First Dollar

Have you ever been in a gas station, restaurant, or old country store...and behind the counter there's a frame with a dollar in it? The store owner proudly displays his first dollar earned for his business in a frame (which I never understood why anyone would want to frame their dollar and not spend it, or put it in the bank. A dollar's a dollar!)

Well, here's my 'frame' showcasing my first money earned for Paige Ewing Photography! Can you guess how much it is?

Last night I had the privilege of photographing "Princess Night" at the Chick-Fil-A in Athens. Here are a few of the cuties...

It was a lot of fun and a chance to pass out business cards and direct people to my website, where I'll be linking over to a gallery of all the pictures. Fortunately, some of the moms bought pictures on site...and I made a whopping....

Forty-four dollars!! Haha....it's just the beginning:)

You are my sunshine...

You are my sunshine

my only sunshine
you make me happy
when skies are grey
you never know dear
how much I love you
so please don't take
my sunshine away.

"Not Me Monday"

My week consisted of perfection and everything went as planned, so there's NO WAY any of this stuff really happened:

Since I was without a sitter for my hair appointment, I DID NOT just take Avery with me to the salon for two hours while I got my hair done.

I DID NOT breastfeed her under my smock while Leslie, my friend and stylist, put foils in my hair.

Avery DID NOT feel the need to stand in my lap the entire time I was under the dryer. NOR did she pull one of the foils out of my hair. I DID NOT have to get Leslie to redo my color and foil on account of Avery.

I DID NOT go back to the salon two days later for a little touch up, because I'm picky...not because Leslie did a bad job... and I DID NOT take Avery with me again.

This time, she was perfect and in NO way, shape, or form did she grab my Diet Dr. Pepper, turn it upside down, and spill it all over her pants.

It was NOT ME who stripped her down in the salon and just covered her with a blanket for the rest of the hour.

It was NOT ME who drove down a private gated drive way upon seeing that the gate was open, just to ask the owner if I could use her yard for photographing families.

I DID NOT proceed to ring the doorbell, and instead DID NOT close the garage behind me! I DID NOT panic and try to push the button again to open the garage door back up.

This very same day, I DID NOT rub my tongue across my teeth only to feel grit...and then realize I HAD NOT forgotten to brush my teeth! I DID NOT wait until bedtime to finally brush my teeth and DID NOT consider Listerine as sufficient enough to last me throughout the day.

I DID NOT let Avery stay up waaaaay past her bedtime to attend HCA's Homecoming game Friday night. I DID NOT allow her to get a little too cozy with the Lion, Judah.

"Judah" DID NOT keep telling Avery, "I love you! You're so pretty, I love you!"

It was NOT ME inside that lion costume the whole time, either!

I DID NOT perform the halftime routine with the cheerleaders because I felt the other student mascot was insufficient in doing it correctly.

I DID NOT slide across the floor like a crazy person in front of the entire school and fans. I DID NOT enjoy doing this, either ;)

8 months old

Avery, YESTERDAY you turned 8 months old! You have really turned a corner this month and you have changed so much, so quickly. Here's what's happening in your world:

*You weigh 19 lbs. and 5 oz. You are 28 inches long, to my best measurement.

* You are wearing 6-9 month clothes and size 2 shoe. You will quickly be moving onto a 2.5, I believe.

*Size 3 diapers cover your bottom, but not for much longer.

*There are two bottom teeth decorating your mouth now, and they both showed up two days after Christmas.

*You are very mobile, as I've shown here before, and you can stand up while holding onto something with one hand....move into the crawling position, reach for something, and then belly flop....run around in your walker....and roll all over the ground like a rolly polly.

*I'd never think you would roll onto your stomach because you hated being there, but now you will roll over and play with toys on your belly for a little while.

*You eat 2-3 meals of solid food a day and I am still nursing you. You start with oatmeal/fruit in the morning, then a green/yellow vegetable mid day, and finish off with oatmeal and a bottle of Enfamil RestFull Bedtime formula at night. I don't think that formula really helps you sleep any better.

*Speaking of sleeping, you are an AWFUL sleeper. You go to bed at 9 p.m., and wake up around 3-4 hours later wanting to chill out with mom and dad. I've pretty much given up on 'training' you to go back to sleep and just let you sleep in the bed with us. I know a lot of other mommies and doctors don't agree with that, and neither did I, but you're one of a kind and no book can tell me how to raise YOU!

*You have no problem talking, screaming, laughing, and making all sorts of noises throughout the day. You are very close to saying "da-da", but not quite yet. I'm working on "ma-ma" with you, and other words like "uh-oh" and "bye-bye".

*Two of your favorite things to do are stand up at the window holding onto the blinds, and grabbing things out of the refrigerator, pantry door, and pots/pans cabinet. We have moved all the rugs off the floor so you can scoot in your walker, along with all of the plants you can grab and eat.

*On your 8 Month Birthday, you celebrated by attending the Hebron Christian Academy Homecoming game. You watched Morgan, a senior cheerleader, get crowned Homecoming Queen, and you worked your magic on the principal, Mr. Garner, in hopes of attending HCA for free in exchange for your cuteness ;)

*There's so many things I want to say about you and talk about all of your little quirks, but most of all I just want to say I LOVE YOU and always will, no matter how many times you cry when I walk out of the room, pull my hair, pinch my face, hit away my hand when I'm trying to give you a pacifier, wake up in the middle of the night, or act like the total high-maintenance diva that you are! Happy 8 Month Birthday baby girl:)

While you were sleeping...

...we were not! And it's been that case for four months now, but much, much worse recently. You may remember my call for help shortly after Thanksgiving, when Avery would cry until I put her in the bed with us. Her sleep pattern has been a roller coaster since then.

Recently, a good night would be Avery going to bed at 9p.m., waking up somewhere around 2:30 a.m. but going right back to sleep after I put the pacifier in her mouth. She would then wake up somewhere in the 5a.m. hour for a feeding, and then sleep another 3 hours after that. That's a GOOD night.

Our nights now begin with oatmeal around 8:30 p.m., bath time, and a bottle of Enfamil Restfull formula intended to help the baby sleep better. She is in bed around 9:00 p.m. The first night we tried the formula, she slept straight through until 5:00 a.m. the next morning, and then went back to bed for another 4 or 5 hours. It was AMAZING!!! And then it was over...

Now, she wakes up for the first time around 1:30 a.m., the next night around 12:30 a.m., and then last night at 11:30p.m. Then, she will wake up nearly every hour and a half. She will end up in our bed, in her play pen in our room, back in her crib....wherever I can get her to sleep and allow me to get some sleep, too. Last night, I saw every hour on the clock except for the 5 o'clock hour. So, while you were sleeping...and will be sleeping every night...just know that WE ARE NOT!

"Not Me Monday"

Since three weeks have gone by without a "Not Me Monday", I'm going to accumulate a few of my favorites from that time to share with you.

I DID NOT stay in my house for 3, maybe 4, days straight when the weather was so cold that snow and ice were on the ground. We weren't snowed in, and I WAS NOT just that lazy that I didn't want to bundle up Avery to see daylight.

During this time, I DID NOT also let my laundry pile up in a 3 foot heap on the floor of the laundry room. I AM NOT still trying to catch up on that.

On Christmas morning, I DID NOT set out toys under the tree from "Santa" that had already been given to Avery by her Aunt Jeannine. Michael never knew the difference and I DID NOT neglect to tell him either.

After getting Avery's social security number from Michael over the phone, I DID NOT get an operator signal when calling my mom back to give her those numbers. I DID NOT then realize I dialed Avery's SS# into the phone and not my mom's phone number.

I DID NOT take Avery outside on the coldest day of the year, right before it snowed that evening, just to try out my new lens.

It WAS NOT ME who kept taking pictures although it was very clear she was OVER this photo shoot.

It also WAS NOT ME who let my daughter eat grass and weeds. I DID NOT continue snapping away instead of stopping her.

That picture above DOES NOT remind me of an old western cowboy, staring down his enemy, chewing on a cigar, or weed, whatever. Kind of like this picture....

At least she resembles THAT Clint Eastwood, and not THIS Clint Eastwood....

My husband and I DID NOT let Avery suck on a lemon for the first time just for our pure entertainment. Her face WAS NOT sooo priceless, that we tried it again just to take a picture. This face doesn't even compare to the first one she made. Oh, and that's NOT her hand trying to push it away, either.

You're getting so big!

So much has changed in Avery's life in the past three weeks, the same three weeks I didn't blog one single minute, but that's beside the point. I wanted to dedicate an entire post to just what's happening with Miss A.

First of all...she has teeth! I think Santa slipped them into her stocking a little late because two days after Christmas on the ride home from Glennville, I noticed her gums breaking on the bottom. That answered a lot of my questions as to why she slept HORRIBLY the two nights we were there.

She is becoming more mobile every day. She can now walk in her walker, when before she just hopped around. It's quite funny and mind boggling to watch her travel across the floor. Although, to people who don't have children yet, it's nothing spectacular. She also will move into the crawl position from sitting on the ground, pulls up on her crib and play pen, and is better at standing up while holding onto things. This causes issues in the house because she wants to stand up ALL THE TIME and I have to watch her ALL THE TIME or she'll fall. If I try to place her in the sitting position, she will tighten her body like a board and refuse to bend at the waist and sit. She's practicing the 'tight drill' we teach flyers in cheerleading.

As of yesterday, new sounds are coming out of her mouth. It sounds like she's trying to articulate "da-da", but it really sounds like "bla-bla". Either way, she's making progress! I made a video of some of her accomplishments so far. I didn't get her 'talking', but you get to enjoy watching her cry and manipulate mommy, her favorite past time;)

WELCOME BACK PAIGE!

Can I first start off with a big "I'M SORRY"? I'm so, so sorry for neglecting all of you for three whole weeks. It seems like two months since I've blogged or even read anybody else's blogs. Since Christmas, a lot has happened, all good things thankfully, and I've been super busy just 'living life'. Between Christmas gatherings, taking down all decorations, reorganizing my house, moving furniture, cleaning out Avery's old clothes, getting my photography business up and running, and that one week that I walked around in daze with laundry piled up and wondering where to begin...I've just put the blog on the backburner.

Let me catch you up to speed on my past three weeks:

Avery celebrated her first Christmas at our house and played with everything she got!

We loaded up the car and headed to Glennville to celebrate Christmas with my family. Notice the after math of Christmas behind us. Since you're wondering, my mom had surgery on her hand and had to keep it elevated :(

Avery loved all of her gifts from Grandma, Grandpa, and her aunt and uncle.

Well, maybe not ALL of her gifts...

We met Jacob's girlfriend, Katie, and her son, Payton, for the first time. We love, love, love Katie (and Payton!) and are so, so, so happy she is in Jake's life:) We hope she's around for the long haul.

We rang in the New Year in style with about 20 friends over at the house. We then headed to Wild Bill's to see Randy Houser play. He sings, "I Got My Boots On" and "Whistling Dixie". My sister and I tooted our horns all night long and had a great time!

New Year's Day, my brother and Katie came up for a quick visit and we spent some more quality time together.

My big Christmas gift was a new lens from my mom. Here are some results of me playing around with it. Gracias madre'!

I couldn't resist!

During my three week hiatus, Avery also saw her first snow. This is our good friend Cliff.

Last but not least, and the main reason I've neglected to blog for three weeks, is because Paige Ewing Photography is officially open for business! I've been working hard on my website (or blog), getting business cards, researching and creating price lists, and I'm ready to announce my launch. Please take a look at my site, www.paigeewingphotography.blogspot.com . You can also find my 'page' on Facebook and I encourage you to become a 'fan'. I specialize in babies, families, maternity, engagements, and weddings. I'm still building my 'portfolio' for all of these categories. If you, or someone you know, would like portraits done and are the first to book in that special category, you'll definitely receive a discount!

I promise not to wait that long again before I post another update. Thank you for your forgiveness:)

- Paige