our first family session

AHH! 

I'm so thrilled to be sharing these photos, taken on Mother's Day by the lovely and talented Brittany Lee. I will always love this little peek into the early days of our family… 

my vision of motherhood

I call her the mom-zombie.

She's unshowered, unshaven, and can barely put a sentence together because she's so tired. The laundry pile is exploding into the hallway, and she's been wearing the same clothes for 6 days in a row. 

She dreams of taking a nice long, hot bath and eating something that doesn't come from a take out menu.

She says things like, "Will I ever sleep again?" or "C'mon baby, you're killin me." She misses her friends and feels bad that she no longer has time to text them about their lives. Because her entire life…is motherhood. 

That's what I pictured it would be like. 

But I'm so very happy to tell you that it wasn't even close! My vision of motherhood was completely wrong. I take showers as often as I used to, I do laundry MORE often, and my house is somehow cleaner than ever. I still text like a crazy woman and feel like I get to be included in my friends' lives. I sleep the same number of hours as I used to (bedtime is just a little bit earlier to make up for one or two night feedings). 

Ryan and I are the same people we used to be. We have fun, make each other laugh, and we still play like kids. We go out to dinner, we have a few drinks on the weekends, and Coop and I cheer on the boys during baseball every week. 

The things I dream of don't include long, hot baths (because well, I could have that whenever!). Instead, I dream of weekends that come twice a week so that we can have more family adventures!

And even though some days are longer than others, I still manage to whip up a batch of cookies every once in awhile (to my husband's great delight). I'm happy to report that I feel exactly the same as I did pre-baby, only now there's a little bit more that I have to do in my day, and I have the most adorable baby to keep me company while I do it. 

So to all my newlywed friends out there… HAVE BABIES! It's fun, I promise :) Aaaand…we can hang out a ton during mat-leave!

our sweet, curious boy at a month and a half

A LETTER TO BABY COOP

MAY 27th, 2014

Our sweet, curious boy. You're 6 weeks old and you're already growing out of your onesies. You're supposed to still be little but you're wearing clothes that are 6 month size!

I used to think people were crazy when they said they loved their babies more every day, but I get it now. Every single morning when I reach into your crib to get you, I somehow love you more than the day before. It's that face…those big blue eyes…and your sweet little smile that only comes out a few times a day (I agree, you can't be dishing out that cuteness all willy nilly). 

Your dad and I love to take you places (even if you sleep through the main attraction). We fight over who gets to push you around in the stroller, and who gets to hold you while you fall asleep. And we can't wait for all of the adventures that we'll take as a family… 

Oh baby. You're my absolute favourite.

love,
mom

our maternity session

A few images from our maternity session with Melissa Johnston -- taken on March 22nd at 37 weeks pregnant! Our little baby Coop came only 2 weeks later :)

life without internet (gasp!)

You read that right…NO INTERNET! We recently disconnected our home phone line (we're all enjoying the lack of calls from telemarketers…!) and the Bell guy said it wouldn't affect our internet connection. He was wrong. So we had to wait 10 days for someone to come and hook up a dry loop.

10 days without internet. Coop is just as shocked as you. 

So that's my reason for a lack of family-blog-blogging. And it's also my reason for filling this blog post with photos of Coop's face (I'm making up for lost time). 

So let me backup to LAST weekend for a bit… MOTHER'S DAY! My first one as a mom! My day started with breakfast in bed and serious cuddles with one dog, one baby, and one husband. 

And then the preparations began for our first family photo shoot! Getting everybody fed, dressed, and ready was a feat and a half. But somehow we managed to pull it all together in time for Brittany's arrival. 

Look at the little outfits for Coop!!! 

Our little guy was POOPED after the shoot. He was so good though, and stayed awake the whole time :) Although he was giving Brittany the pirate-eye of drowsiness at times… 

I received the most amazing gift in the mail this week, as a congratulations-on-your-new-baby from my dear friend, Laura. She is CRAZY talented and made this wood plaque for us (check out her wood burning skills from her wedding decor). 

Mr. Coop is now a month and a half old and he's starting to grow out of his clothes. Scary… It's strange because we can't notice him growing, but then suddenly we'll go to put on one of his onesies and it's way too small! How! Stay little, little man :(

But with the physical growth comes other changes, like how he's SO much more alert than ever. He can lock eyes one someone and give them some funny little faces. 

And he is soooo close to smiling. I've seen it twice so far, but we're all looking forward to seeing those consistent smiles :) Unless he's like his cousin, Ivy, who was always so serious haha!

Speaking of Ivy…we were looking at photos of her last week and couldn't get over the resemblance…

I mean… they're twins. Which makes me VERY happy because I think Ivy is the most adorable child so if Coop is anywhere close to that when he grows up, I'll just die.

Here's a look into my favourite part of the day, when Ry gets home from work…

He barely has time to take off his shoes before he has Coop in his arms. It just gets me every time. They dance around the living room together and discuss the events of the day. 

Aaaaand I'm incredibly excited to announce that our friends, Kim & Jeremy, were married on Sunday. It was an amazing day (and it marked my first wedding after having a baby!). I wondered how I'd do being away from him for an entire day, but surprisingly it was easy to leave my "mom" self at home and step right into work mode. 

Shooting weddings makes me insanely happy, and when it's a dear, dear friend who's getting married it makes it even better. Here's a little selfie we took in the morning during getting-ready shots!

Love you, Kim!

So that's pretty much it for this week! All caught up :) I'll end this post with photographic proof that Coop has at least one dimple…