Happy Birthday again...

To my baby boy, I love you with all my heart

Chase's 1st Birthday Slideshow from Mel Tsai on Vimeo.

Happy Birthday

To my baby boy:

You sure are silly...

especially when you go for something as yummy as cake with cream cheese frosting

and then you cry because you got it on your face, and your hands are now sticky with it

you cry and cry (demand, is a better word) that Mama wipe it off, and PRONTO!

oh, but look, your buddy Asher (who shares your birthday), is calmly plugging away at decimating his little cake, can you watch and copy what he is doing?

no, oh no... you won't touch it anymore... so Mama takes pity on you, you teary-eyed, pitiful, helpless thing, and feeds you your birthday cake a bite at a time

yeah... 'see!?!' you say... 'that's more like it, I can have my cake, and have you feed it to me too'

Silly quirky son of mine, I hope you had a wonderful first birthday!

love always, your Mama

Urban Baby

Sometimes mama gets a thought in her head to do 'interesting' photo shoots, and I gotta say "Mama, what are you thinking?!?"

But then I get happy 'cause Mama makes silly faces and noises... SO BIG!

And laugh 'cause she rolls in the grass with me...

But then it goes on too long, it gets kind of get boring... and stuff on the ground is SOOO much more interesting than Mama's noises...

with the engrossing task of using this new jean jacket as a teether... the city buses that drive by and make loud machine sounds are {also} more fun to watch...

While the pre-rush hour traffic goes by, Kung Fu is sometimes in order...

but above all, trying to pretend Mama {the photographer} does not exist, is my goal especially when the photo shoot should have been done a LONG time ago...

And so ends our {somewhat} unsuccessful Urban Baby photo shoot *sigh*

I think I will have to try again, when the beginning of rush hour is NOT happening...

Vacation...

With Kim and Ryan! :)

It was such a blast to be able to hang out with such wonderful friends again. The week’s menu was a bit labor intensive, but made us all drool with anticipation when we sat down with tired feet (from standing in the kitchen for the previous hour+). Jeff and Ryan, aka Masters of the Grill, made ribs, whole chicken on a beer can and some other meat-ful delights that, since I did not partake in, I have since forgotten. But the roasted veggies, crunchy peanut noodle salad and cowboy salsa still haunt my dreams (Kim, I want that recipe by the way!).

I should have taken photos of our meals :( I missed another photo opportunity. *sniff*

‘Uncle’ Ryan and ‘Aunt’ Kim are Chase’s new favorite playmates. He complained for quite a few days after returning home that he was NOT getting the attention that his Aunt and Uncle had bestowed on him all week!

Even though the rain kept us indoors for two of the days at the Bergman’s Family lake house, we had some fun times on the Pontoon boat,

watching the waves go by,

playing games,

watching pig races

(yes, PIG races!),

looking at fun stuff with Mama,

and liberally snapping photos of the Chase-boy!

Vacation was so much fun, but sometimes it just makes me sad that I don't live closer to our wonderful friends... *sigh*

Pushing my Buttons!

So, an annoying thing happened the other day, and it is messing around with my photo organization! And if you know me, you know that although I am a slob compared to my family, I really like certain things to be organized… pretty much anything that has to do with my creativity needs to be exactly where I put it and in the order I want it to go. Not normal by any stretch of the imagination for an artist, I know, but everything else can pretty much be organized in a less strict manner.

Back to the point, a little over a week ago, on our vacation with Kim and Ryan to the Bergman Family’s amazing lake house, my camera had reached photo # DSCN9999. And a few things happened:

1 – It rolled over and started counting photos at 0001 again.

2 – I was a little shocked that I had actually reached over 10,000 (THOUSAND!) photos! SERIOUSLY!?!? Woah! I must take a lot of photos! *grin*

3 – It totally messed up my organization of my photos, since I ‘Sort’ all my photos by name. It was putting mid August photos in front of early August photos! How dare it! RAR :/

4 – This fluke in number change has now forced me to organize my file folder (Pictures> Baby Photos of Chase> 2009> 08-August) by ‘Date Taken.’ It feels SO WEIRD!

5 – All my videos have organized themselves at the ‘top’ of my folder since they do not capture a ‘Date Taken’ in their Properties.

It totally throws me for a loop every time I want to download more photos of Chase into 2009 August. Seriously, I can’t wait until September! And that is not JUST for Chase’s 1^st birthday, but because my photo folder can be organized correctly again! YAY!

Am I a nut case or what?!? If you think yes, I totally blame my labelmaker wielding mother ;)

Photo #9999

Photo #0001

Photo#0002 ;)

Ok, I think I am done with my needless ranting now :)

Next up: A blog about our Vacation with Kim and Ryan, these photos were just a teaser! *grin*

Lovin' The Bulky Cloth Diapered Bum!

So I just realized the other day (when Chase was wearing a disposable), how much I LOVE his bulky, fluffy, cloth diapered bottom! I just had to get more photos of his cute bum! ... and, as always, he is a willing subject ;)

Also featured: the cutest little toes that have ever come into existence! I just can't stand his cuteness!

'Hey mama, watch me!'

Standing all by himself! He was so proud!

I guess he got exhausted... he just layed and stared at the ceiling for a while... silly, cute boy!

Love that baby of mine!

Chase Is Growing Up *sniff*

So the other day I realize just how big and how grown up Chase is getting lately.

Compare: Chase in October 2008

To: Chase in August 2009

I also sat down one day after Chase was born, and typed into Google Calendar Chase's age every 2 weeks (when he was little) then every 4 weeks. Chase is 45 weeks old now (from birth!).

It is strange to think that an average baby is born at 40 weeks (Chase was born at 39 weeks), and that Chase has now lived 45 weeks outside of me. He is a total of 84 weeks old now, since conseption. Weird to think he has just 'doubled' his age last month.

Last year I was 32 weeks pregnant, and I only had a week left of work. Strange to think it was ONLY last year, but it seems so far back sometimes.