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Tuesday, June 12, 2018

To my little peanut,

This month was so exciting to watch you grow and learn new things. You have mastered the art of walking. You walk everywhere and you love it. I can see how proud you are of yourself when you walk. I love how you dangle your arms in the air and wave them around as you walk. It’s literally the cutest thing ever and I don’t want to forget you ever did it. You have also mastered the art of standing up from sitting down. Now you can get around anywhere. You still fall down…but you always get back up again. You get stronger every week! Pretty soon you will run circles around me…alright it might take awhile, but we’ll get there eventually.

You are finally starting to eat solid food. Right now you LOVE avocado. You could eat avocado all day long if I let you! You also love peanut butter. I find mixing oatmeal, water, and peanut butter together is one of your favorite treats. You’re definitely my son! Peanut butter is yummy! You have ventured off and now will eat banana, strawberries, sweet potato, crackers, and basically anything mom is eating (even if you’re not supposed to have it yet!). I can’t wait to give you cake next month for your birthday! You’ll love it. Trust me. I might love it a little too much!

You love to laugh. Seriously. You laugh at almost everything. And when we find something that makes you laugh, we do it over and over and over again so that we can see you laugh. Your laugh makes us laugh. We love it. And your smile is so handsome. I love making you smile and laugh. I do the silliest things, but I don’t care if I look stupid! You love it and so I will look stupid. Because, I mean, cute laughs. 😉

I recently purchased these spiky balls from Amazon and it was the best $12 I’ve spent since you were born. You love picking them up and throwing two at a time. You run around picking them up and throwing them, over and over again. You also love to throw them at us, and have us throw them back to you. You are starting to learn how to catch them, but that’s a work in progress. You just love to have fun. It’s adorable.

You love books! You will go pick one up and bring it to us. Then you’ll try to climb into our lap and point at the book and say ‘da’, as if saying, ‘come on! Read it!’. It’s really quite cute. I love how much you love reading. You will also sit there and look at books all on your own. Surprisingly, you’re pretty good with your books. You haven’t ripped any…yet. I hope you always treat your books with respect.

You still love your daddy. Which is fitting since father’s day is on Sunday! You could spend all day every day with your dad. You reach for him when he gets home. You play ball with him every day. You prefer dad to read you books over me. If dad is home, you prefer him. That is until you get hungry, of course. Then you want mom. But I am really not hurt about this at all, I love how much you love your daddy and want to spend time with him. It makes my little mommy heart so happy. I hope you will always love your daddy this much!

You love to dance! If there’s a good beat on, you are dancing. And it’s awesome. You don’t dance to every song, just the good ones. 😉 You sit there and just bounce your knees slightly, all while smiling and flailing your arms. So. Cute.

I am still in shock that I will have a one year old next month. How has it been a year since we welcomed you into this world? This time last year I was getting so excited (and to be honest, a little anxious) about your big debut! I wanted to meet you so bad! I wanted to see what you looked like so bad! I wanted to know if you had hair (and boy, did you have hair). I can’t imagine my life without you. You made me realize my purpose. I was meant to be your mom. I know I was. I’m so glad you were my first born. I’m so glad I got such a sweet and kind son. I’m so proud of you, my little one. You are amazing. You teach me so much every day. You bring joy into my life. You make me laugh and smile every day. I’m torn between you staying my baby (this is the last month that you’ll be considered a ‘baby’) and growing up to a toddler. They really don’t lie when they say the time goes by too quickly. I cherish the snuggles I get because I know one day, you won’t want them. But I will always want them!

You’ll always be my baby. Happy last month of babyhood.

I love you so much!

Love, mommy

read month 1 here

read month 2 here

read month 3 here

read month 4 here

read month 5 here

read month 6 here

read month 7 here

read month 8 here

read month 9 here

read month 10 here

A Boy and His Smile

Alyssa AhernMay 28, 2018May 30, 2018Leave a comment

So I’ve been having a little bit of a blogging rut. I am still actively shooting and taking pictures. I am even taking on some clients. But blogging has taken a backseat and I hope to get back at it again very soon. I tell myself that it is good to give yourself a break. It’s good to take a break from the gym every once and a while (I have to remind my husband about this all the time – he’s a gym-a-holic). It’s good to take a break from your photography – it helps you really understand why you are taking pictures, what drives your art, and what really inspires you. Sometimes I take a break because I am literally not inspired. By anything. And that’s ok! So, of course, it’s good to take a break from blogging. I suppose it’s similar to writer’s block – I literally couldn’t think of anything to write.

So on to the purpose of this post – my smiley son! He now has eight teeth! It all happened so fast, but he is very quickly maturing into toddlerhood. And I’m desperately trying to hold on for dear life. How on earth did my newborn baby turn into a toddler? I wasn’t prepared for that. I know he’s technically not a toddler until he’s a year old…but he’s practically there. I can’t take it! But at the same time (talk about hormones and emotions, geez) I am so proud of everything he accomplishes. From walking to talking to clapping to eating, I’m proud of him. And I hope I will always be proud of him. He makes being a parent fun. I love being his momma.

So, anyways, he has eight teeth now. And what does he do most days? Smile. He smiles! He loves to smile. He smiles when he’s proud of himself. He smiles when he claps. He smiles when he walks to you. He smiles when he hears a good beat (that’s my boy!). He’s my smiley boy. And I couldn’t be more in love.

He brings me such great joy. I love him!

I love this little boy of mine and I love capturing the memories we make together. Thank you for swinging by.

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In aly dawn personal, momma bee

Letters to My Little One | 10 Month Old

Alyssa AhernMay 12, 2018May 11, 2018Leave a comment

Saturday, May 12, 2018

To my little peanut,

I can’t even begin to tell you how proud I am of you. You keep on surprising us with all the little things you learn each day, each week, each month. I am starting to prepare for your first birthday and I can’t believe it’s been that long since you came into this world. They say the days are long but the years are short – it’s so true!

10 months ago I was holding a brand new newborn in my arms. He was sleepy. He was sweet. He was calm. He was perfect. Now, as I am typing this, I am holding a sleepy, growing 10 month old. He is strong. He is full of personality. He is still sweet & calm. I cherish every moment I get with you.

This past month has been a lot as far as milestones go. You’ve started walking – you can walk back and forth to mommy and daddy. You haven’t gotten it completely down, but I know you will really soon. The look of pride on your face when you reach us is so adorable. Sometimes you even squeal with delight! You got three new teeth this month – all at once! There was a time where you constantly had a fever and stuffy nose. Those teeth beat you up, you poor thing. All you wanted to do was snuggle mommy & daddy. And we let you, because we love you.

We started a new bedtime routine and you love it. You practically put yourself to sleep now. I can’t say I can complain much – I love having alone time at night now. You still love to snuggle mommy & daddy and we love to snuggle you. You give us clues that you are tired and I take you in the bedroom, lay you down, sing songs to you, nurse you, snuggle you, and you’re out. It’s amazing how quickly you learned what bedtime looks like. I’m seriously always so amazed at how fast you learn things.

You still love reading books. Your favorite is the ‘That’s Not My Dinosaur’ or ‘That’s Not My Lion’ books. They have fun things you can touch and feel. You love the rough paws on the lion and the bumpy teeth on the dinosaur. Too cute. You love to turn pages, too! We have this one book where it has different animals and what noises they make. You listen intently to all the animal noises, and then once we get to the lion and say ‘rawr’ you try to copy us. And then all the animals say ‘rawr’. Haha! You also like the cat and ‘meow’. Although, that one is a little bit harder for you to say. You love to copy me when I tell you to say ‘momomomom’ or ‘dadadada’. I love it so much!

After you’re done nursing, after we’re done changing your diaper, or just finished with anything, we say ‘all done’. And I swear you try to say it back to us. You’re so adorable – I just can’t take it! Sometimes you say, “done, done, done” when you’re in your high chair. I think you’re started to understand what it means. Your ‘all done’ sounds more like ‘ahh-da!’. It is literally the cutest thing EVER.

You’re starting to dance when you hear music. I love it so much. You bounce up and down and smile so big. And you have a great smile! When you’re at home, you have so much personality! And then we get you out in public and you suddenly get super shy and have a blank face on all the time. It cracks me up. But at least I know you are a smiley baby and loving life.

You love to blow raspberries lately! You’re still not a fan of food – sometimes you like cheerios, but most of the time you like throwing them on the floor! We’ll get there eventually. But for now, you just love breast milk! And that’s ok with me.

You are now pointing to things when you want something. You point at daddy all. the. time. and it is so cute. You point and sometimes I point back and you touch my finger. When you’re curious about something you’ll use your pointer finger to carefully touch and examine it. Oh my word, seriously, too cute!

All in all, you are just the perfect child. And we love you so much! You have no idea just how loved you are. I hope one day you’ll realize it.

It’s mother’s day tomorrow, and I am so blessed that I get to be your mother. Thank you, my sweet sweet son, for being exactly what I needed and for making me a mother for the first time. Happy ten months, little one. We are so lucky to call you our son.

I love you so much!

Love, mommy