We met with Sarah again for some more wonderful family portraits this November. My goal was to get some family photos that we could frame on our wall, as soon as Damien could sit. Well, he began solidly sitting just a couple of days before our photoshoot!
Despite the fact that Aiden was less-than-cooperative during the shoot (he was very tired and very much a 3-year-old), Sarah managed to capture some beautiful moments with our family. We did the photoshoot down by the Shipbuilders Yard in North Vancouver, doing some outdoor shots in the sun and also some indoor shots, since I wanted some sweater-free poses of the boys for our wall. I can’t wait to see how they look framed!
When little Damien was 12 days over, Sarah of SarahJane Photography, came over to our house for a newborn photo session (and Nicole of Mary Kay came to do my make-up!). I’d actually won a shoot with another photographer, but decided to pass on it since we were so happy with our family portraits while I was pregnant. By the time Aiden was a dozen days old, we had set up several home photoshoots; the reality of two kids is that there are fewer opportunities to take photos. With that in mind, we wanted to make Damien’s memories just as special as Aiden’s. In this case, Damien won out – with the help of a pro, we have some truly amazing photos!
It took Damien about 2 hours to fall asleep, even though he’d been awake for an hour by the time Sarah arrived. Bit of a fail there. Since Damien was diaper free, you can imagine just how many accidents there were during this time period (and they mostly landed on me – gross). Anyway, once Damien was finally asleep, we captured some beautiful moments. He was amazingly pliable once he fell asleep and had a massive nap after the shoot finished.
We bribed Aiden with a bag of candy to participate in a few of the photos (he really didn’t want to participate). Mexx should pay us for this photo of him:
See all the photos here.
A few months ago, we purchased a new video monitor for Aiden’s bedroom. We had a sound-only monitor while he was young, but felt that with all his sleep regressions, it would be nice to know what he was up to in his crib. We were also looking ahead to a time when Aiden would be in a toddler bed and, quite likely, getting out of said toddler bed. It’s nice to know that when we’re downstairs, we can see what he’s up to. It’s also fun that we can watch the monitor from our iPhones.
Sometimes what Aiden is up to is definitely not sleep. His wind-down period can last from 20 minutes to 2 hours, sometimes requiring Ianiv to go in once (or a few times) to remind Aiden to sleep or to deal with one of his stalling tactics (water, throwing out blanky, etc). We knew, for example, when he had taken off his sleep sac – which he then refused to wear ever again.
And yet there are also both cute and funny moments. Moments when he’s draping his blanky over a stuffed animal or moments when he’s doing summersaults.
More Aiden in Bed moments in this set.
It’s not a perfect photo, but sometimes these moments of calm in the day are too precious not to share.
I wonder if it’s telling that one of these times Aiden lay his head back and said “tired”? #imitation
