Baby Portraits, Misty Days and Tiny Hats.

 I am falling completely in love with our new home in Oley. Every morning when I wake up I am blown away by the incredible beauty surrounding us. Yesterday I took some photos of the house and the land around it to show the folks back home - but seriously, it is like this every day. I feel like I'm in a fairy tale.

Today I am very excited to be doing some baby portraits for one of my dad's co-workers. I absolutely love baby portraits - and it'll be fun, so close to the birth of my own son, to get some ideas.

A woman from an online writing community I go to took it upon herself to knit several hats for Constantine. I am constantly amazed at how kind and thoughtful people can be - these hats are so sweet and they're different sizes, so he'll be warm as he grows! I bundled them all up in my arms when I got them and just spent a moment thinking about how adorable he'll be. I'll be 37 weeks on Monday - time is going by so quickly. I can't wait to meet him...

Snapshots from a life that keeps moving.

I promised my mom I would take some photos of progress moving into our new home. There's still a lot of unpacking and cleaning to do but it's all coming along nicely. This is our living room - and yes, it's purple!!! And yes, our kitchen is green! I told Nathaniel that being able to paint is the difference between renting a place and having a home. I am so happy with our new little haven, I can't even express it. Today we drove past horses and cows to get to the main road - it was so beautiful.

I have probably been driving my poor husband up a wall now for weeks, worrying about whether or not I would have the things I need in time for Constantine's birth. You would think with all of the last-minute miracles that have been occurring in our lives I'd be more inclined to relax and trust that things will work out - and of course they did. Today my sister threw the most lovely baby shower at my mom's house. It was really fun to get all of these adorable things for Constantine but honestly, it was just really nice to be with family and some people I hadn't seen in a long, long time.

Nathaniel and I received so many beautiful gifts for our new baby, all of which were precious and which we love. But I have to say, I very nearly started crying after seeing part of my Aunt Lisa's gift - a onesie with little owls printed on it. My grandmother, Omi, collected owls - figurines, artwork, etc. When she was sick and knew that she didn't have much time left, she had everyone in the family choose one of her owls. I chose a little stone carving of one, about 4" - and I've had it for over a decade now. I was eleven when my grandmother died but I loved her very much. That onesie was just so perfect. It's amazing how something so simple can hold such significance!

We are done housesitting on Tuesday and then we are fully transitioning to Oley, PA. I am looking forward to things quieting down and getting settled into our little stone cottage on the farm. Life is going so quickly - I hope I catch it all!

Insomnia.

The last several weeks I've had a near impossible time getting a full night's sleep. I wake up in the night feeling like every muscle in my body has been beaten up and it's just very difficult to get through the night.

The upside to this, I suppose, is that I have time at odd hours to do things - like edit photos.

We will be done housesitting in less than two weeks now and then we'll be completely transitioning into our new home. There's a lot to get done between now and then and I think that, coupled with the stress of making sure everything is ready for Constantine's birth have been contributing factors to my lack of sleep, as well. Coming from someone who obsessively makes lists and tries to organize every minute detail of everything, surprises and the great unknown are not on my list of favorites!!!

I'm looking forward to working with my talented friend, Hillary Petrozziello in the near future. Hillary and I went to Temple together and I've always really admired the way she sees things artistically. It'll be fun to let someone else's artistic vision of what my pregnancy looks like take a different spin on things. I'll keep y'all posted.

Milestones

A lot has happened since I last wrote. I'm 34 weeks pregnant today - which means Constantine is going to be making his debut appearance very, very soon!

Nathaniel and I just signed the lease for our absolute dream home - a stone cottage on a 200-acre organic farm. The owners of the farm rent out the cottage and the *enormous* garden next to it for an unbelievable price, and since Nathaniel found work in the area, we are officially moving to Berks County!

I also confirmed today with an old friend of mine that I will be shooting her wedding next summer. I'm honestly so happy - weddings are such a happy occasion to begin with, but this particular couple is so perfect for each other, I'm just so excited that they're getting married and that I get to be there!

In a week and a half I've got a baby-pictures session with one of my dad's co-workers. I'm really excited about this too, because as you've all probably figured out by now, I think babies are pretty much the most wonderful people ever.

On top of all of that, I just picked out paint colors with my sister for the new house and we've got to start moving in and making sure we're all ready for Constantine's home birth. 34 weeks is a good milestone, but it also means that he could really come any time now and we want to be prepared!

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P.S. I don't know why the color is desaturated in these photos but they look much better on my Facebook.

To have and to hold.

Nathaniel and I celebrated our first year of marriage on Monday. This photo was taken just days after we started dating - it's amazing to me how completely in love we already were. We just "knew" - and that was enough.

To celebrate the year, we headed off to West Virginia and spent three days on a hilltop, sleeping in a straw-bale house, making breakfast over a fire and looking out at the incredible stars that are so difficult to see in Philadelphia.

Constantine is getting stronger every day. He is a little over 32 weeks now and the past few days I've been waking up really early with a contraction - I get one or two of them a day now, it seems. These are pretty normal 'getting ready' contractions - not actual labor. But it definitely feels strange when my entire belly becomes this solid mass, like a literal watermelon is hanging out in there!

The calm before the storm.

This morning breakfast looked serene, as odd as that sounds. So I decided to take a picture. I need to keep my iron levels up, so I had cream of wheat with some fresh raspberries and blueberries and a light drizzle of honey. It was delicious.

Today at 5:30 I submitted the very last assignment needed to officially be done school. Not for the summer, not for the semester. I'm just... done. Considering I've been taking college classes since I was 14, this actually feels very strange. I think I'm happy. At the same time, though, I've always been used to having another semester to look forward to, another class to take. I love learning. I've had some really awful teachers over the years, but the good ones have made up for it, every time. Everyone is telling me that I'll have my hands full in two months and I know it's true - little Constantine is going to take up my whole world and I am impatiently waiting to finally meet him and give him a thousand and one kisses. It just feels strange to be done with one part of life and moving on to another.

This last semester I had to take a TV Broadcast News course in order to fulfill a surprise last-minute Journalism degree requirement- something I was not looking forward to. I kept thinking great, I'll be six and seven months pregnant with this huge basketball sticking out where my abs should be, all puffy-faced and hormonal and I'll have to be on video - somewhere I am not usually very comfortable being. There's a reason I'm pursuing photography and why I quit modeling all those years ago.

Oh me of little faith - I was surprised once more by the good that can come from an unexpected situation. My teacher, Denise James, was absolutely wonderful. Not only was she a wealth of knowledge on the topic of story presentation and the newsroom, she was just an inspiring, kind person.

I had pretty much resigned myself to graduating with this degree and never really using it - I mean, I have every intention of continuing with photography, but my degree says "Journalism" and I'm, well, about to have a baby. I can't exactly work for National Geographic right now. Professor James encouraged me to find ways to continue working with what I'm passionate about (you all know, that's pretty much babies, home birth and "natural mommy" stuff). And I think I'm going to do it.