Van in Black and White

I wanted to practice taking photos on both white and black backgrounds and this is a small number of our results. The black background was a shiny, striped table cloth that we have which was kind of hard to get rid of, if anyone has suggestions on a better background I'd love to hear your suggestions (hint, hint, Kalli), these were taken after dark. The white shots were taken in the baby's room with light from the overcast day, from the small window that the room has. We just set him on a white, fuzzy blanket. I welcome any photographers' suggestions on how to make shots of this style better. I was mostly experimenting with the camera's contrast, sharpness and monochrome settings as well as adjusting the light meter.

See Van Dance

I wanted to test out our new little video camera with the iMovie software that I hadn't touched yet, so this was my trial run. Van seemed like a good guinea pig since he has no opinion yet. Van wasn't actually dancing, editing genius would make you believe otherwise. I learned this by watching the skills of my bros compiling sick ski vids, thanks for the inspiration. Really it took me about 30 minutes to come up with this dumb idea, produce, and edit it. This is what happens when you have more than 2 weeks of paternal leave. Everyone should become a dad.

Van, 10-Days-Old [photo update]

As anyone must know after spending any considerable amount of time with us (say, an hour or two), we're pretty much addicted to taking pictures. And having a brand new camera doesn't make it easy to resist our addiction. Nor does having a brand new little one that we just can't get enough of. He's so entertaining to us, and we look forward to getting to know him more and more every day. He's already 10 days old, it's so weird to think that just over a week ago this baby full of personality and expressions was still in my body. We think he's starting to like bathtime, we've caught a few accidental smiles from him when he's not awake, and it looks like he loves sleep as much as his parents. Thus all the sleeping pictures.

Here's the latest on the little man!

(as a side note, we'd LOVE to have visitors over to come meet little Van! We're at home and totally open for any time you want to come over. Jon's off work for another week still, so we're just living up the stay-at-home parents life. :) Please call and come by if you can, we'd love to see you all!)






Van meets Lincoln


Cuddling with Grandma and sucking on mom's fingers (he ALWAYS has to be sucking on something, usually it's his own knuckles)


The Van we know best

Thank you, Mom!!!

As you may or may not have heard from me, pre-labor, my biggest fear of our baby's timing for his entry into this world was that my mom, who scheduled her flight months ago, would be gone and back in Utah before the kid was ever born. If it weren't for that, (his daily growing birth weight aside), I would have been totally okay with him being 2 weeks overdue. I was never terribly miserable or uncomfortable during my pregnancy, not even in the end, and I had PLENTY of things still on my list to accomplish before he came. But with my mom living 2,100 miles away and me being a very hands-on learning person, I was not looking forward to the possibility of pulling off week 1 on my own with no training whatsoever. Let's be honest, I would have cried my eyes out.

My mom was scheduled to land in DC the afternoon of Monday, November 3rd and stay for exactly one week. Come Sunday, November 2nd, I was still feeling 100%. !?!? I was trying to come to terms with him not coming until at least half way through my mom's time here, but I wasn't pleased with the idea. Everyone at church told me just to plan on him being 2 weeks late and I wouldn't be so disappointed. Feeling so normal, you can imagine my surprise later that evening when I realized that my usual braxton hicks contractions were suddenly coming like clockwork, lasting longer, and adding a good dose of pain. Jon and I were so excited!! We finally started clocking them, and we were surprised to realize they were about 4-5 minutes apart, and lasting just under a minute. Suffice it to say, we clocked them for the next 8 hours or so to make sure it was the real deal, and when I could no longer do anything else but focus on breathing during my contractions, we figured it was time to go. 2.5 hours after our arrival at the hospital, Van made his grand entry at 8:25 am, just 8 hours before my mom's flight was scheduled to land.

Impeccable timing, Van.

So, a great miracle occurred, we were blessed with a tender mercy from on high, he came out of nowhere, and I had a whole week to take advantage of my mom's wisdom. Mom was here a week, and she made the transition such a breeze for us. Amazing meals just showed up on our table. Clean clothes just appeared and I never even saw Van's laundry before it was done. The floors were swept, the house was clean, and I never had to get up for the baby since Mom just brought him to me. She changed endless diapers and cleaned wet sheets and outfits. Twice in one night. She taught us how to hold a baby when he's soaking wet and slippery during bathtime. She made me take a nap every day (because she knew I wouldn't if she didn't tell me to). She told Jon and I what good parents we would be and loved all of Van's facial expressions just as much as we do. I also loved having the time to just sit and visit and all go on walks together––small things that are so rare with living so far away. She was exactly what we needed and our only regret is that her time here went so quickly! We couldn't have done it without you Mom!! Thanks for being everything your daughter (and son-in-law, and grandson) needed! We wish we could be closer, we miss you already!

We're counting down the days until our visit to see mom and everyone else in our family in January...

Here's a little photo tribute to Grandma Sorensen (that sounds weird, Mom, since I have a Grandma Sorensen that's not you) and all she did for our little Van.

Van's DC Debut

After our stroll at Hains Point, we parked near the Jefferson monument and walked around the Tidal Basin to the FDR memorial and got to see some pretty amazing colors around the monuments. We also got some of our first dusk/evening shots of the monuments––something we hope to get a lot more of in the future. This was Van's first trip to the District, and he of course slept through the whole thing. We're pretty sure he's going to end up a great traveler like his parents. And it looks like he also inherited our ability to sleep anytime, anywhere (if this holds up past his I'm-still-a-newborn-and-I-love-the-womb stage, we'll be thrilled; although we may be known to poke and prod him in his sleep because we love playing with him when he's awake).

Hains Point

We've been dying to check out the leaves in downtown DC with my mom, and it gave us a good excuse to get out and move around a little bit with the new little guy. We started off at Hains Point (we double checked the spelling on that) and it ended up being a perfect scene for ducks, sunsets, and some fun photos. This is just a small sampling of the results from our trigger-happy photo habits.

Retro Post: Halloween 2008

What better than a big rotund fish bowl to highlight the roundness of a pregnant belly with a cute little human fish swimming inside? And what better than a dad in training to represent a dad who needs a lot of training? (Jon said that, not Melissa.) Jon was a hit at his work party, his coworkers thought he was hilarious. And as for me, I got to show off the fish bowl to our neighbors and three groups of trick-or-treaters. But it was totally worth it!
















































And here are a few follow-up photos of our pumpkins from our pumpkin carving evening (10/30/08 post), including the comparison of Melissa's pumpkin to her belly—which were identical in shape and size.

Retro Post: Skyline Drive (Oct. 26, 2008)

In our annual attempt to get out and see the sights of autumn on the east coast, we waited for what we deemed to be the perfect time to head for Skyline Drive, a famous road placed at the top of the Shenandoahs that many locals head to for the fall colors. When we finally saw the reds and golds turning up around town, we took our planned trip to the national park––only to find that we had guessed one week late. So while the colors were more brown and bare than scarlet and orange, we still loved the drive, loved the time together, and took advantage of the trip to practice with the new camera.

Here are some of our favorites.

Van Jonathan Smith [November 3, 2008]

HE ARRIVED!

As you can see, our son already has his own clothing line...
Van was born on November 3rd, just in time to see the first black president of the USA. Melissa began to progress quickly on Sunday and by 5:30am on Monday we were on our way to the hospital, by foot. We checked into the hospital at 6:06am and Van came at 8:25am. He weighed in at 7 pounds 6 ounces, and measured 20.5 inches long. Just hours later Melissa's mom arrived in DC from Utah, and we're grateful to have her teach us the ways of the wise mother. Did I mention yet that Melissa gave birth 100 percent natural! She is one tough woman I'll just say that much. It was AMAZING to watch Van's birth, and it's amazing to stare at him all day too. I'm excited to be the father of this beautiful little kid. The hospital has everyone stay for 2 days so we came home from the hospital today, which is his due date. It's great to have him home, he's SOOOOOOO cute!

A few of my favorite things about the dude...
1. He snorts like a pig, and I love pigs.
2. His face changes shape constantly, and he makes a great pouty face.
3. He's very aware of everyone in the room, I lost in a staring competition with him already.
4. He got me out of 2 weeks of work :)
5. His tight little buns can't be rivaled.
6. He smells like roses...most the time.
7. He's real cute, just like Melissa.
8. His bottom lip quivers when he cries.
9. He wants to play football when he's older.
10. He likes when MELISSA changes him :)

...What a kid. We both look forward to many stinky diapers ahead.