A past due family update!

22 Tuesday Jan 2013

Posted by Momma J in Photography, The Adventures of Little T, The Family

Hello world, this post is long overdue. Life has taken off at jet speed and it’s hard to sit down and find the time to write, but I promise to try harder, mainly for Little T. I want him to be able to read about his younger days. 🙂

Little T: Sometimes I look at sweet Little T, and wonder what day it was that he sprouted up so quickly. I’m amazed at how much he’s learning, how much he’s talking, and how much he’s grown. He’s a fun loving little toddler, even though a week and a half ago, he woke up and officially began his terrible two’s. Big T and I looked at each other and scratched our heads, as his new favorite word became “no”, he suddenly decided that everything was “mine”, and he began to show his more “spunky” side. At the same time, he is still the sweetest little boy who loves and remembers everyone, and can win a smile from anyone he meets. He fiercely loves all his grandparents and cousins, and constantly asks us to take him to see them. He plays basketball like there is no tomorrow, and has made us listen to the Pirates of the Caribbean song approximately 314 times. He loves all things Mickey Mouse, Cars, and Tinkerbell. He has a silly side and loves to laugh. My friend Janet, commented on my Facebook page the other day, saying he was such a kid. I think that’s the perfect way to describe him. Little boy, through and through.

Big T: I love to watch Big T and Little T play together. They’ve become best buds and to my dismay, love to sit on the couch and watch Football and Basketball together. I see a lifetime of sports ahead of me! 0_0 Because of my crazy schedule and workload, Big T drops Little T off for daycare, helps out with the dishes, gets him ready for school, packs his lunch, and gives him his baths. He gets a A+ for daddy duties and I don’t know what I’d do without him.

Life has brought us a lot of unexpected turns over the past year and a half, but Big T has been there the whole time, cheering me on. Of course, we’ve had our little fights, but if I was to throw them in a pile, they’d be nothing compared to the support he gives me every day. Last night, I was upset because I can’t help with Little T as much as I’d like because of my busy schedule. Big T reminded me that I was with Little T 100% of the time for the first year, and that my schedule is temporary and not forever. Big T is kind of awesome and supportive in that way.

Momma J: My foot is still healing, but it’s doing so much better than it was 9 months ago. I’ve gained more weight than I would care to admit from not being able to walk or exercise, and am beginning the slow process of shedding the weight. My business has been amazing. I can’t think of a better job than photographing people on one of the happiest days of their lives. I’ve discovered that I love my job, love having a business, but hate taking money from people. If only my payments could grow from the orange tree in the backyard…then I’d be a happy camper. 😉

Our family looked at my schedule for the next year, and we’ve made some decisions about how many weddings I can book in a month. This is so my family life will be a little more balanced. Having so many weddings is an amazing problem to have, so I’m not complaining! Oh, how I wish I could do them all! But I want to make sure I have time for my two T’s.

Running a business is definitely much harder and time consuming than I thought (think 60-70 hours a week), but there are great perks. I can work in my pajamas, I can be in the living room so that I can still listen and feel like I’m a part of Little T and Big T’s playtime, and I get to make my own decisions. It’s been a lot of learning this year, but it’s been amazing.

And that’s where we are right now! Pictures to follow of all of us at the Rose Parade this year 🙂

My step dad, before the parade!

Little T’s cousin R and her family.

My Mom, giggling with Little T

Little T, giving out high fives to total strangers.

Big T and Little T, getting their energy out before the parade.

The rose parade theme

The end of a great vacation…

16 Tuesday Oct 2012

Posted by Momma J in The Adventures of Little T, The Family, The Travels

≈ 5 Comments

Wow, what a whirlwind of a week it’s been. I’m having a hard time winding down and getting back into work mode, so I thought I’d update here about our adventures.

It started last Thursday, when I woke up at 3:00am to photograph a Nightmare Before Christmas Wedding. I didn’t need to wake up until 4:00, but I woke up early and began to mentally plan things out, and couldn’t get back to sleep. When I made it to the wedding, the bride was incredibly thoughtful and friendly. It was one of those weddings where I was sad when it was over. I think we had a lot in common with the Nightmare theme:

DIY Nightmare Before Christmas Garter

I was tired from waking up so early, but fortunately I had called in my assistant Marc to help, because I knew we were in for a long day. I wish I could have gotten a picture of us asleep in the lobby of the Grand Californian at 1:00 in the morning~but more on that later…:p

When the wedding was over, we checked into the room for my family at the Grand Californian. We only had a few hours before our next event was scheduled to begin, so we snacked and had dinner and looked through our photos. At the next wedding, we were actually photographing for the venue, so we weren’t technically there for the couple and needed to get photos of the decor. It was a fun change of pace. While we were getting our equipment ready and waiting, I was calling my family who was on there way to the hotel for our own family vacation. We weren’t going to see each other until the next morning, so I wanted to make sure everything was set up for them to arrive.

Marc, waiting between weddings in the hotel balcony

Big T and Little T met up with us at the hotel, and we handed Little T off to our friend Jackie who was going to babysit for us until our family got there. Jackie and Little T walked around Downtown Disney and went to dinner while they waited for everyone to arrive. Big T, Marc, and I went over to the wedding and began taking photos of everything. I can’t even begin to tell you how beautiful this wedding was! Hopefully their photog posts some photos soon. 🙂

There was one point where we had a three hour break, before we had to go back at 1:00am for more photos. The three of us snuck back into the hotel room where my family was sleeping, grabbed my computer, and started downloading the photos in the lobby. Big T was done for the night, so he went to sleep a little more, while Marc and I sat in the lobby. We were exhausted and terrible at staying awake. Fortunately, we were both dozing off at different times, so one of us was always awake and ready to shake the other person into coherency.

We went back to the wedding around 1:00am, and finished up around 2:30. I waved goodbye to a tired Marc and went back to the hotel where I slept for about 3 and a half hours. I woke up to what my husband called, the opening scene from Home Alone. The babies were running and jumping and excited to be together, and everyone else was scrambling to get ready for Magic Morning. It was probably the best trip to Disneyland I’ve ever had, even if I was a walking zombie for it. Here’s a few photos:

A Momentary Burst of Energy

Meeting Mickey at Mickey’s Carnival

So tired!

They weren’t the only ones….

Later that night, we all drove to Oak Glen to stay at Serendipity Ranch Bed and Breakfast. We were greeted at 10:00PM by Nina, who was kind enough to show us where the coffee, tea, and hot chocolate was located. It was a nice end to a long day. And yes, I finally got some sleep!

The next day, we woke up to a delicious breakfast that Nina had made, and then helped the babies feed the animals on the farm and the fish in the pond. After this, we drove over to Los Rios Farm to pick apples.

Picking Apples at Los Rios Farm in Oak Glen

These two couldn’t stop eating apples:

Apple Picking…or, eating. 😉

Once we finished picking apples, we went to have lunch at Riley’s Farm. It was really crowded, but luckily we found a table to relax at while a few unlucky adults (ahem, as in-me) stood in line to get food. Then we went back to the ranch to give the babies a nap, while the rest of us sat on the porch and relaxed with wine and crackers.

Once the kiddos woke up, we got ready to go see The Legend of Sleepy Hollow at Riley’s Farm.

We took hay rides, where we rode by the Sleepy Hollow Grave Yard:

And saw Ichabob being chased around the woods:

Then we listened to music and had dinner, and watched the play.

When it was time for the party scene, the room was cleared and we all danced and played games and participated in contests. Little T got a special kick out of the seed spitting contest. My favorite game though, was this one:

Apple Bobbing

Heh heh.

The night ended by watching the headless horseman chase Ichabob down the road with a pumpkin that was on fire. It was an amazing way to end the night. The next morning, we had pumpkin waffles and cinnamon rolls that were made by Nina, then said our goodbyes and stopped to by some apple cider on the way out. Little T was crying for the rest of the day because he was sad it was over. I couldn’t really blame him, it was a great vacation.

In Which I Win the Mother of the Year Award

30 Thursday Aug 2012

Posted by Momma J in The Adventures of Little T, The Family

≈ 2 Comments

Do you ever have those mommy moments, where you just have to sit back and laugh at the absurdity of it all? I think I had the mommy moment to top all mommy moments this summer.

This year, we decided to get ambitious and throw Little T a birthday party, despite my injured foot and busy schedule. I made a mistake and didn’t see the R.S.V.P. list, and thought only a few people were coming. I was planning for a low key event with a few family members until the night before, when I found the link to the r.s.v.p. list and realized that everybody and their mother was coming. Suddenly, the birthday party became more exciting and involved.

On the day of the party, Big T and I split up to tackle the chores. I ambitiously announced to Big T that I was going to take Little T to Target with me to get supplies, to which he responded by raising an eyebrow and glancing at my foot, and saying, “you sure?” I was feeling like super mom that morning, so I shrugged off his concern and confidently said, “Of course, I’m sure!” I scooped up Little T and waddled with my injured foot to the car, and we were quickly on our way.

At Target, my foot began to throb and I had to admit defeat and use one of those crazy electric scooters. I was really embarrassed about this, but determined to do a great job with this birthday party. I plopped Little T onto my lap, and began to slowly roll my way through the store. Oh, how I wish I had a camera.

Little T thought this was exciting for about two minutes, and then he decided it would be more fun to run around the store on his feet like a normal person. It took all my strength to hold onto him and keep him on the electric scooter.

By the time we got to the food aisle, Little T had it. He didn’t want to look at my iphone, he didn’t want to help put things in the cart. He wanted to go over to the basketball aisle, and couldn’t for the life of him figure out why on earth I didn’t want to go there, too.

With a determined wiggle, he leaped out of my arms and ran down the Target aisles, dropping my phone on his way. I couldn’t walk fast, so I limped slowly after him, shouting his name and calling for him to come back. I got a mixture of “what’s wrong with you” and pity stares. Yep, I looked like the mother of the year. By the time I got to Little T, he was in the basketball aisle (of course) and had managed to pull out every single basketball he could find. It. Was. Awesome.

We were met by a Target employee who had found my phone on the floor somewhere. I’m sure he was thrilled to see the mess Little T had made and began to help pick things up. He was polite, even though I could tell he was questioning my parenting abilities, and asked if I needed any help. I looked at a restless Little T, looked at my foot, and said “no, thank you”. Unless he sold a magical toy that was capable of entertaining my sports obsessed son, or perhaps could make my foot instantly healed, there was nothing he could do.

By the time we got to the party supplies section, Little T was crying non stop. He wanted to go back to the basketball aisle. I grabbed whatever party stuff I could find, and decided that the theme of Theo’s birthday party was going to be “mass chaos”, or “working parents”, and wound up with a hodgepodge of colors and characters to display for his party. I like to think we were just being inclusive and didn’t want to leave any theme out.

All in all, it was a crazy and exhausting day, but the birthday party turned out to be a big hit. Little T still talks about it and likes to pretend to blow out his birthday candles. It made it all worth it. I have birthday pictures to share, but I’ll save that for another post!

Little T’s First Smile

28 Monday May 2012

Posted by Momma J in Quick Snippets, The Adventures of Little T

≈ 2 Comments

The other night, I couldn’t sleep and started thinking about the first time Little T smiled. I was more nervous about him smiling than anything else he needed to learn. Maybe it’s an adoptive parent thing, but I was so anxious to know if he loved me as much as I loved him. On the day he smiled, we were heading up to my cousin’s wedding. He was a little less than 2 months old and my mom was holding him and watching him while I was getting ready. It probably took me an hour to run around and gather everything, and it was the first time I’d been away from him for that long. When I came back to my mom to pick him up, he got the biggest grin on his face. I started crying and smiling and laughing with him, because it was that moment that I knew that he loved me too. Now, I look back and think about how I felt and how silly it was for me to be worried. :p It’s probably one of my top ten favorite moments, and it still warms my heart to see him smile, and he totally knows it. 😉

Little T’s Hair

02 Wednesday May 2012

Posted by Momma J in The Adventures of Little T

≈ 6 Comments

Big T casually mentioned the other day that he was taking Little T for a haircut. I turned around and said, “WHAT!?!?!? You can’t just go and get his first hair cut! I need to take a picture, I have to call the Grandma’s, I have to figure out the hairstyle!” Sheesh.

I’d originally wanted to have Little T’s hair braided like Jaden Smith in the Karate Kid:

Miss Lou even said she knew someone who could braid it for us. Then she came back and said her family refused to braid his hair because he was a boy and braiding is for girls. So that was nixed and we’re cutting it all off instead.

Before Miss Lou came along, I took Little T to a hair stylist and asked how to take care of his hair. She said to come back in a year when it’s longer and she’d cut it. Then I had to explain that I knew nothing about taking care of his hair and that I needed to know what products and things to buy and how to brush it out. I felt ridiculous, but she was really nice and went through everything for me.

His hair is really curly and long. You’d be shocked if you saw us brush it out and could see how long it actually is. Every night Big T conditions Little T’s hair with avocado oil and brushes it out from the ends down. We turn on Baby Einstein so Little T can zone out while we’re brushing. We also rub coconut oil on his skin. When Miss Lou comes, she’ll recondition his hair for us. Big T and I are honest about where our strengths lie, and hair care isn’t one of them. We’re glad to have her help. Miss Lou gave us the name of a hair stylist and it looks like we’ll be taking a trip to the barbershop soon. I’m going to miss his curly hair! It’s going to be cooler for the summer though, and much easier to take care of.

So, I’ve given up my dreams of Jaden Smith hair. We’ll have to settle for Will Smith hair instead.

Easter Sunday

09 Monday Apr 2012

Posted by Momma J in Photography, The Adventures of Little T, The Family, vegan

≈ 1 Comment

For Easter we spent the day with Big T’s family at Grandma K’s house. We weren’t going to be able to eat a lot of the food there, so we made a vegetable pot pie and orange and strawberry cupcakes from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World. I had bought these Peter Rabbit Cupcake Holders a year ago, and I was really looking forward to using them:

The cupcakes turned out delicious, there were only a few lonely cupcakes left at the end of the night.
As always, Grandma K’s backyard was beautiful.

We’d practiced opening Easter Eggs with Little T earlier in the day, so he ran to the yard when he saw that we’d put all of the eggs out there. In the eggs we had fruit sweetened vegan jelly beans, stickers, bunny grahams, and some vegetable snack crisps.

Little T wasn’t the only one who enjoyed the Easter Eggs:

After the Easter Egg hunt, we caught up with family members:

Yep, that’s a body bugg on my arm. I wear it because I’ve been sitting so much since I started editing, and I want to make sure I get my 10,000 steps in every day.

And Little T played trains with his Uncle D:

And then he played with Dad:

We always end the night by sharing a song from each family member in the group. This year Little T even had a song. It was “Nice N Clean” by Chromeo. Little T loved to dance to everyone’s music, he has the Night at the Roxbury head bob down pat.

I hope you all had a great weekend, and a great Easter for those of you that celebrate. 🙂

Portland Part 2

18 Sunday Mar 2012

Posted by Momma J in The Adventures of Little T, The Family, The Travels, vegan

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This is soooooo late! But I don’t want to forget the second half of our trip.

By this point, Little T figured out we were going to fun places every day, so he’d spend the morning crawling into his stroller and looking at us impatiently. Big T had to work at the conference, so Little T and I took a trip to the zoo. He was really excited to test out his new animal noises. Whenever we’d see a bear or a lion he’d roar like crazy. I practically ran after him with the stroller the whole time. Kid was on the move!

Little T stared at this fish display for a while. He couldn’t figure out why they weren’t in the water where they were supposed to be:

After the zoo, we met up with Big T and walked over to another vegan food cart for lunch:

This is where I ate the best chocolate peanut butter cup I’ve ever had in my life:

I got a grilled cheese sandwich and Little T had a vegetable sandwich with hummus…well, that was the plan anyway. Little T fell asleep and there was absolutely no way to keep the little guy awake to eat. Talk about running out of steam!

That night we went to a restaurant that was really bad, so I won’t mention it on here except to say that at the end of our meal they wrote a suggested 25% tip? Even this ex-waitress thought that was a little high.

After dinner, we went to the Portland Art Museum.

The next day, Big T didn’t have to work and wanted to see the Children’s Museum himself.

And then we all went to the zoo, where it started….snowing. 0_o Because of this, we stuck to the underground areas.

By this time, we began to realize that Little T was getting pretty sick. He’d had a cough all week but it was getting worse and worse. We decided to call it a day and head back to the hotel to rest.

We ordered some Indian food and spent the rest of the day watching movies.

The next day we had to stay inside again because Little T wasn’t getting any better. It was a sad way to end the vacation, but not much we could do and we had to take care of Little T.

Little T entertained himself by finger painting on steamy windows.

And I think he enjoyed taking a rest, doesn’t he look like a content little guy? Big T and I, on the other hand, were going stir crazy staying in that tiny hotel room!

The next morning we packed up our things and made one more trip to the Sweetpea Baking Company to have lunch and pick things up for the plane trip.

Sandwich:

Bagel with vegan cream cheese:

and some (half eaten-teehee) baked goods:

Little T was great on the plane trip! Isn’t this picture of him sweet?

Overall, a great trip! I can see why so many people adore Portland. We came home and our schedules got crazy, so it was nice to have a week of fun before the storm. 🙂 And that’s it! Hope you’re all having a great weekend! I’ve been working as a photographer at Wondercon, I can’t believe how busy this month has been!

Portland Part 1

24 Friday Feb 2012

Posted by Momma J in Photography, Quick Snippets, The Adventures of Little T, The Family, The Travels, vegan

≈ 2 Comments

Pioneer Square:

Portland’s known for their food carts, and we had one we were dying to try:

The Vegan Food Cart: Homegrown Smoker

We got the side plate with Cornbread, baked beans, collards, MacNoCheese, and the STFU puppies:

Their menu brought back some sweet memories of my grandma from Oklahoma. Now, if only I can find some biscuits and gravy…

Later in the afternoon we drove over to the Vegan Mall to pick up a few things for my mom. Before we went shopping, we stopped at The SweetPea Vegan Baking Company and picked up some tasty treats.

Lemon Pastry, chocolate chip cookie, bostom creme pie cake:

I also ordered some vegan chili for Little T, but we didn’t prefer it. I was expecting a beany chili and we don’t usually eat a lot of fake meats, so it wasn’t what we were used to and Little T only had a few bites. I’m going to have to stop here again though, because there were some other things on the menu that I’d really like to try.

There was a beautiful park where I wanted to take Little T, but I couldn’t do it because there was a homeless person sitting on one of the benches and I’m still having a hard time from what happened last month. I usually wouldn’t have walked through the park anyway, but it was too hard right now. I’ve noticed that I’m also really jumpy when I hear police sirens. =/

After the park, we got lost and took an accidental scenic drive around Portland (teehee). Little T took a nap, and then we went to have dinner at Big T’s conference. On the way we stopped and showed Little T a living wall. We’re trying to teach him plants, leaves, flowers, branches, etc. Whenever we give him a flower to smell, he blows his nose at it instead of sniffing in to smell the rose. Ah well, he’s getting there.

Travleing by shoulders=Little T’s favorite way to travel in Portland:

We had a great time at the dinner, and Little T managed to obtain a tiny football from one of the conference vendors. We chatted and played with Little T until they started to take the tables down and we figured that was our cue to leave. 😉

During the day, Little T and I have been going solo while Big T’s been working hard at the conference, so the next day we took the metro to the Children’s museum.

On the way, we stopped in a building with some fountains and I snapped a picture of the other side of the street. I don’t know what it is about the colors in Portland, but the stones and the lights on the building are so beautiful. It’s peaceful, walking through the buildings.

On the metro. This is the only way I get pictures of myself on vacation (I’ve got to get Little T to stop relying so much on his pacifier, if any mommy out there has tips, please let me know):

The Children’s Museum was wonderful. Little T loved exploring the exhibits and stayed for three hours. I was planning on staying for only two, but after lunch I put Little T down to gather up my things for the metro, and he went running/screaming with glee back into the museum. Erm, I guess he had other plans for us. I couldn’t resist his enthusiasm and decided to let him stay.

The digging room:

The Train room:

The Theater room:

And playing with a giant light up peg board:

We didn’t get back until 2:00, and Little T slept until it was time to go meet Big T and some colleagues for dinner. We went to Persian food, and they had a very extensive vegan menu and homemade pita bread and we were in heaven.

After dinner, we walked by Powell’s Bookstore on the way to Voodoo Donuts. The outside of the donut shop was covered with glitter. (!!!)

I asked the lady at the shop which vegan donut she recommended, and she handed me a donut called, “The Old Dirty Bastard”.

It had dark chocolate, oreos, and peanut butter. It was a donut sent from the heavens and it gave my taste buds a ride on the flavor train to yumsville. My tummy was a little upset afterward, so I wondered if I’d been given a donut that wasn’t vegan by accident, but it might have been the sugar overload. Definitely stop there if you’re in Portland.

When we were finished, we walked back and listened to some street artists. One of them came up and hugged us because he said he was adopted like Little T. 🙂 Little T enjoyed the music and I think the artist got a kick out of watching Little T having such a good time.

So that’s what we’ve been up to so far. I bet you’re all looking forward to the weekend, I hope you have a great one.

Miss Lou

27 Friday Jan 2012

Posted by Momma J in The Adventures of Little T

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Have I talked about Miss Lou before? She’s a friend of ours who has been helping out with babysitting every once in a while. She’s also our consult on black hair care, which is something that has proven to be challenging for Big T and I. She’s awesome because she’s going to be taking Little T to some events during black history month, and took him to the library and park today. Little T adores Miss Lou and her grandson, and has been known to cry when she leaves the house.

While they were at the park, I guess Little T saw someone from a distance that looked like me. He ran up to this woman with a huge smile on his face, and started shouting, “Momma, Momma!” When he got to her and realized it wasn’t me, he threw himself onto the floor and started crying. Miss Lou told the woman that she looks like Little T’s Momma and then scooped up Little T and walked away. She was laughing so hard when she told me this story, because I guess the woman looked completely confused as to how this black baby with this black woman, could have a mother that was white with red hair. 😉

Meeting Friends for the First Time

26 Thursday Jan 2012

Posted by Momma J in The Adventures of Little T, The Family

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A few days ago I met up with Kari from Chasing Starlight. We bonded a while back over our crazy adoption stories and love of animals. I was so excited to find out she was taking her family to Disneyland, so I packed up Little T’s things and went to meet Kari and her family that I’ve read so much about!

Little T greeted her cutie pie daughter by bopping her on the head. Oh man, I was totally mortified. Thankfully, Kari forgave his enthusiasm and things went smoothly from there. Note to self: teach Little T how to greet a lady. Kari is beautiful, inside and out. She handled motherhood with ease, while I chased Little T around and pondered buying one of those baby leash. I’m not sure where he was running to, but he seemed determined to go somewhere. When I got home, I asked Big T if he spiked his bottle with caffeine.

I could have stayed and talked with Kari for hours and was sad when we had to say goodbye. I hope she plans another trip out this way soon *hint hint*. Maybe after she’s completed the adoption that she’s currently in the process of, which you can read about on her blog.

Here’s a few pictures from our visit:

Kari and her cutie pie daughter, that could easily be a baby model: