If at First You Don't Succeed...

Even before reading the comments on yesterday's post, I decided to try one more time to take professional-looking pictures of Patrick for his first birthday. I set up an area in our house that would much more closely resemble a studio and planned out some things that would look different from all the other pictures so far. Naturally not everything worked out the way I'd hoped, but I still think these look different. The debate in my head is still raging, though. I'll admit even to myself that these pictures are better than usual, but will I be content with them replacing real professional pictures?

So what do you think about these? Keep in mind I have only done a little surface editing on most of them and that I can work with constructive criticism if you have any. And I'm taking suggestions for locations to get professional photos made, if anybody knows any in the western Houston area.


I'm kind of surprised that I managed to get decent pictures yesterday. I've still been fighting a fussy boy. He's had his moments when he's been his usual charming self, but in general he's acted like he hasn't felt really well. He had an even higher fever last night, I'm assuming from the shots still. His allergies have still been bothering him, too, so we found a different allergy medicine for him to try last night. Between not feeling good and the medicines, he sure has slept well. I guess that's the bright side to the puniness.

Still, I can't help but worry some. I'm assuming the sniffles, sneezing, itchy eyes, and occasional cough are a result of allergies. Matt and I have also been fighting drainage since the weekend, so it follows that Patrick would be having similar problems. But the discussion with the doctor Monday about the dangers of RSV has me worried now that this is more than the sniffles. I'm listening closely to his breathing every chance I get for the hint of a wheeze or other breathing difficulties. So far nothing. I'm trying to decide whether it would be paranoid to call the doctor to report that Patrick is having allergy problems. I don't want to wait too long to call (like I did a year ago, which unintentionally put Patrick in the hospital for five weeks), but I don't want to call only to find out that I'm already doing everything I can for him. My gut says it's just allergies, but my gut also said those contractions a year ago were only normal pregnancy pains. I just don't want to turn into the stereotypical overprotective preemie mom.

How about an update on Operation: Stuff the Kid? Matt and I have tried several different ways to get Patrick to eat more. We've found that feeding him more Gerber's works best, much better than encouraging him to eat more finger foods. I can easily feed him about 10 oz of Gerber's at one meal a day and 7-8 oz at another meal and then follow it up with finger foods. He still gets his afternoon snack, and Matt and I have made it a point to offer him some of whatever we eat at meals. Patrick isn't so sure about big boy food yet. He grimaces at anything new going in his mouth, even if it turns out to not be so bad. His favorites are still French fries and a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. It's just hard to draw the line between encouraging him to eat more and forcing him to eat more. I don't want him to develop a complex about eating later on because I've forced him to eat now. I guess that's why pushing the Gerber's is best; he continues to willingly eat as much of that as I can feed him.

To follow up on the post about the doctor's appointment the other day, I want to apologize for not being clear in that post. I was incredibly frustrated about the fact that Patrick cried most of the time and that I couldn't do anything to comfort him. I wasn't, however, worried about the weight issue. I suspected it was something the doctor needed to pay attention to and that we needed to keep an eye on it, but it wasn't and isn't anything I'm worrying about. I went through a similar non-growth spurt when I was about his age, and I half expected Patrick would do the same thing. It should be reasonably easy to fix, and judging by his seemingly endless appetite since we started feeding him more, I think he'll fatten up quickly.

So now you've seen my favorite ten pictures from yesterday. What do you think?