TIPS FOR DIY FAMILY PHOTOS

This post is sponsored by Disney Baby. I'll be joining the Disney Baby blogging team next month, and look forward to sharing these kinds of stories (projects/ideas/etc) with you over there. Stay tuned for more details!

i love this photo. my beautiful friend kaitlyn took it for us when huck was just five weeks old. we were lucky enough to snag a slot with her and we even had the baby in time and they were our first real family photos. mama, daddy, baby. they came out real good. 

since then we've been supremely blessed with many many many opportunities to have professionals take family photos for us, but sometimes it's fun to take our own, selfie style. i like the haphazard way they look, the funky angles, the bad focus. i love the stories they tell, and the out-of-the-ordinary way they came to be. here are a few of our favorite DIY family photos. hopefully they'll inspire some lazy, impromptu family photos of your own. 

the series. it's impossible to get all of you in one shot when one of you is always behind the camera. we usually try to trade off and get a few incomplete family photos that, when put together, tell a cute little family story. and look at how fat that huck was. i forget how pudgy that tummy was. 

the self timer. i love self-timer photos. they are so cheesy. we have about fifty variations of this photo, with either a dog head clouding the shot, or someone blinking, or the camera was crooked, or i was too blurry because i couldn't get back to the bed in time . . . somewhere around the twentieth shot huck lost a sock under the covers. peter pan refused to pose without his stuffed cow. brandon has lazy saturday morning hair. i wouldn't have this photo any other way. 

the mirror selfie. i hate that word, selfie. but i am a huge fan of self portraits, i don't get the bad rap they get. this is my philosophy: see a mirror? take a photo. spur of the moment, in whatever you're wearing, about to do whatever it is you're about to be doing. don't give it too much thought, just do it. this is one of my all-time favorite stupid photos. huck and his goofy parents. we were in the lobby of our building on 69th street, about to look at the apartment we'd eventually move into four months later. i remember we ended the afternoon at the playground on the swings. there was another girl there wearing overalls who, granted, was maybe three. brandon called me "old macdonald" all day long.  when i said, "quick, picture!" brandon instinctively stuck his bum out. the look on huck's face says it all. "oh brother." how can you not love a photo like this?

here's another one of my favorites. i'm so glad pooh bear made it into this shot, he was a big part of our family for about a month or so. brandon was wearing our picnic blanket like that all day and for whatever reason it made me laugh all the way into the park. we were big into our netflix account at the time, deeply ensconced in a secret queue war. i'd put a romantic comedy at the top, and then somehow tron would make it's way home and i knew that brandon had been messing about with the priority order behind my back. one time i bumped a miley cyrus movie to the top to get back at him. surprisingly, that movie made me cry. these are the kind of bizarre details i'll remember the rest of my life when i look at this photo. and isn't that sort of nice?

the next disney baby post:

on sleeping (on not sleeping)

ON PREGNANCY FACE, PREGNANCY ARMS, PREGNANCY ELBOWS, AND FEELING PRETTY ANYWAY, OR AT LEAST TRYING TO

This post is sponsored by Disney Baby. I'll be joining the Disney Baby blogging team next month, and look forward to sharing these kinds of stories (projects/ideas/etc) with you over there. Stay tuned for more details!

your heroine, 8 months pregnant, yes, in a bathroom.

so, this is weird. i know a few guys who've confessed to me that they find pregnant women really sexy. now, none of these guys were dudes i was ever particularly impressed with anyway, and so in each case that weird details basically sealed it for me. weirdos. 

that said, know what's really important? feeling sexy while pregnant, damn it.

still eight months, different bathroom!

some of us are just the types of girls to feel sexy no matter what (not me). a lot of women i know say they've never felt sexier than they did while pregnant (not me either). know how i felt while pregnant? i felt chubby. and a little lost trying to accommodate my new lumpy proportions. i wish it weren't so, i mean, i wanted to get pregnant for a long, long time, but there it is. but since i had worked so hard to get to that point where i could have the pleasure of feeling chubby and unattractive, i figured i at least was going to learn to make the best of it. and, i think, i did.

here a few things i learned in my nine months of dressing a pregnant body:

• right around 8 months, you start to look really good in skinny jeans. i had never considered skinny jeans an option for my body type (pear! pear! pear!), but under that kind of belly, any pair of legs look slender by comparison. and these days, with all these cute colored skinny jeans...
• maternity clothes aren't necessarily doing you any favors (especially if you're under five-foot-two), so keep an open mind and try to shop your usual stores differently. my whole pregnancy i lived in forever 21 stretch skinnies (one size up, low rise), and boyfriend jeans (a belly band will be your best friend here), and stretchy cotton tee shirts. i carried huck in my back, which was lucky for my wardrobe options (i still wear most of the shirts i wore when 9 months pregnant, my belly just didn't get very big), but which was not so very lucky for my back pain. i seriously think my back may never recover.
• cardigans, vests, jackets, blazers, these are your best friends. anything to frame your sides and lengthen the look of your torso and give the impression that you are one long column. it will make you feel lean, as if that's even possible. 

eight months, not in a bathroom this time.

• shoes! now is the time for shoes. a shoe with a whole lotta style is the best thing you can do for yourself. just make sure they're a sensible height, and that you're not falling over yourself all day. pregnant tendons and joints are so slippery, it never ceased to amaze me how often i'd fall off my ankles. seriously i rolled an ankle at least four times a day.
• this may not surprise anybody, but i like a pregnant belly in stripes. it's just cute, and kind of a magic eye trick.
• necklaces. necklaces will save you. super long necklaces, or really chunky bib necklaces, maybe both at the same time, whatever.
• maxi skirts are the best. when i was pregnant with huck there weren't maxi skirts yet because nobody'd invented them. you girls with the maxi skirt option these days are some lucky ducks. i've seen them pulled up to the rib cage and belted, which is cute, but i mostly like them low on the hips with a generously sized tee shirt tucked in to one side just a bit. the sloppy tuck. that's a dumb name.

nine months, central park

• don't forget, your hair right now is amazing. so is your skin, possibly. most likely your nails are rocking. focus on them. FOCUS ON THEMMMMM. 
• now is the time for supremely soft fabrics that graze just so. nothing is prettier than a pregnant woman in a lot of comfortably loose jersey layers.
• men's white tuxedo shirts are dang freaking cute over a big belly. i saw one on a cute pregnant lady the other day and i was like, file that away for later.
• do try really hard to love your pregnant face. here's mine: heavy on the cheeks, heavier on the chin.

• take lots of photos of yourself. no, i mean it. book a professional photographer and lay in a meadow clutching your belly if you want to, but i think it's important to document this body while you have it. it's amazing what's going on in there, and once it's over, you're (sort of) (in a weird way) going to miss it. (not that much, but i mean, it's weird, you do miss it.)
• here's a strange tip that surprisingly goes a long way: always have your toenails painted a pretty color. somehow that really made a difference for me.

two weeks before huck was born

now, let's cut to the chase. 

this is what being nine months pregnant feels like:

it feels awful. i felt like an ugly, dumpy, swollen mess. jewelry off after 7PM (swelling!), nothing fit right, and everyone around me was basically super skinny while i was just this really fat fatty.  no, i was pregnant! but no, really i just felt super fat. i don't think any amount of baby cravings can make those last few weeks of pregnancy any less miserable. MIS-ER-Y.

two days before huck was born

but while i doubt i'll ever be able to find anything particularly sexy about a pregnant belly, i have to admit that when i look back at these photos, i looked a lot better than i thought i did. it wasn't so bad. look at her! there's beauty in that big old belly! i hardly even notice the pregnant face, or the pregnant arms, or the pregnant cankles. i don't even really see the pregnant butt...  though believe me, i know it was there.

so no, maybe not sexy. 

but i'm pretty proud of that pregnant body anyway.

(and you should be, too.)

R.I.P. CASIO DIGITAL NERD WATCH, R.I.P.

time of death: 10:30AM saturday, june 2nd

cause of death: patient appears to have expired due to a dried-out-wristband. 

in lieu of flowers, please send your nerdiest well wishes.

and now, a eulogy.

our dear casio f-91w nerdy plastic watch, born in pullman washington on a monday afternoon, which went off on the hour every hour with all the other nerd watches at that one engineering firm i worked at that one time in one glorious, ringing "beep-beep!" throughout the office, how we will miss you.

and how we appreciated that dear watch, looking mildy cute but mostly nerdy, telling the date and time, sometimes in military time by accident, sometimes in daylight savings time, and sometimes not.

how that watch served us well as we timed contractions, and how that day-glow light lit our midnight feedings, and oh how that little watch got spit up on, so, so, so many times.  

dear casio, you were loved. you were only twenty-three dollars, you were six and a half years old, and your little day-glow light stopped working many months ago. there were so many layers of hairspray and perfume built up on your plastic band, like the rings of a redwood, so many layers of our life together.

you will be missed dearly.

p.p.s. 

i've been reading fifty shades of gray,

(not shades of gray. i mean, yes i did read that first on accident, and yes, that was garbage too)

and, you guys,

HO-LY WHAT.

ON HENRY HOLBROOK'S FIRST WEEK HOME

This post is sponsored by Disney Baby. I'll be joining the Disney Baby blogging team next month, and look forward to sharing these kinds of stories (projects/ideas/etc) with you over there. Stay tuned for more details!

henry holbrook, three days old

these disney baby posts have been a chance to write down what i wish i'd thought to write down when henry holbrook was very, very little. so as i ran errands today, and made lunch, and then cleaned lunch off the floor... i thought about the very beginning of henry holbrook. i tried to imagine the gaps in my account of his life in this blog. what didn't i write about? here is my chance. so here goes. henry holbrook's first week home.

henry holbrook, three days old

henry holbrook was born an old soul. it was one of the first things i noticed about him when he was laid on my chest in the delivery room, his poor head all smooshed after spending a full forty-five minutes with half his head stuck on one side of life and half his head on the other. he was all smooshed and he looked so insulted. and i remember thinking, staring at that indignant face of his, "kid! do you have any idea how hard i worked to get you here?" and i did. i worked hard. forty-five minutes of crowning, three hours of pushing, five hours of laboring, thirty-nine weeks and six days of cooking, two months of clomid, twenty-one months of ovulation sticks and negative pregnancy tests and day counting and trying all kinds of weird stuff, plus two years of waiting before that for my husband to finally agree it was "the time." oh yes, i worked hard. the least he could do was show me some appreciation! but he had his own ideas from the very beginning, and i could tell. i could see them on his face. from that first moment and ever since, any time it seemed he was trying to tell me something, i'd hush up and listen. nod my head somberly at whatever he told me. i figured out very early on that what i wanted my babies to know above all else, was that i heard them. that would be my legacy. that i always listened patiently, and that i always tried to understand. 

henry holbrook, five days old

the beginning of henry holbrook felt like a never ending sunday night. you know when it's sunday and your body clock tells you it's late, but miraculously it's somehow only a few minutes past four, and it's dusky out and you're lazily cooped up inside, nowhere to go and nothing to rush you? that's what henry holbrook's first days felt like to me. i would stare at his face and time would drip by so slowly, and so quickly, and pass me a burp rag please and hey, is there any fruit left in the fridge? my memories of that time are as blurry as this photo, taken on halloween when henry holbrook was just five days old, when everything felt woozy and sleepy and delicious. 

henry holbrook, six days old

(this last one makes me cry every. blasted. time.)

i ate fruit that first week like it was going out of style. i couldn't stand the thought of anything that wasn't 80% water or higher. we had the air on full blast and the baby wrapped up burrito-tight and i just sweated and sweated off all that weight as i patted and bounced and shushed. it was gross and sort of primal. i'd put a shirt on in the morning and it lasted all of ten minutes before it was off in a frustrated crumple on the floor. more than twice i answered the door in nothing but yoga pants and a nursing bra. henry holbrook's first week was strictly clothing optional.

henry holbrook, two days old

on day three my milk let down with a vengeance. if my body needed convincing to make a baby, it needed hardly any encouragement to fatten him up. i'll never forget waking up that morning, walking to the bathroom for a shower, taking one look at the girls in the mirror and thinking whaaaaaaat? i couldn't wait to show brandon. look but don't touch! ouch. never in his wildest imagination, i tell you what. G, is what the bra fitter measured me at that day. if you think i am exaggerating... i'm not! for once. up past my clavicles, hard as rocks. imagine that barreling toward your face and now you know how it felt to be henry holbrook.

natalie holbrook, mom of two days

we did not have an easy time nursing, not at first. my milk was overeager and henry holbrook was quite unimpressed. he'd scream and fuss and he had horrible reflux. it was hard. and nursing really hurt. but i was weirdly calm and patient about it. i was nothing at all like me, actually. i was getting at peek at mom-me and i was sort of in awe at her. mom-me has a much cooler head than normal-me. at about three months in, it suddenly clicked, and then, then he got really fat. since then we've had the best of luck, and nursing has been one of my favorite parts of motherhood. (good trick i learned: nurse only on one side, for as many as three feedings in a row, no switching. cleared things up in about a week.) 

henry holbrook, four days old

every night that first week around 9PM a strange sadness would set in as i realized that another day with henry holbrook so brand new was ending. i was exquisitely aware that this experience was never going to happen to me again. not that i wouldn't have more babies (knock on wood!), but that no matter how many i had, or however many times i'd get to hold a freshly born baby of my own, just three days old--it was never going to be like this, ever again. i wouldn't get to experience a first baby a second time. and oh, there is just something about a first baby, and something so beautiful about a first time mom. i tried my best that first week to bottle every feeling up and cork a lid on it; save some for later. if i could go anywhere, anywhere in this whole world, i'd go back to that first week. that first week i was more than just myself: i was somebody's entire existence. and i had nothing to do with my days but just gaze and gaze and gaze at his serious, thoughtful little face, and sleep when he slept, and nod my head when he wanted to tell me something, and dream about the whole life that lay ahead of us.

the next disney baby post:

on pregnancy face, pregnancy arms, pregnancy elbows, 

and feeling pretty anyway, 

or at least trying to

SOME RAMBLY TYPE RAMBLES

so, this is the best photo i took this week, hands down.

and now this: 

a few weeks ago my iphone stopped listening me. i'd hit the home button and nothing would happen. i'd hit it again and still nothing would happen. sometimes i thought i could see it rolling its eyes at me, so disrespectful. then one day my phone speakers up and went out on me too. now, this wasn't such a big deal. i rarely use my iphone as an actual phone (oh this weird future we live in). but that was the last straw, so i marched myself over to the apple store to have it looked at, and they declared it a problem with the phone software or something miraculously NOT having to do with me and water. (who is this mature person who is me??) then they handed me a new phone, a refurb once belonging to someone else. all my doodads and personal information got imported onto it, and then i was on my way. it took about two hours but huck snoozed in his stroller like a champ the whole time and life was generally pretty kind to me that day. pats on the back, day. thanks! all that stuff.

since then, i'll occasionally find strange reminders that this phone once belonged to somebody else. somebody who is not me. it's really creepy. i keep thinking like maybe it's haunted? for instance. one time a password prompt called me chrissy. and just today, when i was checking in my calendar to see what all i had scheduled for the next week, my calendar told me that next week was my birthday. by which i mean, next week was chrissy's birthday. 

june 7: "it's ya birthday!" 

location: "where ever you like." 

i mean, at least this chrissy person is generous with herself.