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.
A few Sundays ago we went to celebrate great Grandma Ritchey's 84th birthday at Anne & Brian's house. Alexa really enjoyed playing with cousins, Kate and Nick.
Alexa kept saying, "Kate, Kate, hand." So then they would hold hands and walk around the yard ♥
We are continuing to enjoy Babytime on Tuesdays and Mrs. Jenny is a big hit with all of the kids! Since Alexa likes to be up front, Mrs. Jenny has her "help" lead story time. Alexa does a great job at doing the moves to songs and sitting on Mrs. Jenny's lap for the rhymes.
As promised in my post on our Perry-cation, here is a video of Alexa talking about the ducks.
And in case you missed it the first time, here is more "quack-ing" and "fly away-s."
Alexa has learned to climb onto the kitchen chairs (thanks to some wonderful assistance from Daddy, **sarcasm**). It scares me to watch her sit in big chairs, even worse is when she stands on them!
My two loves ♥
Another one of my loves -- my newest Coach bag, big and cherry red!!
Alexa enjoying some leftover Easter candy after dinner one night.
And yup, Alexa's adventurous climbing had a consequence - she fell off a [kid-size] chair at the gym and got a mini-black eye. Christi said she barely cried at all and went back to coloring. It is almost all healed now (thank goodness because Alexa has 18-month pictures next week!). Enjoying a nice afternoon in the backyard with Chloe.
Picking a dandelion... trying to give a dandelion to Mommy...
Eating a dandelion (not really, I yelled at her as it moved toward her mouth)... smelling the dandelion.
Last fall, my PSR aide gave us their Little Tykes Outdoor Playhouse. We bundled it up, stored it for the winter, and Daddy set it up this past Saturday during Alexa's nap. When she woke up and we took her outside, she immediately went to it and explored.
She LOVES it!!
Later on Saturday we had "the gang" over to hang out. Alexa really took a fascination with Tim and has continued to talk about him all week. She also enjoyed sitting next to Dylen on the couch while he played the Wii. It was great to "show off" Alexa to all of our friends... they were stunned at how communicative and intelligent she is! It was also nice to enjoy adult time once Alexa went to bed since we hadn't gotten together with everyone in so long.
After visiting two dealerships on Sunday then returning to one of them, going to a third, and contacting the dealership in Mentor on Monday, and intense price negotiations (pitting dealerships 2 and 3 against one another) we are now the proud owners of a 2010 Honda Odyssey EX-L with Rear Entertainment System. My Papa is smiling down from heaven with extreme pride at my awesome bargaining skills :-)
It has leather seats, a sunroof, DVD, automatic doors/trunk, back windows that roll down, sunshades, XM radio... (the list goes on and on - I don't even know all of the features the van has honestly)
Alexa fell in love with the new car...
After letting her explore it, we went back in the house and she went to the front window to look out at the van (parked in the driveway) saying, "car" over and over again. And the next morning when I was ready to go run errands, I asked her if she wanted to go for a ride in the new car and she literally ran to the garage door!
She waits while the door slides open and tries to climb in (although she is too short to get up on her own). I let her do a little test-driving ;-)
Wish the lighting would have been better because she looks so happy in the new van!
Clearly we are all SUPER excited about our new family vehicle. It is going to make our bi-weekly trips to Perry (and our bi-annual trips to North Carolina) so much more enjoyable! Well, that's all I've got for now because looking at my camera, it seems like I have stopped taking pictures as much as I used to - hmmm, I will have to change that. We have a busy weekend with my parents visiting (YAY!!) and my 2nd grade PSR students making First Communion :-) Will post again soon. Ciao.
