Week 38: Smirk Photo Challenge

  

My son Gus is the absolutely biggest blessing in my life. He just turned four-months-old and has the sweetest little smile. He's been smiling since he was about four days old, but obviously, those were reflective smiles, and not "natural." Those started coming when Gus was about two months or so.


This picture of Gus was taken on September 15th, 2010. He was smiling like a little ham, but then I snapped this one of him just giving me a sweet little smirk. I think it's very cute!

Until next time...
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So I've started playing with photography and trying to get better at taking pictures and editing them to make them look great. I've got Gus as an amazing subject, so I've been looking for ways to capture his image in different ways. My friend Katie uses a site called iheartfaces for practicing and editing. I'm going to give this a try... I took an image that they provided and I edited it. I hope you like it!

Here's the original image:

Here's my edit using Photoshop:

I'd love to hear feedback about what you think!!
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So I was in Gus's nursery this morning feeding him, and I had this random thought. It's so surreal that we actually have a baby! I wanted to be a mom for so long, and went each month praying that we'd get pregnant... only to be devistated each month. We literally went to a baseball game as two parentless people, and fifteen hours later we were holding our son. Our lives were changed forever for the better.


Sometimes I look at Gus and I can't believe that he's real. I can't imagine my life without him and it's like God created him just for us. Gus's birthmother is just an amazing person. She is so strong and was so determined to give him the absolute best life possible, and without hesitation she chose us for him. I can never thank her enough and can never express how much he means to me. I think adoption is an amazing thing and has just really deepened my faith.


Gus is so amazing. I am deeply in love and one little smile from him is all it takes for me to completely melt. He is funny and has started to develop quite the personality. He and I have conversations and he laughs and smiles. The best is when I'm feeding him and he stops eating just to smile and then he makes this super-sweet coo... he's perfection.


My parents are coming down for a visit TOMORROW!!! I cannot wait to see them!! It's been almost two long months. While I was there, I couldn't wait to come home to NC and be with Steve and have Gus here in our house with the things we bought/received for him. As soon as I got here, I longed for home and to be with my parents and brothers and their families. It's so hard to be here without any family... it's absolutely heart-wrenching.


I was actually thinking about family when my niece Lily turned one. It broke my heart that we couldn't be there for her first birthday. Dave and Heather and the kids were in town and able to be there for the party and event, and of course my parents were there. While I appreciated the pictures and video that my dad took for me, it made me very sad to be so far away from everyone. Then I was thinking about when Gus turns one. Who will be here for his big birthday? It made me sad because I don't know if anyone but us will be here.


So here's an announcement for all family reading this... Gus will be one on May 11th. It's a Wednesday. We'll be having his first birthday party on the 14th (a Saturday)... put it in your planners/calendars and mark it so you can make a trip to NC to celebrate with us!!! Let's plan on 1:00 and we'll have a BBQ with it.  :)


Until next time...
>^..^<

Where to start? Let's see... Aimee and Matt and the boys came for their visit and while they were here we headed to the beach. It was awesome for Gus to stick his baby feet into the Atlantic Ocean for the very first time, although he wasn't too happy about it. We also went to the NC Aquarium at Fort Fisher and Aimee's boys enjoyed it. Aimee's oldest son especially liked the sharks and was so excited to see the shark exhibit. :)

I recently joined the MOMS Club of Fuquay-Holly Springs- Willow Springs. I went to a meet-n-greet back on August 11th and it was nice. I met three members and another woman that was new to the group. Then this past Tuesday I went to my second event, a lunch at Moe's and met more people. I decided to join and now I've been getting emails welcoming us to the group and they've given us an updated calendar and I also get the newsletter. I like that there are other babies in this group and Gus will get to meet other little ones and we can do play dates.

My parents are hopefully coming for a visit for Labor Day and I hope they're able to come because Gus hasn't seen them since July 11th! It'll almost be two months since he saw them and they need to be reunited!

I'm still loving staying at home with Gus. I don't miss teaching (yet)... and I don't miss the drama that comes from working in a school. My business has been doing well (www.steveandcat.net/c4) and I've done pretty well this summer season with bringing in some extra money. I've been really busy and have had a lot of orders to complete. Right now I've got one left to do, but it's a BIG order. I could definitely get used to having this be my only job-- I just hope my business takes off more and more!

Until next time...
>^..^<

So I've been a stay-at-home-mom for almost a whole month and so far it's been amazing!

I am so blessed to have a husband that is so caring and thoughtful. Steve comes home and sits with Gus and will change him and feed him. On the weekends I get to sleep in while Steve gets up and feeds and changes him at the 5:30/6:30 time.

I've been making dinner every night and thankfully we found out about http://www.e-mealz.com/ from Aimee and we've been using e-Mealz each night. I've loved cooking dinner and trying new things, and Steve has loved having a home-cooked meal! We haven't been out to dinner since Friday, July 23rd!! To go 11 days without eating out... that's a new Walker record!!

Yesterday we went to Burt's Bees for our very first baby shower. It was so nice of Steve's co-workers to throw us a shower. They went together and bought us some gifts, including gift cards to Amazon and Babies-R-Us. It was nice for Steve to get to "show off" Gus and for the co-workers to see Steve as a daddy.

Gus slept in his room last night for the first time and he did so well! I think I want to buy a video monitor just for some self-assurance, but it was an amazing night! He went to sleep just as he would in our room. I think he might have slept better because he didn't hear us. I'm excited that we made the transition now, so that he just knows that that's where he sleeps. I don't want to have to deal with the separation when he's older and doesn't understand why he has to leave our room. I think it's healthy for all of us, and he still knows he's loved, and it gives Steve and I some "us" time and more sound sleep.

Gus laughed for the first time last Thursday and it was incredible!! I captured it on video, but he hasn't done it since. I try to make him laugh, but I guess I'm just not funny enough yet. He does smile all the time at me, and looks like he's beaming with joy, which just makes me melt. I absolutely love being a mother!!

My best friend Aimee is coming to visit tomorrow with her husband Matt and two little boys and I can't wait! They're leaving tonight and driving through the night and should be here between 10am-12pm tomorrow. They're going to be super tired... so I'm not sure how much fun tomorrow will be, but on Thursday, we're going to the beach! We're going to the NC Aquarium at Fort Fisher and then we're going to the beach for a bit. It's supposed to be 99 degrees on Thursday, so the beach should be a nice treat!

Okay... that's about it for me for now. I'm sure I'll write again. Oh! I almost forgot! I was featured in an AP article and it was awesome!! I got an email from Ray Bean, author of Sweet Farts, and then he passed on my name and info to the author of the AP article. So then she contacted me and asked me for some information. Then... just this week I got an email from another author named Artie Bennett, and he asked me to read and review his book "The Butt Book". He said he'd send me a copy and then asked if I'd read it and review it on my teaching blog and my website!

Until next time...
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