Summer Fun

I started working on these images last week before I went on a short (and awesome!) vacation to NYC with two of my best friends. Coming back to them this morning made me smile sitting here at my desk.

We are very grateful to Louisa and Alex for the loan of their playset while they temporarily are without a yard to put it in. The girls had the idea to turn the slide into a waterslide and we tried it out one night last week.




She made this expression above many (most?) of them :)

Then she went and got her goggles. This kid cracks me up.



Eli LOVES the slide.

Went to a garden party

Derek brought home a cake for Eli this evening and we had a little party for him in the backyard. The girls sang Happy Birthday to him and helped him with his candle.





It's my party and I'll cry if I want to.


He liked his cake.

One year ago today...

...this little guy came into our lives. He makes us laugh every day. I can't imagine life or our family without him.







At 1, he is aaaallllmost walking. He's just about got it. He loves to eat solid food. He eats pretty much whatever any of us are eating. He particularly likes pizza and grilled cheese and all kinds of fruit. He loves to press buttons anywhere on anything. He sometimes plays games with his toys now, instead of just manhandling them. He likes to play with the girls Fisher Price dollhouse and he puts the people around into all the rooms. He likes to play the game where he hands you something and then you hand it back. And so on and so on and so on and so on and so on. And so on and so on. From this game, he has developed his first sound approaching a word. He says "da doo" for "thank you" when he gives you something or you give him something (or just randomly alot of the time). The consonant sounds aren't even close but he has the cadence and inflection and he uses it in the right place, so we count it as a word. Just in this past month he has started doing all these new things that show how close he is to breaking through to toddlerhood.

But he's still my baby.

Even more Eli

I have never walked out onto this boardwalk even though I drive past the sanctuary several times a week. This evening Derek and Eli and I checked it out. A whole bunch of images. I have even more to edit, actually.

Eli is fun and easy to photograph these days. He really finds himself so amusing. All I have to do is catch his attention and he is happy to grin at me.



It is always a stretch for me to imagine that one day Eli will probably be as tall and maybe even taller than his Daddy. He is such a little peanut now. But growing very fast.






He didn't like sitting on this little path at all. I liked the shot too much to toss it, though.


He stands very well now. When we sat him down he just wanted to eat the daisies.



We found this tree on the walk back to the car.


This last one is a new favorite of mine. I hesitate to tell you all the lovely comment that my wonderful husband made when I showed him the shot on the back of the camera. Let's just say he felt that the image suggests his son is particularly well endowed (which I gathered Derek didn't really have an issue with). Nice, huh?

More Eli

Some from yesterday. His mood improved by the afternoon, thankfully.

He didn't like standing in the grass at all. But he still smiled for me for a minute anyway.



This was taken during the big thunderstorm that rolled through. It was so dark that even at ISO 3200 F2.8 and 1/100 it was underexposed. I hard to sort of embrace the noise and go for a filmy, black and white look. I still like it alot.



A few in the studio.

Little patient

I took these in the backyard yesterday. Only a baby could look this happy when he is sick. He's drinking that bottle of water because he hasn't been able to keep anything else down. It started out with throwing up at bedtime for a couple of nights in a row and we thought it was some kind of food reaction or something. Yesterday he threw up all day. He's still remarkably chipper, though. At least one of us is.

I was glad to get these because it shows how well he stands by himself. I was going to post that he can stand confidently but hasn't really walked yet. Then last night as he was playing in the kitchen and I was sitting in kind of a fog secretly hoping Derek would get home before it was time for another bedtime attempt, Eli turned away from the cabinet where he was rifling through my baking sheets and took about 7 deliberate steps over to the kitchen table. So there. I should go write it down in the baby book before I forget.

My cousin Laura gave Eli these swim trunks last summer when he was tiny. I love baby gifts to grow into. Isn't he cute in them?

More outside

This is Eli how I often see him. A little ankle-biter hanging on to my legs to stand up. He so wants to walk. I imagine once he does I will get this view less often. Walking will be easier, but I am sure I will miss it.



The (partial) family portrait in shadows.


I am not a nature photographer by any stretch, but I thought the peonies looked pretty in the sun.


I wanted him to peek through the middle for this one. We didn't quite manage it.


He thought it made a good hat, though.

Wide Angle

I need some opinions. I have been playing around with this sun flare idea. I am going for the feeling of when you lay on your back in the grass and lift your baby above you for an airplane ride on a summer day. That's sort of what we're doing here. She is perched up on my knees, you can see a bit of my jeans in the one shot.

My adorable niece Louisa helped me try this yesterday. I purposely used a super wide angle. Both so that I could get everything in the frame and also becuase I thought the distortion would be kind of fun. I think you can't go halfway with the distortion thing. If you're going to do it, you've got to go all out. There were more in the series, but these two are my favorites I think.

What do you think? Fun and whimsical or wierd looking? Neither? All you 12 lurkers out there, seriously, I'd love to hear your thoughts. Derek has already voted for wierd looking, so you will not hurt my feelings either way. Honest, you won't. No really, it's okay. You won't.




Question: what do you get when you stick your camera into the face of a little baby eating his lunch outside? Answer: peanut butter on your lens.