Budding Photographer

Trying to get back into blogging means breaking out the "good camera." For me, photography worth sharing just leads to the words flowing and to the blog posting. Because YOU KNOW it's a total faux pas to post more than one Instagram pic per day. (Did you know this? It's a social media rule of etiquette invented by high schoolers, I think.) But having an expensive camera in my hands is sort of like busting out the baby food. It becomes IR-RE-FREAKING-SISTABLE to my two-year-old. 

Just like the Puffs, if the kid begs and begs (+begs+begs+begs), my stoic facade is slowly but surely chipped away, and, finally, I relent. I'm no match for him. It happens just that poetically, but with about 5,000% more whining. So right, I let my two-year-old have at it with the DSLR (in aperture mode, the only setting I shoot in because … lazy).

BUT YOU GUYS, here's the first photo he took:

WHAT UP subject actually in focus. 

93 photos of the carpet later and I thought, let's get this kid outside and see if he can get a photo of me and the hubs. You know. There was that Love Your Spouse Challenge going on recently on Facebook where for seven straight days you posted pictures of yourself and your spouse. I was tagged to participate, but couldn't bring myself to even start because I literally could not find any photos of just Will and I taken after 2014. 

Face-swaps don't count.

But, look! August 2016, at your service.

47 blurry pictures of rocks later, andddd . . .

Dump truck: A still life.

WHAT IS HE TRYING TO EXPRESS?????

It's sweet, really. He takes SUCH delicate care of the camera (for the most part) because he knows what a privilege it is to use it. When the camera is away, he's taken to holding up various toys to his eyes and pretending that it's a camera. "Say cheese!" 

Yesterday, he managed these:

LOLZ Daisy. 

And my favorites:

I couldn't capture the light in these leaves like this if I tried. And I do try! So that's embarrassing. 

ANYWHO. If you want to schedule senior portraits or your next family session with my toddler, you know where you can contact this tiger mom.*

*$500 non-refundable session deposit

;)

Going Private

Despite my best attempts at editing prior content and changing profile settings, this blog still appears as a top result when you Google my name. Since lawyering is a networking profession and we are basicaly all creepers, I expect at least someone I meet professionally to stumble upon this blog, in which case, I will be slightly horrified that they have access to such a wealth of information about my boobs and childbirth experiences. 

As a result, I am going private. I'm still going to blog. Will turned ten months yesterday, and my OCD self would never let me just cut off the documenting at nine months. The horror! So the show will go on, but if you want access, I believe I need your email address. And don't worry - if I have your email address and I know you've previously subscribed to the blog, I will probably just add you. I'm not sure how email subscriptions will work - I think that will probably be the best way to follow along since new posts won't pop up in your Bloglovin' or Feedly. We'll figure it out as we go, as usual! 

All pertinent information will probably appear on Instagram anyway. See @theresabreslin. Last night I posted a video of Will waving and clapping. Such a prodigy. So much interesting.

This blog post will self-destruct in 24 hours.

I'm in Maryland! (7QT)

1. First of all, WELCOME to everyone who just started following thanks to Kate's big shout out over at The Rhodes Log. I told her I got an email from Bloglovin' shortly after her post went live telling me I was "Amazing!" for reaching 20 followers. I thought something was up because I'd been cruising at 18 for so long. So so long.

Proof that I've made it to the big leagues, that's all.

(Obviously I shared that ditty right onto Facebook.) Anyway, glad to have you here! Leave a comment and introduce yourself so I can send you long-winded one-sided e-mail responses!!!

2. Little Will and I are also out of town visiting my parents. (Currently typing from the SLOWEST ancient desktop computer known to mankind and I have to upload photos from the Blogger app on my phone. So much for "quick" takes! Life at the g-parents'.) I love that trips home give our boys the opportunity to explore their feminine sides via hand-me-downs.

I'd say they both are owning it.

3. The flight here was pretty smooth. No pre-boarding blowouts. Minimal spitting up. No sleeping, but no fussing either. Solid A- performance. At our gate, there was another mom with a baby girl about the same age as Will pacing the terminal in an effort to soothe her baby to sleep in her infant carrier. I zoned in on her real hard. I mean, two first-time moms with small infants navigating the check-ins and the security lines and the boarding zones. We were destined to be instant friends and our babies would naturally hit it off and become baby boyfriend and girlfriend. Before boarding, I gave her a big smile and shouted, "Hi!!" hoping that we could start up a convo and sit together to chat about sleep and poop and diapers ("these are a few of my favorite things!") and, and, and, alas, I got TOTALLY REJECTED. I got a quick glance and she kept right walk/bouncing. You guys, I even waved. It was very disheartening. When I got on board, I snapped a photo to send to the parents a la "Here we come!!!!" and realized Will's face was

intimidation. No wonder fellow mom was afraid of us.

4. So it's just me and the little guy here in Maryland. Will stayed on the home front to save his vacation days for our big yearly July 4 trip. As always, we try and capture photos to send to him so that he doesn't feel left out (or feels extra left out, either/or).

Grandma really nailed it.

Framers, all framers.

5. I haven't gotten around to posting a marathon training update (lucky you, eh? ehhh?), but things are going smooth. My long runs are up to 8 miles and ..... drumroll..... we recently bought a treadmill! Part of my Mother's Day (slash Anniversary, slash birthday, slash Christmas, slash every holiday ever for the rest of the year) gift was Will agreeing to the purchase, and thereafter spending the hours of frustration, sweat, and beer consumption assembling it Monday night after work. He's a keeper.

I no longer have any excuses to skip training runs. Except, um, for when I'm out of town.

6.  If I were a good blogger, good at putting together the words, I would write good posts like this. Jenny has a way with words and sums up a lot of my own thoughts on NFP, and even points to why I'll continue to smile and wave to the other moms at the airport even if my kid is radiating the stink-eye (in addition to radiating that other, more literal kind of stink). But in the meantime, I don't write real good on such lofty topics, at least ones not involving minutiae of Florida contract law, so I'll just keep talking about poop. Mkay.

7. Finally, I had every intention of bringing my Kindle on this trip so that I could devour Something Other than God while my mom hogged Will all to herself all day, but in my hurry to pack for the airport, I forgot it! Huge disappointment. Know that I feel really left out.

Linking up with Jen, natch.

15 Weeks

First, I'll go ahead and address the proverbial elephant in the room, our new blog header! Basically, Saturday nights get WILD in the Brez household, especially when we're celebrating exciting news and someone had her first first full caf grande Starbucks concoction in months. (Pumpkin spice lattes are back. Nuff said.) So, I'd been wanting to update my blog header for a while and all I needed was a little free time and that little caffeinated push. 

The old one:

was way too pretty and didn't represent at all what was happening here. The truth is that we are just goof-offs occasionally trying to take ourselves seriously:

but not too seriously. Okay, maybe not seriously at all. I will probably change it again during my "funemployment," since I will have both the time and the caffeine, but we'll see. I love spectacled Daisy so much that she might be our furever bloggy mascot.

_______________________________________________

Down to the nitty gritty. Baby Brez grew from about the size of a lemon to the size of a navel orange this week at about four inches long. (Source.) 

Linking up with FLAP again this week. 

Maxi Skirt - Marshall's, Shirt - Old Navy Maternity, Undershirt - Blanqi. 

Seriously, I don't know how I got to look so pregnant. I think my ab workout a couple hours earlier caused my ab muscles to totally give up. I planked for two minutes too long. (N.B. I planked for two minutes total.) 

And there you have it. I snapped a selfie to send to my sister before heading over to the gym. No food was consumed before taking the second photo, but I appear considerably bigger! Was it the exercise, or maybe the Blanqi? 

And just like that, I'm over it.

Okay!

Total Weight Gain: Zero weight gain this week and holding steady right at seven pounds. You have no idea how much this surprises and comforts me. It's like my body knows just what it's doing in terms of weight gain. Other moms have told me not to really focus on it very much; you have much less control over it than you think. Well, I'm guessing that's true. I wrapped up my clerkship this past week along with about three other clerks, which meant celebratory cake! and bagels! and doughnuts! and more cake! and it's rude not to partake, right? So, more junk food than usual this week.

Exercise: Just-a one and a few shorter walks with the dogs. This past Sunday, we went paddleboarding for over an hour. Paddleboarding is—let me tell you—maximum effort for minimum gain. In the open water, you work your arms off to go two feet per minute. Suffice it to say, it's a great workout. 

Strange Observations: 

• Nosebleeds! I've been getting nosebleeds for weeks, but forgot to mention it here. That is, until I got the nosebleed of all nosebleeds just sitting at my desk at work. I'm told the remedy is to drink lots of ice cold water. Can't hurt to try. 

• Sinus pressure. Like a dork, I had to take a sick day during my last week of work because I thought I was getting a sinus infection. No, it's just a pregnancy symptom, which I figured out when the pressure headache was not getting better nor worse. Looks like it's just something I'll have to put up with and medicate with the occasional Tylenol fix.

• Pregnancy dreams. Pregnancy dreams are weird. And sometimes hilarious. I got this gem from my sister a few days ago on a group text when we were talking about the upcoming football season:

I think we all have that "will to win" in us somewhere. We just have to dig down deep to find it. Just like my dream last night... I dreamt that I was a dove flying over the sea and then I dove into the ocean and swam with the dolphins. I was two animals joined as one. Which meant good things are coming, good things. 

Other Highlights:

• WILL PASSED THE BAR! We're hoping to find out our base assignment within a week or two. Fingers crossed!

• Comparing bumps. Here is Shannon's latest bumpdate. She's 16 weeks here and I think I'm starting to see a little somethin' somethin':

Maybe? It won't be long now until she pops like she did in her first pregnancy: