And with the extended holiday weekend for Memorial Day, it was a long one – so let’s get started, shall we?

Saturday

Not ready for Bike the Drive, but maybe we'll start with Trike the Driveway instead

Filter: Hefe
Taken: Sat, May 26th, 2012
http://instagr.am/p/LGZVw2LBtf/

Riding my cousin’s trike while Mama is at the nail salon.

Sunday

Falling asleep with a good book

Filter: X-Pro II
Taken: Sun, May 27th, 2012
Location: Golf Mill Shopping Center
http://instagr.am/p/LI0rGhrBut/

Asleep in the car before shopping at the mall.

Shopping for matching hats for Father's Day portraits :)

Filter: Rise
Taken: Sun, May 27th, 2012
Location: jcpenney
http://instagr.am/p/LI4mHFrBhG/

Papa wants to find a matching hat for Father’s Day portraits with Christian.

Watching all the cars #indy500 #Snapseed

Filter: Valencia
Taken: Sun, May 27th, 2012
http://instagr.am/p/LJCqowLBnX/

After shopping, Christian caught the cars in the finishing laps of the Indy 500.

Playing in the pool with Grandma

Filter: Valencia
Taken: Sun, May 27th, 2012
http://instagr.am/p/LJZw31LBnP/

The afternoon ended with an informal family barbecue and some time in the pool for the first time this summer.

Monday

Watching cars out the window

Filter: Hudson
Taken: Mon, May 28th, 2012
http://instagr.am/p/LLshF6LBt7/

On Monday, it was time to head to Cindy’s grandfather’s house for a family dinner – and to watch the cars outside.

Sporting his holiday colors

Filter: X-Pro II
Taken: Mon, May 28th, 2012
http://instagr.am/p/LLtmKjrBu6/

And of course, having to show the holiday spirit with his red, white, and blue shirt.

More Instagrams

As mentioned last time, if you’d like to see more Instagrams, check out our new Instagram Photos page in the photo gallery. If you’re an Instagram user yourself, follow me as “krisnelsonphoto” and share your photos, too.

Have a good week!
– Kris

By browsing through some of my favorite Instagrams from the past few months, I took 18 of them and made 6 different rotating website banners for our website. And to introduce those (rather than expecting you to click different pages until you see them all) I thought I’d add them to this post.

Banner 01

Banner 02

Banner 03

Banner 04

Banner 05

Banner 06

As the summer months progress and our Instagram library grows, I’ll more than likely be adding to this list of six initial banners.

But for now, why not leave a note and let us know which one you like the best? And remember, if you’re on Instagram and wanted to follow along or share your own photos with us, you can find me as “krisnelsonphoto”.

– Kris

If to you, the name Instagram sounds like some graham cracker flavored instant oatmeal, then these posts are for you.

Instagram is a mobile App for the iPhone (and Android) that lets you take photos and share them online. There’s more to it than that, but never mind all that for now.

While we’re out and about during the weekends (mostly) or during the week, one of us is usually snapping a photo here or there, an usually sharing them via Instagram.

These posts will cover the photos and stories behind them (if any) from the weekend for those looking to catch up.

Here it goes…

Saturday

Vrooooom

Filter: Hefe
Taken: Sat, May 19th, 2012
http://instagr.am/p/K0eB7brBqM/

One of Christian’s cars, taken during lunch on Saturday.

After dinner smile

Filter: Valencia
Taken: Sat, May 19th, 2012
Location: Noodles & Company
http://instagr.am/p/K07fkTLBt1/

The after dinner smile after an earlier than normal meal at the mall.

Sunday

Baby's first taco #yummers #messy

Filter: Rise
Taken: Sun, May 20th, 2012
Location: Chipotle Mexican Grill
http://instagr.am/p/K3AFvhrBnx/

Christian’s first full taco at Chipotle for lunch (note: the guac wasn’t his).

Summer chillin'

Filter: Lo-fi
Taken: Sun, May 20th, 2012
Location: Starbucks
http://instagr.am/p/K3O6A6rBhY/

Escaping the 90 degree heat with a little downtime at Starbucks.

More Instagrams

If you’d like to take a look at more Instagram photos from Papa, check out our new Instagram Photos page in the photo gallery. If you’re an Instagram user yourself, follow me as “krisnelsonphoto” and share your photos, too.

Have a good week!
– Kris

Our Plans

To me, the gift in the day and how you spend it, not something in a box or a greeting card from the Hallmark down the street. And that’s what we had in mind for the loving mother in our family.

And about those plans, well…

You know what they say about the best laid plans. They can probably say the same for even the simple ones, too.

Really, that’s what we had in mind, simple.

• The weather was absolutely gorgeous,
• we packed a small cooler,
• we picked up some sandwiches,
• Cindy put on a very lovely, summer dress,
• Papa packed up the camera gear,
• and we all headed out to Riverwalk Park in Naperville for a nice picnic and portrait session.

Simple, right?

The Picnic That Wasn’t

We knew it was a great day for a picnic, and that was validated when we arrived at Riverwalk Park and found dozens of families on picnic blankets and enjoying Mother’s Day and the weather.

But there was no picnic for us. At least not outdoors as planned.

It wasn’t very long after jumping on the tollway and cruising on our did the brake lights ahead made it apparent that our arrival time was subject to change. But it’s all about how you respond to these unplanned changes that matter.

For starters, Christian was a true trooper. All we had to do was open the windows (since we were pretty much parked the entire time) and he was watching the cars in the northbound lanes whiz by and the planes overhead descend towards O’Hare.

Next up, Cindy took it all in stride as well. Not that she’s ever rattled by things like this, but given it was her day and everything deserved to be perfect, she was not going to let this ruin her day.

So that picnic that wasn’t? Well, we enjoyed our sandwiches right around mile marker 35 in our car.

At The Park

Although we arrived about an hour later than planned, we still had plenty of time to enjoy Cindy’s day. And after Christian had his lunch near the snack shop at the center of the park, we made our way to the same spot along the riverwalk trail that we took portraits of Christian at six months old.

And while we’ve quickly learned that getting our son to pose in front of the camera at his age is a lot harder than it was a year ago, we still captured the images that we had set out to.

If those photos don’t capture the moment and the spirit of our Mother’s Day celebration, I don’t think anything would.

Fortunately for us, the journey back home was far less disturbed, and both Mama and Christian were able to get a little rest while Papa drove. In fact, we made such good time on the way back, we were able to stop at Starbucks (where else?) and spend a little time enjoying our drinks instead of just grabbing them to go.

And with that, we put the wrap on a very memorable Mother’s Day, despite not everything going as planned. There was no fancy gift box, no flowers or card with words written by some stranger, nothing like that. Just a day spent together as a family and a handful of keepsake images added to the collection of what has been the best year and a half of both of our lives.

Perhaps this is the start of another annual tradition, who knows. But even though the official day has come and gone for 2012, Christian and Papa continue on with the remaining days knowing that this beautifully wonderful woman is the most important part of our lives. And always will be.

We love you, Mama.
– Kris and Christian

As long as he’s been able to walk on his own, he’s been obsessed with pushing the button on the elevator in our building. It seems like only last week when he was just half an inch away from hitting that button, but now it’s the first thing he sees when we walk in the door.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BV9wPDkmwPY

While not exposed to many stairs growing up, he rides in elevators like a pro. And as you can see here, he’s a riot to watch doing it, too.

– Kris

Time to grab the iPhone and capture ourselves another video, right?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yyJ1d01nJ3o

Forgive the video quality, the lighting wasn’t great inside Chipotle, but I did my best to adjust for it with a quick fix in iMovie (probably making it worse).

Who doesn’t like peek-a-boo with an infant, right? Well, here’s a bonus from Grandma’s birthday dinner back in January.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lW9qqJTqXCg

Too cute.

The other thing he’s started doing now – but haven’t caught on video, yet – is putting that blanket over his head and then walking around the house. As much as we’d like to record that, we’re more concerned about making sure he doesn’t run into anything first.

– Kris

This is one from March, back when we picked up a stuffed Big Bird for Christian. You may have been used to seeing Christian with his Curious George, but every know and then, you’ll find him with his Big Bird instead.

The video was shot at Hawthorne Mall in Vernon Hills, where we found a nice open space to sit down and enjoy our gelato from the nearby cafe (highly recommended, by the way).

Christian only had a few tiny spoonfuls, so I don’t think this little stroll around the mall was sugar-induced. It was more of an after dinner, “I’m not quite ready to go back in the stroller” walk.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=02LoDdvghHY

As you’re reading this, I already have a few more posts typed up and ready to go, so stay tuned for more.

– Kris

The following photos were taken before and after Easter dinner last month, and I wanted to pass them along for those that might not have already seen the printed photos that made the rounds shortly after Easter.

Then and Now

To make up for being a month late with posting these, I thought I’d start a new little feature in these posts showing the “then and now” of Christian at certain times of the year.

To start, here’s his Easter attire from 2011, at just 4 months old:

And here he was, one year later:

Too cute, if you ask me (which, of course, you don’t have to).

Looking forward to sharing more of these then-and-now posts as the year progresses.

Enjoy,
– Kris

This is one from April, and before you get the wrong idea…the cup is empty!

The running joke is that Christian has probably seen Papa drink about 500 of these venti chai’s from Starbucks since he’s been born, so the moment he got his hands on an empty cup, he knew just what to do with it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8IrvbBZhNsE

He seems to be using it more as a teething ring than pretending to drink from it, but it’s still cute.

Outdoors in March?

Although this post is from the first week of May and we hit 85F on Wednesday for the first time in awhile, the following video was actually from March 25th. Yes, it was hard to believe that we were outside without coats while it was still March, but shortly after that April brought us back to reality.

Anyway, here’s Christian chasing around his Uncle Bobby and drawing out the jealousy of his uncle’s dog.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nrTexyFen9M

That Hat

This is one of the first times it was nice enough for Christian to wear his new hat. Since then, he has received so many compliments on it, we’ve lost track. In fact, if we had a dollar for every time a complete stranger said they liked his hat, Christian’s college fund would be looking pretty nice right now.

Okay, maybe not that often, but still it’s at least 2-3 times a day whenever we out somewhere.

The really neat part is, he just recently started grabbing his hat off the sofa or wherever it is an putting in on himself (but only facing the right way about 25% of the time). There’s video – of course – but that will have to wait until we get the website caught up through this first week of May.

Stay tuned, if I’m able to keep posting regularly, there’s a lot more to coem and we’ll all be caught up in no time.

– Kris