…we take baths every day.

sometimes when we first wake up and the morning sun trickles in through the blinds on the big window above the tub and streaks the water with light stripes.

sometimes in the afternoon. on a whim. when it’s thundering outside and the warmth of a sea of bubbles is comforting before a long nap.

and sometimes late at night, after a long day. and we sit and soak by candlelight. or rather i try to sit and soak while she splashes and slips around, clouds of suds magnetically clinging to her naked little bum.

i like water-logged pruney baby skin.
and i like when big drips of water magically suspend from the tips of her wet lashes.
i like the buttermilky smell of her baby soap and how she can wash her own hair and fearlessly dip her head under the faucet to rinse it out.
i like how she spreads her fingers like mr. spock when soap gets in between them and how she always says mama-ha-ga when she’s ready to get out. and how we have no idea what mama-ha-ga means.

baths are mini vacations.
…and we take them every day.

(and if you’re in the naples area, don’t forget to take a look at the mini session offer on the post below!)

Mini sessions will be held at my house, weather permitting.
For more information, please e-mail me!

…the summerishness of giving the dog a bath outside. and seeing that it didn’t take long before lainey realized all it took was a pointed finger and something that sounded a teeny bit like “stay!” to keep latte in her ‘tub’.

(and, while we generally pride ourselves on having the appropriate dog shampoo, we were out and had to revert to non-peta-approved dish detergent.)

…which perhaps might be the reason she ditched.

…and today i very much liked capturing the second she abandons all the fun we’re having outside for a better offer…daddy’s car rolling in from work.

you see, this face…this smile and beaming eyes? it happens every day. it’s just today, i *clicked* it right when it happened.

…and that makes me happy.

…and so did swimming in the dark tonight, under this little sliver of a moon and far-off clouds that electrifyingly flickered now and then from a distant thunderstorm. and smiling listening to squeals from our little getting a swimming lesson from her daddy.

summer is here.

wishing you orange popsicle stains on your driveway…just like ours.

oh, why not make this fun?
how’s about a give-away?

summer loves.
come on.
tell me.
from sweet childhood summer memories of climbing trees to reading-a-book-in-a-hammock plans for this summer.

give me five loves of summer…past (hello…otter pops and my old purple jelly shoes), present or future…and i’ll pick two and send you a mini pack of custom-designed (by moi’) printed linen summer stationery. you’ll likey.

i’ll start…
summer loves:

1. her runnin’ around in nothin’ but a diaper.
2. night swims
3. having to move a pile of bikes from behind my car every time i go somewhere. okay, i curse. but secretly, i love the fact that the neighborhood kids choose our house to hang out.
4. sprinklers. i love sprinklers.
5. the summer perfume of cut grass and barbecue smoke, chlorinated pools and hot cement. and baby skin that smells like outside play at the end of the day. yeah, i love that too.

(and a very worthy honorable mention going out to summer corn-on-the-cob, seedless watermelon, memories of hanging clothes out to dry at my grandma’s, and the apache cabin i spent four summers in at camp catch-a-rainbow).

it’s late…time for bed…and it’s thundering peacefully…another evening summer serenade. sigh.

…enjoying the summer things. ~k