She is beautiful beyond comprehension.

She is tiny, teeny tiny, but packs a punch.

She doesn’t call me mama or mummy… just Mom (“C’mon Mom”).

She is entranced with her brother and whatever he does, no matter how big, she must do it too.

She climbs and contorts herself into the smallest spaces you could ever imagine (toy cubbies 3 feet off the ground, into kitchen cabinets, the 6″ space in between the top of a stool and the underneath of the countertop).

She knows what she wants and how she wants it (“Janey do it by herself… it’s Janey’s turn now.”)

She has a Who voice from Whoville.

She is the mouse.

She is an angel at school.  They want 20 of her.

She loves red patent leather boots.

She burps very loud.  And very often.  Then says “scoos me” and laughs.

She only wears things that her Dad tells her are very pretty.

She can count to ten in Greek and English.

Her favorite song is Itsy Bitsy Spider.

She loves to have her teeth brushed.

She loves to say “Scooby Doo… where are yooooouuuuuu?”

She sleeps the best when I am sleeping with her and she is tucked as tight as she can be to my side… but she hates blankets.

Her best friends are Sosie and Nah-nah.

She is amazing.

But the boy is four and he is MY boy.  He is an extension of me in the truest sense possible.  I know what is coming out of his mouth before he does.  I know how he constructs his thoughts.  I know when he’s being fresh and when he’s really sad and confused.  I know what makes him happy and I know just by a look in his eye that he is going to tell me that his heart is super happy.  He has my attention span.  He has my obsessive pestering habit.  He is persistent and relentless.  He wants to know how it all works and how it all ads up and where it all fits together.

His favorite color is blue.  Sometimes red because it’s faster.  He knows my favorite color is orange.

His two favorite activities are riding his bike and playing Candy Land.

He loves a nice warm shower.

He likes to help his dad do whatever his dad is doing.

He loves his sister and she is the bane of his existence.

He doesn’t like to nap, but he loves to be snuggled.

He wants to hear made up stories about the old train in the abandoned shed.

He is a dancing fool.

He loves Scooby Doo.

He starts his sentences with the word “actually.”

He loves Mrs. Fellows and Jessie (both of them) and Jackie and Rachael and pretty much every other woman or girl he’s ever met.

He knows all the words to almost every single song on “Free to be You and Me” and we sing them every morning.

He can ride on a boogie board and swim across the pool with swimmies.

He wants to grow up so he can play ping pong with the bigger boys but he promises he’ll stay my big baby.

Long story short, yesterday Stephanie says “I have a friend Jimmy with a great boat and he’s taking us out this afternoon… can you get a sitter for…” and before she finished the sentence we pretty much roped Rachael into the deal.  Just like no time had passed, in an instant I had to cooler packed with beer and wine on ice, plastic wine glasses, and a life jacket for the boy. [Owen was heading out on said Puleo boat to do some fishing -- not catching -- of his own].

We had a blast.  The weather was perfect.  The kids were awesome.  The girls just rock.  Like rock like it would be fun to just velcro myself to them for a few weeks just to sink into their fun-ness.  And Capt Jimmy was beyond patient with three kids and three chicks that didn’t belong to him.

So now I have the bug back.  I don’t care if it takes 10 more years (yes, I’ll be 50 then).  I am getting myself a boat.  It can be little (ideally wooden)… it can be a stinking row boat… but I will have me a boat!

I thought it would be fun to share the slideshow.  I never proof this many personal images in one sitting, but for some reason, these got done.  Oh, wait, I know why they got done.  Someone said “Yeah, right, and we’ll never sees these in our lifetime.”   She’s a smartass, that one.  Anyway, yeah, I have a complex after hanging out with these girls.  Yeah, I hope Christofer marries Gracie.  Yeah, I know there are a lot of me at the end and no, I am not totally thrilled with myself, but honestly, it’s me, so there I am.  And yeah, I am obsessed with Christofer and his almost-4-year-old self.

[click on image to start slideshow]

And on another note, I am uncalibrated.  There is a good chance that my colors and contrast are just WAY out of whack.  Test prints come in Tuesday and I’ll know for sure what needs to be fixed.

But more important, I went out and found a total “stranger” photographer to shoot a session for me this summer.  I have so many very talented photographer friends… in fact, I am really looking forward to a swap with Jennifer this summer… but I wanted to find someone who doesn’t know us, and more importantly, shoots and processes incredibly different than me and would treat me like a client, and I would pay like one.  So I tracked down an extremely talented woman whose blog I stalk and begged and pleaded (actually, she was cool and said yes right away!) and so we have set up our session for sometime this summer!  It’s a 5 year anniversary present to us.  I am hoping it’s also a “Congrats on losing all the weight” present to me.  I really can’t wait!

Until you can see her artistic wizardry, here we are.  [And yes, I'll post who she is a little closer to the session!].

I see this one and I just scream “MUFFIN CUPCAKE!!!!!!!!!” and Owen rolls his eyes at me.

We had a tough love talk.  “If you don’t smile, you get cropped out of the picture.”  “You’ll take me out?  Don’t you love me anymore?”  “Oh boy.  Never mind.  You’ll just be the only one in the picture making a funny face.”  I am guessing this was a good conversation to have with my own child, not so much with a client’s.  As he would say “these make my heart feel so happy.”

These make my heart more than happy.  These make my heart sing songs.  Really.  Until it becomes painfully obvious that I have given both of my children matching combovers.  They are so young, do they need a part so low?

If you’d made it this far, you’d know that I actually thought this title was perfect because I thought it was Monday. Until I realized it was Wednesday.  Except that is after midnight so it’s Thursday.  So I edited the title, sort of embarrassed.  Until I went back and looked again and saw the date said Wednesday.  So now I look like a dope.  Like everything else that is too big for me to wrap my brain around “it is what it is.”  Good night.

Thank you! It was awesome!

She captured this one which I love. I wish I’d remembered to switch up to all focus points when I handed her my camera though… she did make me laugh with the “can’t you just put this thing on Auto?” [and yes, there will be a workshop for that coming soon].

Brain will be back on Wednesday for all of you people I owe things to!  Happily missing the floods at home, loving the weather down here!

Now scroll down and vote for the cutest nursery… go… now, seriously, go…

Canvases! My dining room is covered in canvases… they are slowly making their way back out the door.  If you are waiting on a canvas from me, except for Lisa, they are all in!  What a huge success!  I ordered about 30 canvases in January and February and was so impressed and inspired by them, I created more canvas packages that give you a great discount and are fabulous add-ons to my digital packages.  Those will all be announced and released March 1.

[Note that I STILL have out those upholstery samples... I hope I am not being charged!]

ISIS Display! I finally made my way back into ISIS Maternity to hang up more for my display.  It has been a million mile road for me to get back there when you combine trying to find a day when I don’t have my kids and they don’t have a class in session… then add in that Owen, inadvertently, drove over a FedEx delivery of canvases that was leaning against the garage door… so there was a re-order… and finally (with kids in tow), I was able to make it into the Prudential Center yesterday.  My display is in the Charlestown Room, go check it out!  I also left some cards for the Nursery Contest, so you can pick up hard copy details!

[Just to give you an idea of Go Big or Go Home... I have EIGHT 16X20 canvases in this room and it still feels naked.]

Taylor Made Sweets: I am working on a display for the big orange wall at this fabulous Bakery in South Hamilton (in the shopping center with Viola and Crosby’s Market].  I shot one session with Taylor herself and her two beautiful friends.  I am so excited to head back there on Wednesday and work with the little kiddos.  I think I have enough kids, but if you are local to the North Shore and have kids between 3-6 and want to come in for some photos and ice cream at 10:45AM on Wednesday, please email me (using the contact form on the blog), and we can see if we can squeeze you in!

More to come from this session when I get my act in gear!

The Nursery Contest. Still going on, send in your entries.  I might extend the date simply because when the initial round of judging is meant to be happening, I will be shooting a Newborn, a Maternity and  Family session (with possibly an infant session squeezed in as well) + packing up the kiddos so we can head to Naples.  So I am not sure I can get it together during those dates and would love to give people more time to enter!  Details are over on the sidebar tab!

And to end, just one quick snapshot of the Boy and his grandmother from our visit last weekend.  There are a bunch of cute ones, but you know I get to proofing the family last and so this might be the only one that ever sees the light of day!  He had such a good time!

I shot almost this exact same series last year and I loved it.  When I started shooting today, Christofer actually said “mom, we have to take off our shirts and go to Janey’s room, it’s brighter”  Love him and his insane memory for detail.  He even knew he should lay down and try to talk to her from a pillow.

Anyway, these are going to be the start of the gallery on the 2nd floor so I can see them every single day when I get up in the morning.  I am so excited!

[i could lick the side of his face like an ice cream cone, i love him so much.]

[eyes no longer blue... just green... just lovely green.  mulletectomy happened last week... attached to my hip, my girlfriend is.]