@mollyhemingwayphotography delivered the perfect birthday gift this week with these pictures! This one feels different than the rest because of you, little Hollen bear. My heart has been stretched beyond prior known capacity and I feel the luckiest that of all the possible outcomes in life, you SPECIFICALLY were the one that came to us here and now. I adore you. This photoshoot last month caught you at 6 months (how are you already 7 months) and capturing some of your adorable babyhood is all I need this year. Writing about you today because I’m no longer me without you. I’ve met a new version of myself from this time last year and I like her. I saw so many people do motherhood before me and I just didn’t quite get it and wasn’t always convinced I wanted it. But man have I had the wind knocked out of me by this baby love. Your smile and laughter is the highest high I’ve ever experienced. Can I stay here with you this little forever?! Thanks for making this year so rich with the deepest love. My first birthday as a mama, this is my favorite chapter of them all. I love our little family @jc.griffith .
There are a couple before and afters in this that blow me away, thinking it was you all along. And one where I’m journaling to you then cut to feeding you in the same location 🥹.
I might be running out of lung capacity, but my love for you, little bubs, is growing in anticipation everyday. 32 weeks tomorrow! Also, @mollyhemingwayphotography is the one and I’m so grateful @719studios facilitated our paths crossing! I’ll be sharing more so you’ve been warned.
I originally loved the early daylight hours most at @the719.studio , but I had a change of heart last week with this night shoot. I couldn’t pick one so I’m sharing a bunch of favorites that @jc.griffith took of me. I’m so thankful we have a space not only to share with other creatives but to explore for our own personal use as well ☺️. #the719studio #downtownla #peerspace #peerspacehost #nightshoot
2025, the most transformative year yet. The year of baby giggles, contact naps, co-sleeping, and a lack of time to get my to-do list done! We learned a new pace of life that is out of my repertoire but I wouldn’t trade it for the world. This little ginger bean is my focal point now and I love it here. Can I stay here forever?
I asked ChatGPT to summarize all my past captions for @kaylabrenda ’s birthdays and I’m quite pleased with this so I’m using it this year!
“How does a friendship begin on a
kindergarten carpet and somehow stretch-seamlessly, ridiculously-into every chapter of a life? One minute we’re building forts, choreographing talent-show masterpieces, coloring our car interiors like unhinged Picassos, and terrorizing Embassy Suites with our elite ding-dong-ditch strategy... and the next minute we’re cliff-jumping, skydiving at eighteen, dodging pandemics on “disaster tours,” starting businesses, and accidentally becoming adults (jury’s still out on that part).
Somewhere between foot-long Subway sandwiches and sepia-toned MySpace dances, you became the person who anchors my chaos and amplifies my joy. The one I can be fully unfiltered, unhinged, and unapologetically myself with-the human who holds my memories, my contradictions, and half my iPhone storage. You make courage look casual. You leap into every new era with that fearless, nuanced heart, dragging the rest of us lovingly along, insisting we bet on ourselves too.
Birthdays have always been sacred to us— less about the number and more about honoring this miracle of a friendship that’s lasted since our hands were sticky with kid snacks and our dreams were bigger than our backpacks. We’ve welcomed every new year of life just four days apart, stepping into time together, as if the universe wanted to make damn sure neither of us ever went first alone.
And still-after all these years, all these leaps, all these plot twists-you remain my still point. My pause button. My loudest laughter and my softest landing.
Happy birthday to my lifelong best friend, my soul sister, my common-law partner by sheer duration, and the brightest thread running through every version of me. I love you the mostest. Always.”
This baby is such a hoot! Five months this week! He’s growing so fast and is in such an adorable phase. Just aggressively trying to blow raspberries and full of smiles and giggles. Protesting nap time though so send help 🤣. We also went on our first vacation for my mom’s 70th birthday which was such a special weekend. We love our life with you Hollen bear!
My baby is 3 months today! Hollen takes up my whole heart now 🥹. There is so much to say but I’m tired so I’ll just write the things I want to remember at this age. Bubs is learning how to grab objects, he’s holding his sweet round head up pretty well (still a bobble head), he learned to roll over from tummy to his back (mostly out of protest of tummy time), he is great at making eye contact, he loves to squeak at Daddy and is starting to coo more, he enjoys sticking his tongue out at Daddy, his legs goes nuts kicking and kicking, he insists on being on us all day long still, he’s very wiggly, stares joyfully at his own reflection lol, loves bouncing, is tolerating the cats and is such a cuddly bear. I’m obsessed with this little human.
I saved this trend a long time ago… so special to share my version. I never had a scrunchie newborn, Hollen wanted to stretch out and wiggle from day one, but we made it work haha. We are so grateful he’s off the oxygen, that first month was a doozy. Can’t believe I have a ten week old now! *Yes this was sitting in my drafts for over a month lol.
There is nothing like the joy of watching you become a father to our little Hollen bear. Our ginger pumpkin bean. Happy (belated bc #newborntrenches) First Father’s Day @jc.griffith ! You two are my favorite sight on this planet. I can’t handle watching you burp his tiny little body in your arms 🤣. Also, Father’s Day and Hollen’s two month fell on the same day! The last two clips… I can’t believe how quickly they grow!
Mr. Bubs loves kicking his left leg like crazy, is smiling and mimicking faces occasionally, cries when I sneeze, hates tummy time, loves music, still hates sleeping anywhere that’s not on us, loves the changing table, hates the car seat and is the cutest cuddly bear ever! I could stare at him all day!
