Our baby photography in the Potomac Falls, VA area comes with the bonus of getting to spend time with our tiniest clients during their portrait sessions! When they are not having their portraits taken, however, there are many things our little clients and their “chaffeurs” can do this summer in the surrounding communities of D.C., Northern Virginia, and Maryland.

Here are 5 fun family ideas from our portrait photography studio for Mom and Dad to do with the baby:

1. The movies. Can you really take a baby to the movies?! Yes, you can! Some area movie theaters offer movies that welcome and accommodate little ones. Check out these:
Silver Babies in Silver Spring, MD.
Cry Baby Matinee: The Angelika Theatre in Fairfax hosts a weekly Cry Baby Matinee for families with young children.

2. The Zoo. When the weather is good, head outdoors to view some wildlife at the National Zoo. Bring your stroller and enjoy the animals – as well as the exercise of pushing the stroller!

3. See all the fishies! If the weather isn’t to your liking, then head indoors to enjoy the aquatic life at the National Aquarium in Baltimore. You’ll need a baby carrier rather than a stroller as strollers aren’t allowed, but you’ll love introducing your child to underwater life.

4. Barnyard animals. If your little ones prefer barnyard animals, then head to the National Park Service’s Oxon Cove Park and Oxon Hill Farm for some farm-style fun.

5. Tour a museum. Don’t hesitate to visit a museum with a small baby. It’s never too early to introduce a child to great art; and pushing a stroller around a museum – especially on a slow visitor day – is a great way for the parent to enjoy themselves as well. You can plan on enjoying the museum’s cafe, too, so pack your baby’s lunch or a snack.

We hope you enjoy the many bounties of the Northern Virginia, Maryland, and DC area! There’s much to offer families with young children. If you’d like to schedule your next family portrait, newborn portraits, or baby photography, please contact our studio near Potomac Falls, VA.
 

Baby Photography, Baby Photographer

Ever After Baby Portraits is comprised of Mindy Belcher and Joriana Belcher Anderson, a mother-daughter baby photography team located in Sterling, VA in Northern Virginia. We specialize in timeless and emotive fine art family portraits, including newborn and baby portraits. Family means everything and capturing those precious moments to preserve forever will mean family heirlooms for you to share for years to come.

Best,
Mindy & Joriana – Contact Us!

View Our Portfolio | Ever After Baby Portraits

Working as a newborn photographer in the Herndon, VA area brings us into regular contact with some savvy moms and dads. As any parent knows, you’ll get plenty of advice – some unsolicited. But, a recent article in The Bump got us thinking about those “must-haves” no one tells you.

We might spend a lot of our time on baby photography, but we certainly have a lot of experience as mothers! So, here’s our two cents on some must-have equipment you should know about:

1. Yes, you’ll need a stroller but you should consider this: 1) buy two strollers; one fully decked out and the other for travel or quick jaunts to the grocery store; 2) buy an integrated stroller system (that’s the fully decked out one). An integrated system guarantees your stroller and car’s baby seat are compatible, making life simpler. Also, check for recalls before you purchase any car seat and the Internet for reviews on various brands before you buy one.

2. Every parent will need a diaper bag. Make it the best you can afford and one that can also serve as a large purse during and after the diaper days. If you’re going to spend a lot of money on a diaper bag, it might as well come in handy for several years! The better the quality, the longer it’s going to last through the wear and tear of parenting young children.

3. A baby carrier is handy around the house and on the go. Be sure to try it on before you buy it! They’re not particularly cheap, especially the better quality ones. Make sure it is adjustable.

4. A breastfeeding pillow is indispensable. If you plan on doing any travel, you might as well purchase a travel one as well. There are some good quality inflatable breastfeeding pillows.

5. High chairs are also indispensable – but travel chairs are even better! You can find a portable feeding chair to use both at home and if you head out to a restaurant or on a trip. These can save space in your home and do double duty because you can’t take a high chair with you when you leave the house. And, let’s face it, sometimes public high chairs aren’t in the best condition.

6. Clearly, you’ll need bibs – lots of them! High-quality cotton bibs that can take a lot of laundering will make life easier and save money in the long run. When your baby gets older, you can purchase plastic ones to cut down on laundry.

7. Good quality washcloths can serve as a bib in a pinch or on the road. Make sure you stock up on both bibs and washcloths and stuff some extras in your diaper bag and car.

We hope you gained something from our “wisdom”! We truly enjoy our work as a newborn photographer in the Herndon, VA area and we love communicating with our clients. We hope you’re enjoying our blog!
 

Baby Photography, Baby Photographer, Newborn Photographer

Ever After Baby Portraits is comprised of Mindy Belcher and Joriana Belcher Anderson, a mother-daughter baby photography team located near Herndon, VA in Northern Virginia. We specialize in timeless and emotive fine art family portraits, including newborn and baby portraits. Family means everything and capturing those precious moments to preserve forever will mean family heirlooms for you to share for years to come.

Best,
Mindy & Joriana – Contact Us!

View Our Portfolio | Ever After Baby Portraits

As Northern Virginia photographers in the Brambleton, VA area, we are always on the lookout for great baby, mommy, or pregnancy blogs. As a mother and daughter photography team, we understand the joys and the challenges of parenting which is one of the reasons we chose to specialize in family photography. We feel connected to our clients, and we value the opportunity to do their portraits – capturing their love and their memories for now and for future generations.

We thought we would share some of our favorite baby and mommy blogs with you in this post. We might love our family and newborn photography in Northern Virginia, but we also love keeping up with topics relevant to both our clients and to us!

* Scary Mommy is a very popular site with loads of information about all things related to motherhood and some interesting articles.

* Money Saving Mom is not strictly about motherhood but it has some great tips for all kinds of things and is worth a read.

* The Wise Baby is run by a mom and dad duo. It’s full of resources, reviews, and advice.

* Tech Savvy Mama covers all sorts of technology topics (gadgets included) and offers articles about child and teen education.

* Uplifting Families provides inspiration for parents and families. Who doesn’t need a little inspiration at times?

* Not Your Average Mom parents seven children! She writes about life as a mom and her take on different subjects.

* 100 Days of Real Food is about what else?! Healthy food and how your family can eat healthier.

* The Positive Mom helps motivate mommies everywhere to more positive about their lives and work. Topics range from personal improvement to finances.

* The Thrifty Nifty Mommy writes from personal experience and offers loads of giveaways,

* Single Modern Mom covers the challenges and joys of conceiving and being a single mom.

* Pregnant Chicken is as charming as its name. All things pregnancy, along with giveaways.

* Project Nursery offers great nursery decorating advice and moves beyond to all things kids related.

* Parenting Magazine offers plenty of advice and resources online without having to purchase the magazine – although a print magazine is always fabulous in hand!

* Pregnancy and Newborn Magazine out of Atlanta is a nice magazine with several blogs, perspectives, and giveaways. Worth a look!

This list is by no means fully complete! Please share your favorite Mommy and Baby sites with us!

As one of the leading Northern Virginia photographers in the Brambleton, VA and Northern Virginia area, fine art family photography is one of our specialties. We look forward to working with you and your child to capture poignant memories through our work!

Baby Photography, Baby Photographer, Northern Virginia Photographers

Ever After Baby Portraits is comprised of Mindy Belcher and Joriana Belcher Anderson, a mother-daughter baby photography team located near Brambleton, VA in Northern VA. As Northern Virginia photographers, we specialize in timeless and emotive fine art family portraits, including newborn and baby portraits. Family means everything and capturing those precious moments to preserve forever will mean family heirlooms for you to share for years to come.

Best,
Mindy & Joriana – Contact Us!

View Our Portfolio | Ever After Baby Portraits

When you are about to be a parent, everyone has plenty of advice for you. As a maternity and child photographer in Dulles, VA, we try very hard to limit our advice during our portrait sessions — unless a client asks! However, we often find ourselves in conversation with clients or with friends about parenting challenges. So, we thought we’d put together our version of a list of practical parenting advice no one ever tells you! (We got the idea from fitpregnancy.com’s list with some of their advice.) Here is our list:

1. Stop making fun of gadgets! Whether it’s warmers for wipes or bottle sanitizers, whatever works for you is the name of the game! Being a new parent is tough enough that if you find some cool gadget, use it by all means! Who cares what others will say?

2. Avoid regular doctor visits on Mondays! Everyone whose baby got sick over the weekend is there on a Monday. It’s a germ-fest! Yuck!

3. You will need a lot of pockets – like a ridiculous amount – whether they are in your coat or your purse or diaper bag. Being the parent of a baby means you have a million little things you carry around because sooner or later you will need them.

4. Get a super easy stroller to open! As newborn photographers, we see it all the time. Besides the million little things you need to carry around, you need to be able to throw open a stroller with ONE arm, folks! If you can’t open it with one arm, you’re setting yourself up for tactical warfare against your baby’s stroller.

5. Keep a water bottle handy. The Fit Pregnancy article recommends a reusable water bottle so that you drink plenty of fluids. We say ANY water bottle will do. If it’s easier to buy bottled water by the dozen and grab one or two on your way out the door, then do it. We realize it’s not environmentally friendly, but if you only do it in the early months of your baby’s life, it’s hopefully not too horrific. If you can, DO use a reusable water bottle! Save the planet while parenting a newborn.

6. Go to places populated with other similar humans to yourself! In other words, find other mothers with similarly aged children and go hang out with them. Make new friends amongst them. These are now your new people. They get you. They understand what you’re going through!

7. Treat and pamper yourself whenever possible – whether it’s a new haircut or the spa for a massage. Schedule it in and get it done! You’ll need it.

8. Your washing machine and dryer will become one of your new best friends. We hope you’ve invested in a high-quality one because you’ll be using it a lot in the coming years! One day, they’ll invent one with a built-in TV!

9. Join a book club to force yourself to read a book and spend time with other women on a regular basis outside of your Mommy circle of friend. Becoming a hermit is not an option. See #6 for context!

10. Keep a baby and child diary. Whenever you can and as often as you can, write down details about your child. You think you will remember every thing, like when they first smiled or when they lost their first tooth. Trust us; you won’t. Write it down. They’ll appreciate it one day.

One of the things we most enjoy about being a child photographer in Dulles, VA are the stories our clients share about their lives and their children’s lives. Contact us if you’d like to work with a leading family photographer in the Northern Virginia area. We would love to hear your stories!

Baby Photography, Baby Photographer, Child Photographer

Ever After Baby Portraits is comprised of Mindy Belcher and Joriana Belcher Anderson, a mother-daughter baby photography team located in Dulles, VA in Northern Virginia. We specialize in timeless and emotive fine art family portraits, including newborn and baby portraits. Family means everything and capturing those precious moments to preserve forever will mean family heirlooms for you to share for years to come.

Best,
Mindy & Joriana – Contact Us!

View Our Portfolio | Ever After Baby Portraits

As a portrait photography studio in Dulles, VA, we work with families and children pretty much on a daily basis. We have learned that the old saying: “If Mama ain’t happy, ain’t nobody happy” is plain wrong sometimes! We know that when it comes to photography and dining out, it’s more like: “If BABY ain’t happy, ain’t nobody happy”!

We have a lot of experience in keeping children happily occupied – and, it’s all about advance preparation! If you want to eat out successfully with kids, one of the best things you can do is to pack an activity bag. Keep it in your car, stocked and ready to go at all times. Each time you use it, pull out something new to pique your child’s interest.

Here are some tips to eating out with kids and getting to enjoy the experience – yes, we said ENJOY!

1. Pack a cute children’s bag and keep it in the back of your car. It should be a colorful tote or small backpack. Don’t forget to add new items regularly or restock it so the children don’t get bored. Then make a little trip to the dollar store and pick up a small cache of coloring and drawing supplies, tabletop mini-games, small coloring books, and, if they’re old enough, inexpensive children’s books. The items do not need to be expensive. They just need to be entertaining.

2. Keep in mind that young children have a short attention span. Expecting a three- or four-year-old to sit through a two-hour restaurant dinner is simply unrealistic and unfair to both you and the child (and the other diners!). If it’s going to be a longer dinner, be prepared to take your toddler out for a little walk-about.

3. Restaurants are for eating – but when it comes to children, they’re also an excellent opportunity for kids to learn and practice how to behave in public while dining out. We’ve seen parents placate their children to avoid a meltdown. As diners, we appreciate that. However, as mothers who’ve “been there, done that,” it can be the beginning of a tricky path to tread with a child. Allowing your child to misbehave (like throw crayons at other tables and hit other diners; yes, we’ve seen it happen) because you don’t want to say “no” and risk a tantrum is teaching your child that throwing things in a restaurant is acceptable behavior.

4. Avoid the “bewitching hour” as we used to call it. In Spain, families eat at 8 or 9 p.m. It is part of their culture and children are accustomed to it. In this country, it’s a different story. If you are planning to take young children to dinner, you should do it at a reasonable hour and, if possible, at their regular dinner time. If they usually eat around 6 p.m., then you should probably dine out around 6 p.m. Dragging tired and hungry children to a restaurant isn’t fair to them, to you, or, likely, to other diners. In truth, it’s not too dissimilar to when we’re taking maternity pictures of a client in her last months of pregnancy. We know many women aren’t comfortable in those final weeks, so we try to work around their best hours of the day!

5. Enjoy the experience! Parents of only children will tell you that they took their child everywhere. As a result, that child was comfortable in an array of social circumstances. Yes, two is twice the work, but that doesn’t mean twice the misery! Any pediatrician will tell you that if you start early enough with your children, they will adapt. Go ahead and take them out to a restaurant! You don’t need to start at a fancy French restaurant, but you don’t have to relegate yourself to a fast food joint, either. Remember, if you’re relaxed, they will be as well. Go out and be prepared to enjoy some family time!

If there’s one lesson we’ve learned in running a Dulles, VA portrait photography studio, it’s advance preparation is key! We carefully plan out in advance all of our portrait sessions, keeping in mind the family or person whose portraits we are taking. We always suggest to our families with young children to bring a few favorite toys and clean snacks. Remember: If baby ain’t happy, ain’t nobody happy!
 

Baby Photography, Baby Photographer, Portrait Photography Studio

Ever After Baby Portraits is comprised of Mindy Belcher and Joriana Belcher Anderson, a mother-daughter baby photography team located in Dulles, VA in Northern Virginia. In our portrait photography studio, we specialize in timeless and emotive fine art family portraits, including newborn and baby portraits. Family means everything and capturing those precious moments to preserve forever will mean family heirlooms for you to share for years to come.

Best,
Mindy & Joriana – Contact Us!

View Our Portfolio | Ever After Baby Portraits

This past May, Healthline posted their picks for best pregnancy blogs of 2016. We love their list and want to share it with you. As a portrait photography studio in Dulles, VA working with families and pregnant clients, we wanted to give them a shout-out here. Blogging isn’t just a great way for a busy business to stay in touch with clients, it’s an excellent way to provide valuable information to readers!

Some of our most engaging conversations tend to happen during our sessions as a maternity photographer. Pregnant women in their later months are often done with nesting, finished decorating the nursery, and are thinking a lot about how their lives are going to change with motherhood! There’s plenty of bonding during these maternity photography sessions.

But back to blogging! Below, we summarize a few of the blogs from the ones featured on healthline.com. All of the 2016 picks are terrific, so it was tough for us to pick just a few to highlight here. We encourage you to visit the Healthline website see all of their 2016 picks.

Note: We also need to give them credit because we used excerpts of their detailed blog descriptions.

Alpha Mom
Their pregnancy section features an array of helpful tips, advice for women who have had “surprise” pregnancies, information on trends like hot yoga and whether or not they are safe, and product reviews.

Bellyitch
Bellyitch is like the People magazine of pregnancy blogs. You’ll find celebrity news and fashion, personal stories, and tips and tricks for new and expecting parents. There’s a mixture of content, giveaways, and product reviews. It’s got just the right amount of useful information, mixed with tantalizing celebrity gossip.

Birth Without Fear
Giving birth can be a time for anxieties, worry, and yes, even fear. But it doesn’t have to be. January Harshe is the woman behind Birth Without Fear, and as a mother of six children, she knows a few things about childbearing. You’ll find personal narratives, including inspiring birth stories that touch your heart.

FitPregnancy
But keeping Mom healthy during pregnancy is not effortless work, and that’s where FitPregnancy can help. From the right foods to the best exercises and activities, this blog is all things healthy. We particularly like the interactive slider that allows you to select where in your pregnancy you are and view articles specific to your baby’s and body’s progression.

Imperfect Parent
Tired of trying to live up to ridiculous expectations of great parenting? Imperfect Parent speaks to people who know they make mistakes, embrace those mistakes, and love a good laugh. It was started in 2002 when the founders realized how many parenting blogs and websites were regurgitating much of the same information. They sought to provide something different: real life accounts and advice from imperfect parents.

Project Nursery
Nesting: the act of preparing your home for a new baby. It’s something all new parents do, and something Project Nursery can help with. If you’re looking to create a perfect room for baby or even a perfect crib, this blog has pages and pages of inspiration, photos, and DIY projects. There are also numerous giveaways and product reviews.

We hope you enjoyed some of those blogs! We know we did! Our Dulles, VA portrait photography studio has allowed us the opportunity to create this blog as well. While our studio has allowed us the opportunity to work with some fabulous clients each day, our blog has allowed us to stay connected to them! If you, too, have a blog, send us a link! We’d love to stay in touch with you through your blog.

Baby Photography, Baby Photographer, Portrait Photography Studio

Ever After Baby Portraits is comprised of Mindy Belcher and Joriana Belcher Anderson, a mother-daughter baby photography team located in Dulles, VA in Northern Virginia. We specialize in timeless and emotive fine art family portraits, including newborn and baby portraits. Family means everything and capturing those precious moments to preserve forever will mean family heirlooms for you to share for years to come.

Best,
Mindy & Joriana – Contact Us!

View Our Portfolio | Ever After Baby Portraits