print? And which version do I blow up and frame? Gah!!!!!

Here's just a bit of the editing I did today... let me know what you think, which are your favorites?

Original (after a few small edits in Lightroom)

After a CoffeShop Action

Original after white balance and brightness edit

After a CoffeeShop Action

Original SOOC no edits (point & shoot)

After CoffeeShop Action

Original SOOC no edits (with DSLR)

After CoffeeShop Action

After CoffeeShop Action (different one)

So a question for my photog friends... (if you've gotten this far and are still reading and haven't been blinded by all the baby cuteness): what do you choose? Does it depend on your mood that day? Do you have a certain "look/style" that you always go for? Do you edit all your everyday photos with actions/presets? I'd love to hear your feedback!

So overwhelmed,

In December 2011...

...we enjoyed some quiet time by the Christmas tree

...Quinn got sick for the first time and was super cuddly (very unlike him)

...we attempted our first ever "brothers" photograph. Hoping subsequent ones go much better

...Quinn took his first shower and hated it, so we turned it into a bath while he brushed his teeth

...and my itty bitty baby turned one month old! My, how the month (and year) flew by

Goodbye 2011, you were an awesome year but we are so looking forward to even more awesomeness in 2012!!!

Happy New Year,

What it's like to win the lottery....TWICE!!!

Atleast that's how I feel. Like we tempted fate or something and went for the jackpot a second time. And boy did we cash in! I cannot believe how perfect our son is! Oh yeah, I guess I forgot to mention (for my non-facebook-stalkers), we had our baby!

Lane Noel (pronounced "Knowl") Stewart (Yes, another BOY) decided to come early...my water broke around 10:30 pm on November 20th. So we rushed into the hospital (we are total pros at that now) and he was born at 3:02am November 21st! He weighed 6lbs 9oz and was 19" long!



We took both boys in to our favourite photgrapher Julie Mckee from Captured Moments Photography and got some awesome shots. Looking at the pictures I truly feel like we have won the lottery twice, we are so so so blessed!







Mom of two boys,