First Beach Day Of The Year!

Today was a holiday Monday for Victoria Day. After breakfast, we packed our stuff to be at the beach all afternoon. We had a ton of stuff and decided that our trek to English Bay would include an Aquabus ride just to make things easier and also to get there sooner.

Maddi fell asleep for her nap shortly after we got there, but didn't sleep for long. There were lots of people to play with and there were also a couple of newborns that came for a visit. She wasn't too sure of the sand at first, but soon enjoyed running around in it as well as experimenting with it's texture in her hands. Our friend Tesom deserves honourable mention for his great charisma with both Maddi and Marcus.

Enjoying the sights from the Aquabus

The vball crew's base camp on English Bay

Maddi kept brushing off sand from her hands

Getting curious

Exploring how sand feels in her hand

Family Session with the Saitos

Angela and I have been friends for years and were house mates at one point in our university days. I'm happy that she has also decided to pursue a career in photography; now I have a buddy to share this journey with... as long as she doesn't make me sniff her finger (inside joke).

When it comes to documenting our own family lives, we also share the same challenge. We have a gazillion images of our kids and husbands, but these images make it look like we are never around. Yet we are! We were there to share the moment in all those images, we were just behind the camera.

Yesterday, we made sure Angela was in almost every frame I shot, and we were blessed with the perfect shooting weather - overcast and not too windy.

I hope you enjoy these images, Ange!

 

Alternative Swinging

On Thursday, while on a play date with Shaila and Zianna at a nearby playground, another mom and baby showed us how to swing sideways! It looked like fun, so we tried it. Maddi loved it!

The next day, while mama was out on a family session, Maddi asked dada to go on the blue swing - it's the next level swing where there is a back, but no front to the seat. My baby girl is growing way too fast... wish I could freeze time, yet I am also constantly amazed at all the things she's learning to do. It really is fascinating to watch her grow, I am so lucky!

Maddi in the big girl swing

Sideways swinging

More sideways swinging

Enjoying a different view from sideways swinging

I'm A Get Shit Done Kind of Mama!

The past week has come and gone with a roar of "get shit done" attitude after feeling largely unproductive on the work front for months. I reclaimed our den as my office last Monday - I tossed, I filed, I cleaned. I have a long ways to go to get it to my ideal work environment, but half an hour spent organizing proved to be a great and worthwhile investment. I love the energy in there, I have spent so much time in that tiny space this week and actually got work done! I would have to say that the one tip I got from a prospective business coach that I met with really worked - put your phone on silent, face down!

It has been a string of late nights; and if I keep this up, I would be headed for burn out. So this next week, I seek to find balance... although I am quite pleased with all the items I got off my to-do list this week, not to mention being able to take advantage of the opportunity to team up with Nygard... which if I hadn't gotten organized, would've been a great opportunity lost.

A couple of months ago, I made a connection with the manager at the Nygard Yaletown store. Last week, she called me. She wanted to help me promote my business to their VIP clients at their shopping event next week! So I came up with a great win-win idea for both myself and the store - I'm giving them vouchers towards a glamour session with me to gift to their VIP clients. I designed the voucher and sent it off to the printers just in the nick of time to get them ready for the event.

Just before I started working so much, I had a couple more days since my last posts where I've enjoyed the great weather with Maddi and Sean, including our early Mother's Day picnic last Saturday, knowing that the rain will come on Sunday.

Enjoying a triple berry smoothie on the library steps. She drank half of it!

Da-da gave Maddi a pretty high fashion 'do

Blowing bubbles after our Mother's Day picnic

Thanks for a wonderful and yummy Mother's Day picnic!

Here's the voucher card I designed for the Nygard VIP shopping event

This is how the back of the cards will look

Mother And Daughter Glamour Session with Sarah & June

On Friday, I had the opportunity of doing a glamour session with Sarah and June. It reminded me of how special the relationship is between a mother and her baby girl, no matter how big the baby has gotten.

It was a fun afternoon of girl time, getting pampered, looking beautiful and celebrating the special bond that a mother and daughter share.

Happy Mother's Day, everyone!

Mother's Day Mini Session With The Kaplans

The Kaplans are another family that I have had the pleasure of photographing in the last couple of years. I love seeing this family grow. I love the curls in Oliver and Lucy's hair. I love listening to Oliver talk.

Mike and Nicole, you have a beautiful family!

I think this is my favourite image of the lot!

One Fine Day

Today was a GREAT day! Not that other days aren't, but today was just.plain.awesome!

Started the morning with a smiley Maddi instead of a crying Maddi wanting out of her crib. She ate well at breakfast and then we were off to catch the Aquabus to Granville Island for a Westside Music Together trial class.

Upon disembarking the Aquabus at Granville Island, we walked through the market and picked up "the Jenny" from JJ Bean. Don't go to a JJ Bean and ask for it, they would look at you weird and not know what you're talking about. This is what my friend Krysta, who used to work at the JJ Bean I frequented, had named my drink after having had to explain how I like my coffee every time I went into her store. It's actually not that crazy - it's just a latte with half vanilla, half caramel, light foam.

After I got my coffee, we still had 20 mins before class started. So we decided to stop and enjoy the music in the courtyard just outside of the main market entrance.

The class was an hour long and was UH-MAZ-ING! I don't know if it's just because I'm an emotional Cancerian... but I had to hold back tears towards the end of the class as Maddi gave the teacher a big, long hug when she's just met her for the first time. I think it's been built up from the great morning I've had, the beautiful setting of the class, seeing Maddi getting into the class... and I'm just envisioning how perfect our Summer would be for Maddi and I to have GI days twice a week for a month - and how this will help to put a bit of structure in our schedule (which I've needed, as you can tell from my post yesterday).

Maddi woke up extra early this morning, and the class probably tired her out as well. She fell asleep in the stroller on the way home. Since Maddi was sleeping in the stroller, I decided to meet up with Anne & Marcus at a nearby park. While we were there, I got a text msg from Shaila, one of the moms I met during maternity leave, that she and Zianna were in the area and would like to meet up. I haven't seen them in ages! And when they showed up to the park, they came with Jim, another friend of ours from our parent/infant days, with Hailey in tow of course! It still amazes me to see how much the girls have all grown, I've seen them since they were just a few weeks old!

Can this day get any better?! Well, YES! I think the pictures below sufficiently explain...

Hailey, Zianna & Maddi

We tried to keep their clothes dry...

No amount of hiking up pants or pulling up sleeves will keep their clothes dry when they do THIS!

Maddi's clothes were soaked. Good thing it was a warm day and only a short walk home, because she had to ride home in her stroller with nothing but her diaper on. I guess that's a sign of a spectacular day!