8 Month Photo Shoot

Blaise and I had some fun in the park this afternoon. After his morning nap I packed up our stuff and headed out for a photo shoot :) The weather was great today, sunny and warm - but not too warm - perfect for lying around in the grass! He is 8 months old today (can you believe it?) and I have been inspired, so I wanted to try my hand at it. Let me know what you think.

This is proving to be a great age. Blaise is very interactive and it's so amazing to see him understanding what we are saying. He has begun babbling quite a bit - a lot of "da-da" (though not to address Daddy - yet) and "blah blah". It is so cute to listen to! He is a very happy baby and smiles at almost everyone. People stop to talk to him and smile with him and it has become easier to strike up conversations with others. He makes friends easily :)

He is quite the curious little creature and is quick to whip around when he hears something. If we are home in the afternoon when Jan comes home from work, he quickly perks up when he hears the door. Blaise also loves going outside - when you pick him up and head to the door he lets out a squeal of excitement! Being outside satisfies his curiosity I guess. :)

Jan and I sit around in the evening after he goes to bed and talk about what a sweet baby he is, how lucky we are to have him, all the while looking at pictures of him!

What an amazing 8 months it has been! We love you more every day, Blaise!

A train! A train!

I wonder if I can eat this...

Here you can check out all of the pictures I took:

8 Months Old

No Rice

I think I at least proved my point (to myself).

We stopped stuffing the rice cereal flakes into B's nighttime bottle. I don't know where the 6 hours came from, but it didn't last. We're back to 3, 3.5 or (sometimes) 4 hour stretches. We stopped the rice thing. We gave it three nights I think, let me know if you think we stopped too prematurely, but I never really thought he was waking up due to hunger anyway. We have keep working on him putting himself to sleep - that is going to be the key to longer nights.

Not much more to report in the sleep department. Some days are good, some are not so good. When you have somewhere to go in the afternoon, your (read: my) 1.5 hour sleeper turns into an almost 2.5 hour sleeper, when you are exhausted yourself he turns into a .5 hour sleeper. Oh man...

He definitely has the cute thing going for him though :)

Just to prove the "cute" point... :)

"America the Beautiful," Diary of an Ex-Patriot

Former students of mine spent two years in St. Joseph, Missouri, on a foreign assignment. They have since returned and we've met up a few times to hear about their adventures and listen in awe to how well their children speak English now (I taught them as well). We're actually getting together on Sunday, so stay tuned for some pictures.

I wanted to share this book that Axel put together of pictures he took while traveling around the United States. He is an amazing photographer!! We saw the book in "real life" and it really should be published, it is that good.

Check it out! They are also available to purchase through the blurb site.

Hold Your Family Close

I hate to be a downer, but I wanted to share this message: Hold you loved ones close to you.

A friend of mine from high school will be buried tomorrow. He passed away at 31 years old, only months after getting married. I am unsure of the cause of death, but it was sudden and his family was surely not prepared. I imagine you can never be fully prepared to deal with something this horrid, but it was a reminder to me not to take the days I have been gifted for granted. It is such a gift for Jan and I to watch Blaise learn and grow.

I am grateful for every day. Even the sleepless ones.

Please keep the Alspach family in your thoughts and prayers.

The Pigbear Fascination (oh, and a new camera)

We got a new camera a few months ago and I thought I'd tell you about the craziness that has hence ensued.

If we really want to be honest, it is all Kristy's "fault". :) Jan had been talking about getting a new camera for awhile and was even looking at them at the store, but when I saw what the cost, I ignored everything else he said about it. We had a reliable Canon "point and shoot" (I'm getting into the lingo now, I mentioned the craziness, right?) that I was satisfied with. I always admired Kristy's pictures of her (oh-so-cute) kids, but never really thought much about the camera behind it...until she posted about her Mother's Day gift this year. I emailed her, got some info, stalked her website (and her sister's!) and was hooked - they have some great pictures of their kiddos! Jan couldn't even believe his good fortune when he realized I was researching buying a DSLR camera!

We decided on the Sony because it has the stablization stuff (so much for the lingo) in the body of the camera which (supposedly) makes buying new lenses cheaper and it's "live view" is supposed to be the fastest on the market.

I found one used (open box) through the amazon.com marketplace, had it sent to my to-remain-nameless-lest-she-get-in-trouble cousin and the craziness began. (just so you don't think we paid that sticker price on amazon.com, um, no...)

We still have A LOT to learn, but we're learning by doing and by online tutorials and I have to admit I have high hopes that we'll be award winning photographers one day. Well, at least we'll have some amazing pictures of Blaise.

If you are in the market for a DSLR (and I can really recommend it) I'd recommend not buying the lens that comes with the kit. We might not have actually "outgrown" the kit lens yet, but we think we have, anyway. I am now lusting over a 50mm lens (like what Kristy's got for Mother's Day) and Jan has his heart set on a super zoom lens. I think we've "compromised" on the 50mm, because it's more of a "let's take pictures of our baby" lens instead of "I need to get a picture of that eagle in tree across the lake" lens. :)

Kristy's sister (hope it's okay, I'm linking her all over the place here, let me know if not, Kristy) put up some of her favorite photography websites and I am seriously addicted to The PigBear - check it out for amazing pictures (as well as some great tips).

Here on some pictures I took yesterday morning (though all pictures posted since June have been with the new camera) - again, we're still learning and playing with light, exposure, shutter speed, etc...

Mainz Cathedral (Dom)

See, this one is overexposed, but I liked it anyway

I promised a new hat picture, you like?

PS: If anyone has some tips on how to do a hyperlink without having to add the html code everytime, that would be great...there must be a shortcut??

2 for 2

A second nap, people!!

This just goes to show that well rested babies do sleep better!

Don't worry, I won't let all this successful napping go to my head...tomorrow is another day.

(keep your fingers crossed)

6 hours

You didn't see this coming, did you?

Blaise had a 6 hour slept stretch last night. This has only happened once or twice and I can't even tell you when it was - but it was A LONG time ago - like February or something.

Here's what we did:

We have been giving him a bottle at night after I nurse him for about 2 weeks or so now. I have been struggling to make sure I have enough milk supply, but late in the day is always pretty weak, plus we'd had some pretty hot days and I wanted to make sure he was getting enough fluids. In Germany (I say this because I don't know how it works in the States), there are three types of formula: PRE, 1 and 2 ("follow-up" formula (Folgemilch). You give a newborn baby the "PRE", a baby between newborn and 6 months "1" and six months + get the "2" (a "follow-up" to nursing). I made a big project of deciding which formula to choose. I chose the brand based on an eco-consumer reports type magazine. I then chose the "PRE" formula, because it was the closest to breastmilk and didn't have added starch.

Last night I caved. We did what I avoided when he was younger, but decided he was old enough now. I actually wouldn't recommend this, because I think if you have a good sleeper it isn't necessary (or if you have more patience than me to try and train your less-than-good sleeper). We doctored his bottle and added all natural rice flake powder. Maybe you are wondering why I was against this? Well, when he was under 6 months, he was exclusively breastfed so it wasn't an option anyway. I guess I just wanted him to learn to sleep without having to stuff him like a turkey. What changed my mind (this is important for my ego to point out) wasn't the sleep I was missing out on, but the sleep he was missing out on.

Having said this, I should also mention that he woke up about 90-120 minutes after putting him down and was CRAZY! We really thought something was wrong. We finally got him to bed after about an hour and another nursing. We think maybe he had some poopsies (gas) that was bothering him, but who knows. Then he slept for 6 hours. Also, this was only the first night, so anything could happen tonight.

We have also continued working on the putting him down drowsy, which I think is also contributing to Blaise sleeping a bit better. (I say "a bit" because we've still been having the unexpected napping issues, more on that in a minute). I have to admit that Jan is better with this than I am. He is much more patient in general and I think that makes him more successful. I've had a few successes, but more frustration.

Which brings me to our napping issues. As I mentioned before Blaise used to nap twice a day. Recently he wasn't taking his morning nap anymore, and sometimes only sleeping 40 minutes (like yesterday!!!). I am blogging to you now from a Blaise nap zone!!!! I got him to take a nap, 2.5 hours after waking, and he fell asleep on his own!!! How do you like that for a success? :) :)

One day at a time.

Thanks to Jen and Kelly for their sleeping tips - those new mommies out there might want to check out what they said in this post.