Sitter session with 6-month-old Ace

During the six blissful months that Lumariel and Justin have spent watching little Ace grow up, there’s been just one disappointment for his mum. That’s the fact that Ace has saved all his milestone moments for his dad!

Despite being a stay-at-home mum, it’s been Justin that’s witnessed Ace’s first smile, the first time he rolled over by himself and the first time Ace sat up unaided.

Dad puts this down to his one-to-one training with Ace. Currently, he’s been teaching his son how to crawl by getting down on his hands and knees to show Ace how it’s down. Ace has already mastered crawling backwards, but going forwards is taking a little more time! Nevertheless, Justin intends to be there when he does figure it out!

Justin is also hoping that ‘dada’ will be Ace’s first word. I believe there may be an unfair advantage here, as babies are statistically more likely to say ‘dada’ than ‘mama’ (because the former is easier to pronounce than the latter). However, Justin is helping things along as much as he can by repeating the word plenty of times!

The rest of parenthood, however, has been even better than expected. Lumariel and Justin are very careful not to mention this in front of other parents who’ve had a different experience, but Ace is already sleeping through the night. He’s very calm and content, only crying when he’s tired or hungry. The rest of the time, he’s all smiles, like here:

His parents tell me that Ace gets his chilled-out nature from dad, while his big smiles and love of being around people are definitely inherited from mum. He loves having his parents’ attention on him and isn’t too impressed when they both glance away (for example, when trying to eat their own dinner!).

The family are Japanese-American, and will shortly find out where they will be relocated next as their stay in the UK comes to an end. Both Lumariel and Justin are hoping for a return to Japan. They miss the food and their families most of all, and can’t wait for some proper ramen and sushi – the stuff here is simply not the same!

They’d hoped to travel lots last year, and really get to explore the UK while they were here, but of course the pandemic put an end to that. Instead, they adapted their plans and decided to have a baby instead, which has been just as big an adventure as going somewhere new.

Lumariel and Justin love taking Ace out on their local walking trail, and can’t wait to share their love of Japanese Anime, in particular My Neighbour Totoro, with him. They’ve watched the film about once per year and are looking forward to introducing it to Ace very soon. As a result of their passion for the film, we created a Totoro-theme as part of Ace’s Newborn Photoshoot with me, in which he was one of the smallest characters.

Now he’s a little bit older, here he is as the middle-sized character:

And when Ace returns in six month’s time for his first birthday and cake smash photoshoot, he’ll have graduated all the way to becoming the biggest character 🙂

I can’t wait to see how much he’s grown and hear whether he chose ‘dada’ or ‘mama’ for his first word!

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If you’re interested in a sitter session or family photography in Bicester, Oxfordshire, please get in contact.

Sarah Plater LMPA is an award-winning qualified, certified professional newborn and family portrait photographer based in Bicester, Oxfordshire. She is the Master Photographers Association Newborn Photographer of the Year 2019 for the Central Region (covering Oxfordshire, Northamptonshire, Cambridgeshire, Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire and Hertfordshire).