The Big Black Hole of Maternity Leave

As my maternity leave (sadly) comes to a close, I reflect back on my blissfully delusional pregnant days when I actually had the audacity to think that I would get tons of stuff accomplished on my leave.

On my list of things to do were:

• Reorganize the closets
• Frame and hang all of the wedding and baby pictures
• Read multiple books
• Watch the first 2 seasons of Gossip Girl on DVD
• Learn to knit (ha!)
• Clean the house thoroughly twice a week
• Make more freezer meals for when I go back to work
• Send out thank you cards for baby gifts

What actually got accomplished:

• Played with Beetle (Our name for sweet baby Quinn. Don’t ask. Somehow it stuck.)
• Danced around the room with Beetle.
• Sang “Part of Your World” to Beetle more times that I can count.
• Changed multiple “exploders.” (Thank you, Beetle.)
• Pumped and fed Beetle.
• Made silly faces and repeated everything twice (in Mommy voice) to Beetle.
• Washed the poop filled clothes from aforementioned exploder. (Thanks again, Beet!)
• Pumped and fed Beetle some more.
• Listened to more lullaby songs on Pandora then ever thought humanly imaginable.
• Pumped and fed Beetle yet again.
• Cried because it all went by too fast and I literally did nothing

Honestly I don’t know who I thought I was kidding with that to do list. I guess as a first time mom I had no idea how time consuming a baby could be. I thought surely there would be some down time. But alas, I was wrong, as per usual.

I didn’t reorganize the closets or frame and hang the pictures. I didn’t clean the house, watch Gossip Girl, make freezer meals or even send out thank you cards. I barely managed to squeeze in a weekly shower (yes, weekly!) much less teach myself to knit. (That is just so laughable it’s embarrassing.)

But you know what, I wouldn’t do a thing differently. I got to spend the last 12 weeks with my amazing little girl. Watching her grow so quickly right before my eyes. Experiencing the world with her as she discovered it for the first time. And that is more rewarding than any thing on that to do list.

Except maybe a cute knitted baby beanie.

Kidding!! (Kind of.)

Where to Unleash My Inner Tyra?

When we first got engaged I knew there were some things that I wanted that we probably couldn’t afford. Among those were engagement pictures, a videographer, and a month long honeymoon in Italy. (What? A girl can dream, right?) But I knew our budget wasn’t huge (not tiny either but not Platinum Wedding size) and I’d resigned myself to forgoing these far away dreams.

So imagine my excitement when I first realized that our amazing, wonderful, incredibly talented photographer (who you’ll learn more about later) could actually offer us an engagement shoot at a crazy low price when we booked her for our wedding as well.

I. Was. Thrilled.

And now our scheduled shoot is almost upon us and we have a major problem. We haven’t decided where we want to have them taken. The Boo and I have tossed around a few ideas but are obnoxiously indecisive on this topic for some reason so I turn to you dear readers. Let’s go over some options shall we?

First off, there’s Uptown Charlotte.

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We initially decided to move here because of the big city atmosphere and we fell in love with Uptown on our first visit a little over a year ago. The architecture, the streets, the whole vibe of being in the heart of our new city. I dig it. So those are the pros. Now the cons: I really love the skyline at night and I’m not too sure I would be as thrilled if I didn’t get a single shot of the high rises all lit up. Oh or the train station. Like this.

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Also, there could be a lot of people out on a Saturday afternoon/early evening so I’m not sure how dorky we might feel. Things to consider, people.

Next, there’s one of the lakes (Lake Wylie or Lake Norman.)

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These are gorgeous for obvious reasons and there are really no cons other than I’m not sure if our photographer would drive out that far. I bet she would though cause she’s super kick ass.

Finally, there’s your average public park. (This one is actually Freedom Park and not so "average" but let's roll with it.)

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I’m thinking this could be hit or miss. We might luck out and find some gorgeous nature trails and benches to shoot at. Or there could be 37 young, screaming children running amuck, throwing dirt, and causing utter chaos. You never know.

So which do you think we should choose? Or is there somewhere else I haven’t mentioned that we should check out? Let me have it!