Alexa's 18-Month Pictures

Yesterday our "baby" was 18 months old! I can hardly believe it. Where has the time gone? She is turning into this active, brilliant, independent toddler before my very eyes! Just looking at (or even thinking about) Alexa fills my heart with pride, joy, and most of all, love ♥ During the first year of her life, we took Alexa every 3 months to have professional photos taken since babies change so much so fast. See what I mean?




























Now that Alexa is over 1-year old, we will be going every 6 months... So I had made an appointment for early yesterday morning to get Alexa's 18-month pictures taken at Portrait Innovations (the same place we went for her 9-month & 12-month photos). However, I was extremely disappointed with how the photo shoot went and even more frustrated when I saw the pictures that the photographer had taken. Just to give you an idea, we usually take photos for 45 min - 1 hr (the photographer we had the two previous times has been extremely generous with her time with us since we go during non-busy hours) and have between 80 - 120 pictures to view. The [new] girl that we had yesterday took 48 pictures in 1 hr, and I was the one who told her we were done with the session because I could not handle it any longer. She was not poised to take the rare smiling, looking-at-the-camera, being-still moments that an 18-month old has to offer. Also, she wasn't even that great at interacting with Alexa. After our worst photo session ever, the profile picture below is the only good picture we had. Although I will admit, it is probably the best overall photo from the two sessions.













I left in tears... Thankfully Andy assured me that Alexa is not the only child to have issues getting good pictures and that he too has realized it takes a special person to get great photos of children this age :-) So thanks again for the great chat, Andy! In the afternoon, I spoke with Dan and rescheduled another session for this morning that he could attend with me and requested our great photographer, Stephanie. What a difference a different day, a different photographer, and having both parents present makes! We now have pictures that truly capture how beautiful Alexa is and how much personality she has!! It was torturous choosing which of the 86 pictures to print (there would have been even more, but I told Stephanie not to bother taking profile pics because we had a great one from yesterday). So without further ado, here are Alexa's 18-month professional pictures (I didn't get all of these printed, but I selected my faves from the low-resolution CD to share with y'all)....













Here are some really funny pictures that capture Alexa's personality.













I love how the 'A' is peeking between Alexa's legs.













Isn't she too cute?













Cuddling with Bopper (the bear) and Bo (the buck) that have gone with her to every photo shoot in her life! This is the first time she has actually cooperated with including the two stuffed animals that Auntie & JaJa gave to her as a newborn :-)













You have no idea how hard it was to choose between these three!













Taking a rest... being beautiful is exhausting ;-)









Some super cute tummy shots!













This picture sums up why Stephanie is an amazing photographer... she was letting Alexa press a button on the camera that just made the lights flicker, when A smiled she quickly pulled the camera back and SNAP!













Alexa enjoyed playing with the "towel" (word in quotes because she knows it & kept saying it).













Here she was playing Peek-A-Boo with the towel!









Here are two collages we received for free as part of our package.











I am beyond pleased with the photos that were taken and will definitely request Stephanie the next time we go in for pictures (so as to avoid needing "retakes"). Hope y'all enjoy the photos of Her Highness!! Credit must also be given to Noni for without her (and the love of spoiling her granddaughter), Alexa would have been naked in 3/4 of her pictures ;-) So thanks Mom/Noni for all of the adorable outfits! I'll try to post about the past week (besides professional pictures) in the next day or two. Ciao.