Desmond turns 18 months old tomorrow, wow did that go fast. Anyways today we had an appointment at The Picture People at the mall to get his 18 month portraits done. We have been going to Kiddie Kandids, but they had a major management changeover right around when he had his year pictures and we weren’t impressed. We decided to try somewhere new to see if we could find somewhere we like.

So we went to Picture People, we were beyond unimpressed, the staff all acted like they had better things to do then take pictures and the girl who was photographing Desmond didn’t seem to understand that he was 18 months old, so he doesn’t like staying still. We also felt very rushed with the picture taking. It was not a fun experience. We then had to wait 20 minutes for our pictures to come up on their computers so we could chose what prints we wanted. They all sucked. Part of that was our fault, his bangs hang in his eyes so it can be harder to get a good shot, but it is possible, I’ve done it, and since they use basically the same camera we have they should have been able to get at least a few cute shots, if they worked at it or cared. We looked at all the pictures and decided to skip getting any of them, they were all really rather bad. There were a couple of okay shots, but honestly I got better at the playground with the small camera while he was on the swing (which is tough based on timing).

So we left after deciding that we didn’t like any of the pictures, fortunately there was no sitting fee so all we lost was about 45 minutes of our morning. We then discussed what we wanted to do. I thought about cutting his bangs, which we are planning to do in India, but we really would prefer to do it in India, not this weekend. We decided to buy him a comb and see if we could comb his hair out of his face a bit instead. We also decided to try Kiddie Kandids again since we wanted the pictures this weekend so we can take some with us to India. So we went in made an appointment for 30 minutes later, since Desmond was hungry by then and heading downstairs to get Desmond some fries.

After heading back up I chose the backgrounds I wanted (at Picture People you have the choice of Blue, Charcoal, Light Blue and White, and they don’t list this anywhere), which there was a nice selection of choices at Kiddie Kandids, we chose the two we liked, changed Desmond into the shirt we wanted to start with and headed to the bay.

Here is where the huge difference happened, the photographer was having fun and understood that Desmond wasn’t inclined to stay still, he was 18 months after all. She had no problem with this and didn’t have a problem with the fact it took awhile to get his pictures done. She brought over props that she hoped would work, I brought over props I hoped would work and we got 6 good pictures. We were hoping for one more, but Desmond was quite emphatic that he was done after the 6th one, so we went with what we had gotten, rather then trying for the 7th pose (which would have replaced the one that was okay rather then great in the set of 6 we had).

Soon as we were finished with the pictures they were on the computer waiting for us to go through and decide which ones we wanted. It was nice, and the professionalism and care was so much better, and we liked all the photos. So we went ahead and got a package, so we have pictures for India.

Anyways the moral of this long story is I have Desmond’s 18 month pictures to post. We are also pretty sure that the management changed at Kiddie Kandids again, since these pictures went so much better then his 12 month pictures. I may try to find a coupon so we can try JC Penny’s and Sears studios to see how we like them, but at the moment it looks like we are sticking with Kiddie Kandids for now. Now here are the pictures.

On a Ladder

Look at that smile!

With a Truck

A grin

I can sit, see!

This shoe, I am not sure about it.

Sit on the stump, only if I can ride it!

Look at me smile!

So when I turned 29 my sister called me to remind me I was almost 30. So now it is her turn, she is only 18 months younger then me so it isn’t like she is that much younger then me, unlike Nancy and Noah. Anyways Happy one year to 30 birthday Laura, hope you have a great day!

So Desmond is napping in his bed right now. Since that is normally when I have time to blog. The past two days he’s fallen asleep for his nap on my lap, which means he gets a shorter nap then he really needs, but I can only hold him on my lap for so long. Today he fell asleep in his bed and has been down for 2 hours already, I’m really hoping he makes it to 3 hours, but 2 hours is great too, especially when you consider his nap yesterday and Monday was for all of 50 minutes to an hour. Here are a couple of pictures of him sound asleep in his bed, and yes he wears his doggie backpack everywhere except we don’t let him go to bed at night with it or eat lunch and dinner with it on.

napping

sleeping toddler

So Desmond loves to swing. He’s been going on the baby swings for awhile, but recently Dan realized that he can use the big kid swings as well. When we went to the park he took me to the big kid swings so I put him on them and he had a bunch of fun. I was really impressed that he was able to swing on them without falling off. He was going pretty high on them too once I realized how well his balance on them was.

We spent an hour at the playground 15 minutes was on the baby swings, 10 minutes was him running around and going down the slide and playing on the play structure, the other 35 minutes or so was him swinging on the big kid’s swings, and he wasn’t happy to go when I told him time was up, he could have swung for quite awhile longer.

On the big kid's swing!

I love to swing on the big kid's swings

Up I go!

Swinging rocks!

Let's Swing

So this morning Desmond took me to the door and handed me his shoes. I was going to take him to Gymboree, but he wanted to go out then, not in 30 minutes. So I got him dressed, he needed a shirt and pants to go with his shoes and we walked over to the playground. He had a ton of fun there and I remembered to take the small camera so I took some pictures. He is so big now at 18 months (well 18 months in 4 days so it counts), and really coordinated, it still amazes me some times how little boy he seems now.

Down the Slide I go!

Vroom Vroom Vroom!

Hmm I think I'll play with a leaf

I love to swing!

Swinging is fun!

So if it isn’t obvious, Desmond loves to climb, in general we let him climb all over the sofas as he likes, he is not allowed on the dining room table though and he’s not allowed on the TV stand either. He enjoys trying to get on both of these places though, the dining room table is a bit easier to keep him off of, so far since we just move the chairs. The TV stand however is low enough that he can climb right onto it. So yesterday I took a few pictures of trouble as he was behind the TV where he isn’t supose to be, then we moved him off the stand.

Looking around back here

Oh hi Mommy, it is cool back here!

Stay back I have super secret ninja moves I'll use if you get too close!

I am Desmond hear me roar!

So it is starting to get cooler here, it never even hit 80 this week, which means it is soup time! So last week we made Taco Soup (we change the recipe a bit, using ground soy instead of ground meat, and adding extra veggies and black beans instead of chili beans oh and extra spice). This was actually one of Desmond’s first foods last year and he really likes it, we really like it too especially how easy it is to make. So I took a few pictures of Desmond eating Taco soup when we had it Monday night, he really enjoyed it especially dipping the tortilla chips into it and eating them.

Taco Soup, yum!

Yum Yum

Eating Eating Eating

Enough Pictures Mom, I'm trying to eat here!

For Desmond’s birthday we bought him a wooden caterpillar. He loves this toy and has since he got it, in fact we gave it to him before his birthday because he saw it and fell in love with it and wanted to play with it now. Anyways at first he wasn’t that great pulling it and liked to have someone else walk the caterpillar for him and he’d follow along after it. Now though he loves to take Mr. Caterpillar with him when he goes out, Mr. Caterpillar loves going on walks and to the playground and upstairs and downstairs, he’s going to India in October, which we’re hoping he enjoys as well (and doesn’t get lost).

Anyways yesterday I went out on the evening walk with Desmond, K-line, Dan and Mr. Caterpillar and since I haven’t taken many pictures of Desmond in awhile, I took a bunch of pictures. That being said, they were taken with the small camera so they aren’t as good as pictures taken with the big camera, but still enjoy! Oh and there are very few of his face, he kept moving so I never got any good head on shots.

Come along Mr. Caterpillar

Close up of Desmond

Walking K-line and Mr. Caterpillar

Heading up the stairs

Hurry Up Mr. Caterpillar!

Daddy helps Desmond up the steep hill

Up a hill with a caterpillar

Oh hi Mommy, I have a caterpillar

Hair in the eyes

Wonder what's over there

Wandering around the soccer fields

Caught by Daddy!

Down please?

I found this on another blog I read and it is so so so wrong, so what did you get?

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Seriously it is 10pm, he is normally out by 8:30 at the latest, he is still wide awake and wandering around downstairs, he isn’t even lying down quietly and watching Finding Nemo, nope he is wandering around the living room happily playing.  Go to bed child!