Project 52: The beginning

1/52
Avery's 'Whoa!" Face

2/52
Giggles... I'll never get enough of his giggles

3/52
Avery does tricks!

"A portrait of my child, once a week, every week, in 2014"

 

Let me start off this post by telling you that once baby boy #2 arrives (in less than two months... what?!), I am going to be focusing on one thing: simplicity.

I'm not going to overwhelm myself with projects I can't finish and I'm really going to focus on living in the here and now.  That said, there are a couple of projects that I'm going to hang on to and hopefully stick with over the next year. They revolve around documenting and archiving those everyday fleeting baby (and toddler) moments that fly by at a ridiculously fast pace. 

When Avery was born, Wednesdays became 'photo shoot days' and I took a photo of him every Wednesday for his first year of life. I LOVE the 52 pictures that show my little baby's crazy fast grown so much that I will be beginning that project with baby boy #2 come March. I really believe I learned a lot the first time around and became much more efficient in the 52 weeks of photos, so hopefully it will be a low-pressure project.

Recently, a friend introduced me to the 52 Project and at first I was reluctant to get on board with it (simplicity, simplicity, simplicity...) but I realized that it is essentially exactly what I'll be doing with baby boy and the 52 project would be a great way for me to continue to document Avery's growth and development during this time of great change and transition. It will help me to take a few minutes every week with my first baby and help me to keep my blog more updated. I'll also be linking up to the 52 Project on this website to hopefully keep me on track.  Notice that since I'm three weeks behind in starting this project, I've posted 3 pictures all taken in the same day. I'm giving myself a free pass this time, but plan on keeping up weekly!

This project with Avery will definitely be a challenge for me because he is anything but

Did I mention Avery is becoming much
harder to photograph these days?
Believe it or not, this was taken
AFTER his nap!

sedentary and therefore very hard for me to photograph (especially indoors in the dead of winter). He has become VERY aware of the camera and our photo shoots usually consist of him either whining to hold the camera himself or wanting to only look at images of himself on the screen. Hopefully this challenge will make me a better 'mama photographer' and give me 52 priceless images of my big baby that I know I will treasure at the end of this crazy year.

Once baby arrives, I plan to make photography and blogging more of a priority. For now, I'm in full preparation mode over here finishing baby boy's nursery, filling my freezer with meals, finishing up loose ends around the house and doing silly exercises to get baby to flip around to be head down for his delivery in 2 months! I am thisclose to finishing his baby quilt (I've made this my main priority during naptime and after bedtime this last month, and am having a blast with what may be my last 'creative outlet' project in a while.) 

Thanks for hanging in there with me, here's a recent belly shot at 28 weeks. I'll be taking a new one tomorrow as I will be at 32 weeks! This pregnancy has flown by, I still can't believe in a couple of short months I will have a wobbly, wiggly, cuddly little boy in my arms again - we just brought Avery home last week, I swear!