What the?  Saige turned six months old this weekend.  Ok... hit the pause button.  Where has the time gone?  Just yesterday she was a baby, and now she's like, a little person.  Well, a little person with BIG needs, but still... Seriously, it's hard to grasp how much she's grown in such a short period of time.  I find myself thrilled each day Saige days something new for the first time, like the other day when she had her tongue poking out just a little and was blowing and making (probably unknowingly) little bubbles.   So cool.  Now, if she's still doing that when she's 18, not so cool... but for now, rock on.  I wish I could freeze those moments in time and just hold on to them.   This daddy thing has reeled me in hook, line and sinker.  Shoot, even yesterday we passed a new Honda Odyssey in a parking lot and I told Kylie, "That's a sweet lookin' mini-van." And I wasn't joking.  What the??  What's happened to me?  I tell ya what, though, I wouldn't trade it for anything either.  Before we had Saige I remember people that had kids consistently saying 2 things... 1) "Hahaha... better sleep now", and 2) "There's nothing greater."  I've found both to be true, although I can't really complain too much about the sleep thing because Kylie gets up with Saige if/when she wakes up in the middle of the night. [High five, babe!]   Every day when she wakes up in the morning and smiles at me the first time she sees me, regardless of how my morning's going, she makes it better.  When I come home from work and see her giggling with Kylie, it doesn't matter how great or how lousy my day's been, that's the highlight.  Now when I see funny videos of kids doing silly things, I laugh because I can relate. Conversely, when I hear stories of little ones getting cancer, losing a parent, or tragically being left in a car in 100 degree temps, it moves me more now because things like those are now my worst fears.  I feel like now that we've had Saige, God has unlocked this part of my heart I never knew existed, and it's an amazing thing.   I better get on with the images or I might decide to crank up some Journey lullabies and go totally sappy here on the blog.  Sooo... here's a few images of Saige from the last couple weeks as she hits the 6 month milestone.

Hey, we still have a dog!  Poor Mia... I think she's still a bit shell-shocked and longing for the days when she was our only girl.

Love my girls!

Strangely this next image seems to be foreshadwoing for what's happening to my hair. I think Saige is wearing my future do.

Moments like the one below are my favorite.  I turn into a complete sap when she falls asleep in my arms. I desperately wish there was a way to bottle that feeling because there's nothing better.

Kylie took Saige to the pumpkin patch last week and took one of my cameras with her. I think her little pumkin thug hat is funny.

Saige's big on the knuckle sandwiches these days.

Two words. Thunder. Thighs.   BTW, thanks to Kim Boyd for this rockin' onesie baby gift. One of my favorites!

It's not clear who enjoys bath time more... me or Saige.

We headed back to the Midwest a couple weekends ago to visit Kylie's family in Indiana and to head on over to Ohio for a weekend for my, ahem, 20 year (said in a whisper) class reunion. With weather in the mid-80's during the day and upper 60's at night, we were tempted to stay for, oh I dunno, the rest of the year.  Here's a few images of our stay at Kylie's parents' house in Indiana.   Saige loved her play time with "Grandfather Garry".  [NOTE: by the way, Garry, you do know that your chosen moniker will be next to impossible for Saige to say until she's, like, 4, right?]

Ellie the Elephant's trunk is Saige's version of beef jerky.

Love this sweet picture of Saige and Kylie's dad.

Saige and "Grammy". [NOTE: Garry, you should take a lesson from Tina on how to choose a short, easy to pronounce name for Saige. - grin]  Somebody looks sleepy in this image.

Yup. Saige foud her Zzzzs.

This is Saige's gangsta hat.  She's started pulling her hair out while she's nursing, so Kylie put a quick stop to that liitle fiasco.  I feel like I should have some thug rap music playing in the backgroound for this image.

Grammy and her grandgirl.

Holy cuteness, Batman.

Photo taken by Kylie's brother Bryce. He's a decent photographer... just ask him. He'll tell you.

Speaking of, here he is.

Bryce and Phyllis doin' a face-off...

... advantage Phyllis.

Bryce took my kayaking down the mighty Patoka River while we were in Indiana.  Other than my $2 Wal-Mart disaster flip-flops I picked up for the outing the night before, it was a pretty cool deal.  When we got back to the house, we had a little fun and grabbed a few images of Bryce in his kayak.  Can't be sure, but I think there's a "You might be a redneck if" joke in here somewhere.

There are 3 things I can always can count on in Princeton, Indiana... 1) Bobe's having the best Pizza in town, 2) some pretty killer sweet corn in the late summer/early fall months, and 3) Kylie's parent's cat's generaly disdain for me. Max has never been a fan of mine since the first time he met me years ago.

Garry loves his melons.

O-H!

Saige is almost 4 moths old now, and I was starting to get a little nervous.  I was starting to worry she was born without the chromosome responsible for a sense of humor.  I mean, in my own mind, clearly I'm funny. Just ask me. I'll tell you.  Don't ask Kylie, though... her answer doesn't count because she's built up immunity to my antics after two and a half years of marriage.  Anyway, Saige shoulda been laughing (or at least crackin' a little toothless baby grin) at some of my jokes, made-up on-the-fly rhyming songs, Neanderthal expressions and unintelligible musings all intended to see something other than a stone-cold, I-could-crush-you-with-my-pinkie look from our little girl. But all were in vain. I was ready to call the doctor and see if there was some kinda surgery or procedure Saige could have... you know, like maybe a sense of humor transplant or something. And then it happened.  Our neighbor Denise came over for dinner this past Thursday night, and after we finished eating Kylie and I were out back picking onions outta the garden when Denise casually strolls outside with Saige in tow talkin' about how she got Saige to laugh.  Shut. Up.  We told Denise to do it again because we'd never seen her laugh (and honestly I was a little skeptical), so she just did some little tickle move to Saige while kinda playfully twisting her at the same time, and sure enough... Saige laughed right on queue.  I was thrilled and so freakin' blown away to see my daughter laugh for the very first time. And more good news... I could cancel the sense of humor transplant.  Plus, a recipe for makin' Saige giggle had just been revealed to me.  [insert sound of screaching needle on a record here] Don't think I didn't try that little tickle move a hundred times the next day, and ya know what I got out of it?  That's right. Nuthin'.  No laughing.  No giggling.  Barely a hint of a smile for a nano second.  Obviously I don't have the magic touch.  So I'm left with waiting until Saige understands a bit of the English language to get my humor with words.  Cearly she'll be laughing up a storm then. In the meantime, here's a few images from the last couple weeks of "serious Saige".

I guess this next one doesn't really count. It's hard to even try smiling too much when you're sleeping.  I just liked this sweet image of my girls.

Saige and mom at Bathtime Babies at a local swim school.

She likes lookin' at herself in her play mat mirror almost as much as I like lookin' at her.

Right before her first airplane ride.

Back at the pool.

Here's Saige waitin' on a fist bump from her new friend Alex.

We tried a Bumbo seat with her...

... uhhh, not so much.

Chillin' it at the pool.

Swaddle fail.

Layin on my mom's lap.

Oops... how'd this get in here?

Tomorrow I'll be doing a "behind the image" post showing the original SOOC (straight out of camera) of this last image below talking about what I did in post processing to get to the final image.

I'm looking for a good home for my beloved 2007 Infiniti G35, so if you're interested or know somebody that might be, please email me at mail@mattnicolosi.com or give me a ring at 214-621-4264.  Here's the specifics on the car: 2007 Infiniti G35 Sedan - $20,900 All maintenance up-to-date Clean CarFax Non-Smoker Mileage: 53,701 Engine:  3.5L DOHC 24-valve V6 Transmission:  automatic Other Notable Equipment/Features: 6 Disk In-Dash CD Changer Anti-Theft Auxillary Power Outlet Dual Climate Control Dual Power Seats Integrated Hands-Free Bluetooth Voice Dialing Moonroof High Performance Sport Tires Seat Warmers This is such a fun, sporty luxury car to drive with a very engaging & responsive ride, not to mention it's very peppy (0-60 in 5.6 seconds).

So my mom's been saying for weeks now how much Saige looks like I did as a little one.  In fact, she joked that Saige looks more like me than well, me, at her age. I mean, I don't have any newborn images of me, but from what I remembered of the few baby images I'd last seen of me years ago, I knew there were some similarities. I needed proof, though, so I asked my mom if she had any she could bring over so I could see for myself. So, without further delay, here's yours truly 38 years go. Thanks, Olan, for this masterpiece. BTW, judging by the amount of photos my mom brought over from Olan Mills, they musta known us like Cheers knows Norm.  I know a lotta folks make fun of Olan Mills for his cookie-cutter franchises delivering, ummm, stellar images with craptastic props, non-sensical backgrounds and the incomparable "look-away" poses, but that guy musta laughed all the way to the bank.  He's the Ray Kroc of photography.

... and here's little Saige in a quick image we took tonight for comparison.  Holy crud, it's freakin' mini-me.

I'm just hoping her high school senior yearbook photo doesn't look like mine.  Actually, I'm really just hopin' her eyebrows - unlike mine - thin out over time.  Otherwise, I smell a wax job in her future... unless we decide to make her wait until after she graduates just to keep the boys away. Kidding. Just kidding... sort of.

And to finish out this post, here's a few more beauties from the Olan Mills factory with a little color commentary mixed in. Speaking of color, for this first one, who was the jerk that started this terrible trend of colorizing images like this to make the subject look like they were destined to be a freakish circus attraction?

I can assure you this is the only time I ever sat this awkwardly close to my brother's crotch.  Apparently the clown suit I'm wearing made it okay, though.

Nope. Still not looking at the camera.  I can only guess that Olan Mills had a company policy to fire any employees that photographed subjects looking anywhere near the camera.

Ahh, yes... the signature Olan Mills double-exposure. This musta been their go-to, cash-cow image because let's face it, what parent wouldn't want an image of their kids' heads floating on a black backdrop while seemingly gazing into their future... which unfortunately included plaid pants.

Joker pants aside, this could be a Revlon Shampoo magazine ad image.  I mean, look at that silky smooth, shiny flowing hair. You can't pull off those pants without great hair.

Wearing a leisure suit with a turtle neck leaning on a faux fence in a faux field... everybody did this in the 70's.  BTW, you'd think the photographer mighta pointed out to the parent(s) that their kids hair looked like, oh I dunno, a mole hill was growing on top of their head before they took the photo.  Not like they coulda missed it.

We musta been the smartest kids in school with all those books in our obviously-real library.

We are clearly outdoors in this photo. Clearly.  And I'm starting to realize I had the same haircut for the first 10 years of my life. I imagine my parents rolling me into the local mall barber shop and saying, "Give him the Davy Jones do."

Okay, let's deal with the elephant in the room in this next photo and get it outta the way.  Yes, the tear in the photo is in an awkward shape and location.

Hey, back in the library... in a tan corduroy suit.  Oh well, at least I'm not in a red corduroy suit because that would be ridicu... oh... never mind.