First, I have to apologize for not blogging in nearly three weeks. Everything has been crazy busy here at work and crazy busy at home. Being a working mom has taught me the true meaning of “busy.”
I do have a funny story for you, though.
On Feb. 23 we had a photographer named Chris come to our house to shoot some more photos of Lyla. I freely admit I’m a sucker at times. He’s with the company Our 365 which shoots newborn photos at Valley where Lyla was born. So, apparently they have a free sitting and 8×10 deal they do anytime after the baby is a month old. Now, obviously the idea is to come take photos of your kid, then sell you a package of adorable, “awww” inducing photos.
Even though we had just gotten photos taken at Yuen Lui when Lyla was two months old, well, I’m just a sucker.
So, Chris came in, got set up in our formal living area that we never use — it seemed like a great idea to have that when we bought the house — then went to plug in two studio lights.
He promptly blew out a number of circuit breakers in the house and we weren’t able to get our hallway, dining room or laundry room lights back while he was there.
After getting some great photos of Lyla with Ellie, Jason’s grandmother who also takes care of our baby girl while we’re at work, Chris decided to put her on her tummy.
The next 20 minutes or so were totally downhill because she loathed being on her tummy at the time and just melted down. Somehow, he managed to get some awesome photos of her, especially with my husband.
Two weeks later, a nice woman named Robin came back to the house and we dropped $400 on a photo package, got a bunch of wallets, 8X10s, the works. We’re nuts. I mean, we’re first time parents of the first grandchild and niece for either side of the family, photos are in high demand.
At that point, we still hadn’t gotten the lights working again.
For more than a month, I did laundry in the dark.
We had been giving Lyla baths in the baby tub on top of a towel on the dining room table but no dining room light meant after about two weeks I finally moved the tub to the sink and scrubbed her down by myself while Jason was at work. On a side note, you would not believe the amount of gunk that can accumulate in between a baby’s toes, fingers, under her neck or arms. I had no idea something so tiny and immobile could get so dirty!
Finally, my father in law brought his friend Steve Montgomery down to our house to see if he could shed some light, literally, with his greater breadth of knowledge of electrical stuff. This is one area my very handy father in law, Art, doesn’t know as much about. Thank goodness for Mr. Montgomery, who has been a friend of Jason’s parents for years, going back to when his son was in Boy Scouts with Jason.
Finally, at the end of March we had light again, and a week later the photos arrived via UPS at our house.
This past week I’ve spent framing up all the different photos from the Yuen Lui and Our365 shoots for display in our home as well as to give to family members.

Here are some of my favorites. Oh, one of the perks of the package I bought was all the photos on copyright released CD, so I am going to share with you to make the most of the money I spent. Enjoy!

That pretty dress I bought for her to wear for Christmas was still too big when she was three months old …

Angry Lyla…

My personal favorites!

Sweet sleepy girl…

And Lyla with Great Grandma Ellie — I gave this one and the first one of her in the red dress in a nice frame to Jason’s mom, Gale, on Easter and she choked up over it. It’s a precious memory of the blessing that both Ellie and Lyla are to our family.