my camera and my girl. they need each other, they do.

she is my lense’s muse, and i don’t know what these two loves in my life would do without each other.

it’s just what we do. it is so natural and normal for me to hold that camera and take in her loveliness. and while i am finding a balance between obsessively shooting and not shooting enough, i can’t help but think i will someday be forever grateful for taking it in. from somber cheeks, blonde windswept tendrils and a cherubic profile that looks exactly like an eight-month ultrasound picture taped deep in the pages of her baby book…

to the little things not everyone sees that will someday be lost in sweet memories…
like the back of those fragile little shoulders and the way her tiny ponytail shows just enough of the nape of her neck to expose her precious faded birthmarks where grandma and grandpa kissed her in heaven before they sent her down to me.

and tastes of our weekend…

oh, the box. the box of endless entertainment. oh, how we love a box.

and da mamas…

there are so many things she loves that are just blatant little carbon copies of me. i love that she loves what i love. and i would be just perfectly fine if she didn’t, but there is just something so incredibly endearing about seeing your girl find pleasure in all the things you love.

so there you have it. i squished in a little of her sweetness in between all this busy stuff. another busy week ahead, but our “busy” is settling into a new calm as it’s working out quite grand and there is always time to enjoy the small things. feeling blessed and inspired.

~k

back to eva cassidy.
because it works for this post.
works for just about any, to be honest…and i could drink this song and still be thirsty.

so, new life came into the world late thursday evening, welcomed with love and embraced by the incredibly anicipating hearts of my friends, sam & ryan.

his name is chase robert. and to be there when the door swung open and the doctor smiled and said it’s okay, you can go in…and grandmas and grandpas cried and ran to see their new love. well, i imagine it to be a bit like the gates of heaven.

my heart twisted and turned with the sheer love of the miracle of that moment. and, although i love my friends…i have to say even being present to a stranger’s love of their child moments after they met that little lamb. oh, the emotion. it is a magic like none other. a spiritual out-of-body experience.

my friend had a baby…and she is in love.

…and so is this boy’s daddy who couldn’t take his eyes off his sweet new boy.

congratulations, my friends. inspired by your new love. xoxo

and, i suppose that makes it a good week in itself. new life. new love. but the goodness grows.
i have a pretty big first communion shoot next week for a slew of sweet little loves and not being catholic and not being accustomed to taking such “posed” shots, i’ve been a nervous wreck on how to do this as i want. i want artsy. beautiful. vintage. and wanting to steer clear of cheesy first communion pics like this one much like i want to avoid the swine flu.

so, this morning sweet little abby let me do her shots early, and i am happy, happy, happy with the results.

and i ordered this on a 16×20 styrene board for display…

so there. from a first communion to the first precious hours of life, it just doesn’t get any better than that.

…enjoying the emotional-but-not-in-the-pms-way things. ~k

it’s a four photo-shoot week for me.
and a starting-a-new job week for brett.
and it’s during all the craziness of these kinds of weeks that i drink in a little more of her.
notice something new.
perhaps it’s guilt…from taking on new evening endeavors that sometime take me away from her.
perhaps it’s responsibility…to make all these transitions as easy as possible for her at the same time not over-protecting her from the gnitty-gritty beauty of real life.
and perhaps it’s a lovely concoction of everything not to mention a little pride that i am teaching her the whole mama-leaves, mama-comes-home is normal and real and that i love her all the more after short absences.

call it what you may, the spongey parts of my heart are soaking up little things these days.
like the whining-for-something that is slowy graduating into asking-nicely-with-a-please.
or as she says…”meesh.”

like discovering she likes raw broccoli. with blue cheese. dat’s my girl.
like crazy independence that has actually almost mastered completely dressing herself…minus a few criss-crossed sleeves or two.

like going to blog a little about what she does and realizing…there’s just too many new things to type (albeit they are jotted down a few times a week in her big pink baby book with the silky cover and the ever-expanding binder).

after a late night tonight, i returned home to happily find her still awake. i asked if she wanted to take a bubble bath to which she replied a fervent head shake, two shy smiles, a spontaneous living room strip and a quick-as-lightning streak show to the tub. and, say-it-isn’t-so…but we ditched the organic chemical-free soap for the indulgent ultra-sudsy, pink-dyed goop of mr. bubble. and we dimmed the lights. and mama didn’t read a magazine or catalogue. we just…hung out. in a tub full of butt-stinging chemical-ey suds. and it was so worth it. to just be. paint our chins with foamy santa beards. play slippery fish and trot-trot-pony, bathtub style. dunk her only god-forsaken barbie under the faucet until the water angled just right in her face to shoot back a sudsy spray for us, sending lainey into a fit of overtired giggles.

and then we snuggled into new sheets and cuddled. oh, did we cuddle. her in her stripey jammies and me in my snuggly sweats. and i thought to myself…see. you do make up for it. you do.

i hope every week isn’t this busy and crazy. but when it is…she’ll be fine. and so will we.

nothin’ a little cotton candy sherbet won’t help.
which, by the way…is absolute heaven.
super target. cotton candy sherbet push-ups. hello, sweet nectar of the gods. i’m just sayin’.

and last but not least…
the beach was drizzly tonight after a euphoric sunny sky had us teased there for a minute.
and, although we didn’t get a full shoot in…
these little dolls were unphased and spritely just the same.

taylor and ashton.

andrea, they are good listeners, good picture-takers, and sweet as pie. you must be proud, proud, proud, mama!

…enjoying the wednesday things. ~k