Canon 5D Mark III | 1/320 at f/1.6 | 50mm | ISO 640

Canon 5D MIII | 1/400 sec @ f/1.4 | 50mm | ISO 500

Yes, I love me some Star Wars, Harry Potter, and Lord of the Rings. Some of my favorite TV shows came from the SyFy Channel. I read an inordinate number of fantasy novels growing up, and some of my favorite “fandoms” are Doctor Who, Star Trek: TNG, and Firefly. I also loved playing games — whether it be Mario Brothers or Zelda on my NES – or online, starting with Gemstone III when I was barely even a teenager. Any other Gemstone fans out there?? :)

As for Adrian, well, he could probably write an entire blog post of his own detailing his geekery! Thank goodness he found me! We are truly a perfect match, with the same interests!

We are raising our boys to have a healthy love of everything and anything nerdy, geeky, techy, and scifi. Zachary adores Star Wars, can tell the difference between a Goomba and a Koopa, and can do a pretty good imitation of a Dalek (EX-TER-MIN-ATE!). No doubt, William will follow in his big brother and his parents’ footsteps.

So, it’s not surprising when things like this happen at our house:

ZACHARY SKYWALKER TO THE RESCUE!

Good morning! it’s a happy baby! I was so exhausted the morning I took this picture, but William was too adorable :)

Here I am before heading out to shoot a wedding with my friend Stacey! I love doing my makeup before a wedding day. I don’t leave my house some days, so getting dressed up to go shoot is fun!

I had to pick up some dog food for Maya, and Zachary was entranced by the snakes at Pet Supermarket. Even though he thought they were gross!

William and I went on a shopping trip to Publix while Zachary was at school one day. Publix gives out a free cookie to every child. Of course I would allow my seven month old to have a cookie – at least a bite :) He loved it!

Later that day, we headed to the park… the kids had a great time together!

William teething… no fun :( I think I took this picture just a day or two before his second tooth cut through the gum.

Aunt Amy came over to visit and Zachary showed off all of his dinosaurs. We all walked over to check out the line of lizards, and this picture was created!

It’s pretty crazy how fast life moves and how quickly life changes with a new little baby. When William was a month old, I will admit… life was tough. Just thinking about that period is enough to make me wonder why anyone could ever go through having more than two babies! Between the baby waking up 3 or 4 times in the middle of the night… the constant eating… crying and not being able to figure out why… hormones raging… no, doing that again is not in the cards for me!

So to answer the questions of those of you who are wondering if I am going to have a third baby… The answer is NO. :) A resounding no, in fact. We are very confident that our family is now complete with our two wonderful boys. I look at them together and I feel so happy. I cannot imagine life without the two of them! Adrian and I are looking forward to doing lots of fun things with our two favorite little guys. Even though William is only 8 months old, I feel like he is an old soul sometimes and has been with us forever. He is very bonded with me, Adrian, and especially his big brother, Zachary.

Sometimes, I wonder what it would be like to have another baby, especially if we would have a girl, but the truth is that we are definitely done. I have no desire to have another, and I do not feel “badly” because I don’t have a girl, as some have asked me. I only hope that one day I’ll have a daughter-in-law that I can connect with, and maybe I’ll have a granddaughter, too.

Baby boy has been waking me up early, so I’ve been seeing lots of sunrises. I loved this one in particular, as the moon was still full as the sun rose in the morning. So pretty, especially with the birds flying through the sky.

My Maya dog. I don’t post enough of her as I ought to. She’s such a good girl. She loves getting snuggles, and she is extremely sweet and loving.

I’ve been cooking a lot this year so far, and eating lots of eggs. I love eggs! I have been eating different egg recipes for breakfast. This is one I really liked, with an egg, avocado, quinoa, and sriracha sauce. Yum!

I love this shot of bougainvillea flowers. They grow all over South Florida and will always remind me of home!

A selfie I took in South Beach after a fun portrait session. The sunset was too beautiful, I couldn’t help capturing a picture of myself with it in the background!

I love this image of William enjoying his hot air balloon mobile. The mobile was originally Zachary’s, but when he grew out of it, we decided to put it over Will’s crib. He just adores it!

We spent the afternoon with my best friend Amy earlier this month and went to a little park near her house. The kids loved it!

We also had some excitement when a water main sprung a leak. The city sent crews out to fix it, first with an excavator to dig up the road, and second, one with a mini-steamroller, to flatten the ground again so they could pour asphalt over it.

Good times with my Zachary! I feel so lucky to have such wonderful kids!

Awww… my two babies in the crib. And their PJs are somewhat similar too. So cute.

Last week, we went to Boca Play Station to meet up with my friends Erika & Raffaela and their kids. We had such a great time! Zachary loved having some new friends to play with, and I loved having some adult talk with my friends while Z was occupied playing with the other kids. Can’t wait to do it again!

My favorite photo of this group… I’ve been trying to get a picture of William touching his index finger to mine for a while now… when you say “finger” and stick your finger out, he will touch your finger… like a little “ET.” It’s been so hard to capture with my camera, but I got it. So adorable! :)

5D Mark III | ISO 500 | 50mm | f/2.0 | 1/100 sec

I love these little guys SO MUCH. Their relationship continues to blossom every day. Zachary tells me frequently that William is his best friend. Every night he says goodnight to his baby brother, and every morning, he gives Will a kiss and a hug hello. William just adores his big brother. He looks around the room, searching for him when he’s not there. His face lights up when he sees Zachary. I’m so glad that they truly are best friends and can’t wait to see the mischief they get into as they get older.

We’ve settled into a good schedule with the boys. Zachary is very respectful of the times when I need to tend to the baby, and the baby is so good – very patient. Baby William goes to bed every night around 6:30-7pm without complaint – and Zachary is usually in bed around 9pm. I love the time I get to spend with Zachary after William is in bed. Since he’s in school all day, I spend a lot of time talking to him while the baby is sleeping and enjoy being able to give him my full attention without having to take care of the baby.

The baby recently started sleeping straight through the night until morning. Sometimes my alarm even goes off before he is awake! Even if he does wake up before me, he LOVES playing with his toys in his crib! He watches his mobile and plays with the various stuffed animals and the musical dog that is attached to the side of the crib. He really adores toys and anything that makes music.

William recently had another big milestone — he cut his first two teeth! I took him to the pediatrician on January 9th for his six-month appointment and lo and behold, a tooth had come through just that morning. His second tooth came in two weeks later on January 25th! So exciting! Zachary wanted to know if that meant that William could eat waffles, just like him!

William is getting so close to crawling these days! He is a good sitter and sits very nicely for pictures. :) He likes to sit in his play pen and play with his toys… and he still loves the jumperoo as well as the exersaucer… but he is sooo anxious to get moving! Zachary is super excited about the prospect of the baby learning to crawl and asks me at least once a day if he is crawling yet. I have no doubt that it will happen any day now. Right now he is such a portable little guy and is so good when I take him places. He chills in the stroller playing with a toy, or sits sweetly on my lap. I’m sure that will change, so I have been enjoying taking him out as much as I can. He has impressed quite a few of my friends with his good behavior. :)

As for Zachary, he makes me smile all the time! He is such a funny kid, and he is getting smarter every day! He still loves dragons and dinosaurs, he loves to go to the park (which I’m trying to do more often with the kids), and he loves to do pretty much anything with me, Adrian, or my parents. If we are going anywhere, he wants to go – no matter if it’s Starbucks, Home Depot, or to the drug store. He is very curious about everything and likes to know how things work, what words mean, and asks a lot of questions. He absolutely adores his family. He is sensitive and emotional and gets upset if he forgets to give me a kiss or a hug goodbye in the morning when he leaves for school. He says the most hilarious things all the time, and he is very creative. I love watching him play, and I love watching him entertain his baby brother.

I can’t believe I have a four year old and a seven month old! Time is flying much faster than I would prefer. I hug my boys a lot and think about the fact that they won’t be so little one day. I’m trying to remember as much as I possibly can of this special time.

Note: Zachary DOES have a helmet, however in our haste we completely forgot to grab it. Didn’t want to turn around after we got both kids and the bike out of the car, so we were just VERY careful.