Jeff and Ashley

I have been really behind on posting…Theo is closer to 10 months than he is 9…but alot has happened this month, so….here it goes.

The BIG news from May is that Theo booked and shot his first job – for Carter’s! The audition was a little crazy – babies everywhere! We have been to a handful of auditions at this point, and the drill is pretty much the same at this age. You arrive at the audition, sign in and get placed in a room filled with other babies (and their parents). Once the casting director or assistant calls your name, you take your child to a separate area where they quickly take a snapshot of your baby. That’s it. There have been some auditions where we have literally been in and out in 15 minutes. Others (like the Carter’s audition), took longer. The more kids they are auditioning, the greater the chance they will fall behind. Based on the number of people at this audition, I felt lucky that we got out relatively quickly! I ended up meeting alot of other moms from Theo’s agency – some were really down to earth and easy to talk to – others, as you might suspect, were clearly living vicariously through their children.

About a week after we auditioned, we got notice that Theo booked the job! He was initially booked as “back-up” but once we got to the shoot (May 3), he was upgraded to primary. Basically, this means that he was photographed. The actual Carter’s shoot was MUCH more calm than the audition. We were brought into a room filled with outfits and even a hair and make-up station. They had Theo change into a cute onesie and the make-up lady fixed his hair (so cute!) After about a half-hour, the director had Theo called to the set – which for this particular shoot was a large white bed. Theo was placed on the bed with two other babies…and began to freak out. Luckily they have special people on set whose sole jobs are to entertain the babies and try to get them to smile. At first, I stayed close by and in view – but this made Theo even more clingy. I decided it was best if I was completely out of sight – and that seemed to do the trick. He and the other babies looked absolutely adorable. I have no idea if his picture will get used for anything – but if we see it online (or in-store), I’ll definitely post pictures. We were told that the images from this shoot should be going online sometime in July…so we’ll see! Even if he doesn’t end up getting used, it was still a fun experience. Plus, Theo made a little side cash, which will go right into a college fund.

On a totally unrelated note – Theo is starting to get the hang of eating on his own! On May 12, we had a breakthrough. Theo picked up a piece of cheese from his highchair tray – and ate it by himself! He still prefers to be fed by someone else – he resembles a little baby bird waiting for the mother bird to drop food in his mouth. Right or wrong, we have been indulging him and feeding him instead of forcing him to eat by himself. While I would love for him to eat on his own all the time, at a certain point, we have to be realistic. We just don’t have hours to spend watching him mash the food aimlessly in his hand before he decides to throw it on the ground.

In other news, this May marked my first “Mother’s Day”. Theo stole Jeff’s credit card and bought me flowers – which was extremely thoughtful and very appreciated. We celebrated with the extended family at Grammy and Papa’s pool, which was great. He loves the water – and his cousins…a perfect combination!