15 May 2013, by Tan Yi Lin

Bloom Shoot No.2

Claire turned one month old on 10 May!

The scrawny little baby bird has put on more than half a kilo since then and is now a slightly heftier little bundle of cuteness. She has filled out all around and can finally fit nicely in her newborn clothes instead of swimming piteously in all that cloth.

Happy First Month Claire Bear!

We celebrated with family, friends and office folks all the way from Friday night to Tuesday afternoon! We’re flat out from all the partying – there will be no more kiddy parties in this house till Coco turns two in August (which isn’t that far off, really, gosh.)

Our little family (Blinky the red ghost not included)

Since it was also Mother’s Day last Sunday, we rounded up all the mums for a totally chaotic attempt at taking a group photo.

Happy Chaotic Mother's Day!

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Now, back to the real content for this entry. I’ve lost count of the number of times that I have powered up this laptop, only to get distracted by an impatient baby or some child-related errand, and return to it past midnight – to either shut it down or hook it up to the power adapter because the battery died in the course of the day.

As I write this very late post, I’m rushing to publish it before we have to leave in 45 minutes to pick Coco up from school – and I’m fervently praying that the little bundle swaying gently in the sarong swing won’t wake up just yet.

We did our first Bloom shoot with The Studio Loft in July 2011 when I was 34 weeks pregnant with Coco. We loved the results of the shoot so much that we made another appointment with owner-photographer Maryann Koh to photograph us again during my pregnancy with Claire at 33 weeks.

Although the babies were only one week apart in gestational age when the photos were taken, it’s obvious that my baby bump when carrying Coco back then was so much huger! In comparison, my belly looked tiny in these photos taken in March this year.

One of his favourite shots, according to Dannie.

For our first bump shoot, we went for the sexy mama-to-be look and took quite a few topless and nude shots, which Maryann captured beautifully. So enamoured was I with her work that I adorned my desktop wallpaper and screen saver with my favourite sexy pictures.

Now, back then, we hadn’t yet converted our study into a bedroom for Coco. So it was fine when the screen saver came on – there was no one else around except Dannie to see me in the buff or wearing next to nothing. In fact, we were so comfortable with the photos that we accidentally included a shot of Dannie hugging me while I cupped my naked boobs in the photo book celebrating Coco’s first year AND REPRODUCED FOUR COPIES OF THE BOOK FOR OUR FAMILY MEMBERS. Oooops.

Since giving Coco her own room, we have been sharing the common study with my siblings – and my sister’s boyfriend. I walked into the study one day to see my naked photos flashing on screen while everyone else politely adverted their gaze from the distracting photo presentation *blush*

As lovely as the naked photos from our first Bloom shoot were and a precious memento of my first pregnancy, we decided that we would go more fully clothed this time round. We didn’t have to be naked to be sexy 😀

The only naked parts were our ring fingers - we forgot to wear our wedding bands! But they are evidently not necessary for achieving that lovin' feeling.

Nonetheless, I still bared a little skin for the shoot.

Coco bumps into the Bump

And so did our little copy cat.

Yes, she has a big fascination with belly buttons.

The only thing we wore, other than our regular clothes, was a bright red snake to commemorate Claire’s arrival in the Year of the Snake.

A must-have for the Year of the Snake

It was incredibly stressful navigating the shoot with an antsy 18-month old. We had to bring my dad along to jump around incessantly behind Maryann to entertain Coco and make her smile for the camera. It was tiring but worth the lovely joyful moments that Maryann captured on film most professionally (and calmly too, I must add, for I was a bundle of hot, sweaty nerves trying to get Coco to cooperate!)

So very precious

I particularly love this shot of me and my two daughters.

Me, Coco and Claire

As Dannie is such a Star Wars fanboy, there was no escaping having to do another Star Wars set of photos for this round. We dressed Coco in her gold C3PO suit that my sister had sewn for Halloween last year and stuffed R2D2 into the luggage bag that we brought along for the shoot.

BFFs. Sorta.

This is my favourite shot of Coco dancing with R2!

Co3PO does the 'robot'. R2 looks unimpressed.

I donned the Slave Leia costume again (seriously, what else could I squeeze into other than a Chewbacca fur suit?!) while Dannie, after realising during the previous shoot how awkward it was for Obiwan Kenobi to pose romantically with Princess Leia, decided to go as Han Solo instead – Leia’s true love in the Star Wars series.

We sent the following photo to Coco’s teacher when she asked us for a family photo. Snigger. Poor Coco.

Family Guy: Star Wars Edition

Dan just had to milk the chance to play the hero in his sci-fi fantasy.

Protecting his princess love by blasting away the bad guys.

Smug. And this is where I say "My hero!" and swoon.

And they lived happily ever after

Playful Coco doesn’t “give face” though, hero or not!

MY favourite family photo from Bump Shoot No.2

And just to prove that we do dress normally like everybody else:

Our family

A wonderful moment beautifully captured - and to be treasured for years to come.

We are delighted with the lovely photos from The Studio Loft. Needless to say, we have returned since March to photograph newborn Claire at a mere seven days old.

Photos from Claire’s Teeny Weeny shoot coming soon!

(And yes! I did it – completed and published this entry just in time to go pick Coco up from school. And Claire is still asleep in her sarong!)

5 Comments

Tan Yi Lin

Yi Lin

June 11th, 2013 at 1:10 pm    


Haha, thanks everyone for the lovely comments.

Two months on, it does seem a little less stressful now. I think. But then, I haven’t factored in returning to work yet *wail* It’s a month more till I make the return to the office. Shall enjoy the maternity leave now for what it is – hectic or not. Things can only get busier from here!

Mandy Loh

Mandy

May 24th, 2013 at 10:37 pm    


Love love love all the shots!!! The entire family is so photogenic! 🙂

Yoke Lee

May 20th, 2013 at 6:43 pm    


Wahahahahah I LOL-ed at the “Happy Chaotic Mother’s Day” !!
Also, I love this family photo shoots overall, especially the “And they lived happily ever after” and the one after.

Stay happy, Yilin! Wish you less stressful days ahead~

Carol

May 18th, 2013 at 3:27 am    


Hi Yilin

I can’t express enough how happy I am for u n Dannie at how your family has grown and the two beautiful girls you now have. Blissful!

Rina Yap

May 15th, 2013 at 4:16 pm    


Awesome photographs! And Coco is so photogenic and poses naturally in front of the camera. Thumbs up for Coco!

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