Jake and Gabriella

Our next door neighbors are the best neighbors anyone could ask for. They are friendly and kind, thoughtful and cheerful, accommodating and gracious, funny and entertaining. They have a pre-teen daughter named Kristin who is the most polite and sincere young lady I have ever met. The have another daughter, Gabriella, who is about six months older than Jake and we have all really enjoyed watching the two of them together over the past year. They laugh together and jump and dance and hop and squeal. They speak their own language and understand each other. It is the cutest thing ever. I always forget to grab my camera when they are playing together. But not this time! :)

How cute is she??


Jake's favorite - GECKO!!!


Gabriella schools Jake on the ways of the sand and water table....


Even our dogs are friendly with each other! :)


Sand. Is. Awesome.






Along with Jake's first time on a trampoline comes another first - the exterior of our home on the blog! (The house with the green trim)

By the Numbers...

It has been a wild and crazy past few days. I am not going to feel bad for not posting because I don't even think I had time to breathe. Thank God breathing and blinking become involuntary...

3 - Number of states where I spent at least 12 hours of my Memorial Day Weekend
466 - miles I have travelled since friday morning
2 - Number of weddings I attended/photographed in a 24 hour period
1 - time in the morning I got home from shooting a wedding in Connecticut
6 - time in the same morning we planned to leave for Boston
12 - time in the afternoon we actually left for Boston
6 - pairs of shoes I brought to Boston
1 - pairs of shoes I had to buy in Boston after my other shoes made my feet bleed
3 - number of cute shirts I bought while shopping with my dear friend Chrissy in Boston
2,814 - number of miles away that my dear friend Chrissy lives
1 - number of bedrooms my mother-in-law and I cleaned out yesterday
11 - number of bags of clothing taken to Goodwill last night
9 - number of bags of trash put on the curb this morning
2 - giant gulps of NyQuil I took during the night
37 - approximate number of tissues I have used in last 24 hours
14 - approximate number of Cold-Eeze and Zinc tablets I have consumed in last 24 hours
2 - number of days since I have seen Jake :(
4 - number of days until I see Jake again :(
11 - time until which I slept this morning since my mom has Jake for the week :)
434 - number of miles my parents travelled to come pick up Jake over Memorial Day weekend
4.35 - the price of gas per gallon at the nearest Mobil station
2 - number of weddings I still have to photograph within a week
1 - number of engagement sessions I still have to photograph within a week
1 - the number of times we danced the Hava Nagila over the weekend
3 - the number of times Ralph mentioned that he wished the Hava Nagila was played at ALL weddings ;)
82 - the temperature right now in my non-air conditioned house - Oy vey!

To Do List

• Go grocery shopping with a crazed toddler in a cart the size of a Cadillac
• Spend $7.99 on a watermelon that weighs more than crazed toddler
• Figure out how to carry said watermelon and crazed toddler into the house without dropping either one
• Give Jake and Ruthie some strawberries while you put away the groceries
• Find out what it feels like to step on a strawberry while wearing shoes
• Find out what it feels like to step on a banana in your bare feet
• Spend half an hour on your hands and knees cleaning up mashed fruit
• Buy more Resolve carpet cleaner
• Do the laundry
• Clean up the office

Exploration under the Crib

Under Jake's crib is a wonderland of storage space, body pillows, and general fort-like mysterious-ness that is usually habitated exclusively by the dog.

It's a very dark space in an otherwise bright yellow room. I crawled on the floor to quietly capture Jake's exploratory mission to the underbelly of his crib. (The dog wisely chose to seek asylum elsewhere.)


















For all you photographers out there, here is the info: ISO 1600, 50mm, f/1.4, 1/40 sec (no flash).

Raining Yogurt

Jake sucked down the first tube of organic yogurt and immediately asked for another. I happily obliged.

A moment later, hysterical laughter. I have learned this is not usually a good sign from my toddler boy.

I turn around to see him spinning with the yogurt tube and announcing the following: "Raining Mommy! Raining YOOOOOGURT!"

Oh. Crap. I take a moment to assess the situation.

The TV cabinet has been showered.


The toddler has been showered.


The floor has been showered. (Ruthie helped to clean up most of that thankyouverymuch)


The toy baskets have been showered.


The couch has been showered.


Apparently, it only takes one little yogurt shower to completely make a mess. Ugh. But of course I reached for the camera before the baby wipes... tee hee.


And poor little Ruthie (among other things) still has a few spots of dried yogurt I haven't gotten out of her fur...

Wordless Wednesday

(Reflected in our bathroom mirror)

The reason why I need to squeeze him 12 times a day:

I mean, seriously?? Don't you want to squeeze him right now through your monitor??? I even made up a song about wanting to squeeze him. The lyrics are ground-breakingly creative: "I want to SQUUUUUEEEEEEZE yoooooou! I want to squuueeeeeze yoooooouuuuu....." I pinch him gently about the cheeks, neck, chin, shoulders and chest. He giggles and squeals with delight. Then he says "NO!," and then says: "Again!"




One of Jake's other favorite funny things to do is have me smell his feet and then pretend I'm going to vomit from the stench. Really. It brings him to fits of hysterics. He has taken to smelling his own feet now, and waving his hand in front of them afterwards: "Peeeeeee-yyyyyyeeeeeewwwww!"




Every day I thank the good Lord for providing me with my camera. Because it takes me five frames per second, for fifteen minutes, and 178 total shots (many of which were out of focus or oddly composed since I was often shooting with one hand and getting him to laugh while my eye was away from the viewfinder), and dodging water so as not to ruin aforementioned blessed camera, to get this. But it is SOOOO worth it!!! :)

Wordless Wednesday

(Well, almost wordless: Just wanted to assure everyone that Ruthie is simply yawning, not getting ready to eat Jake. tee hee.)

Two Years Ago Today

I have a ton of work to get done today but I got distracted by this image when I was browsing through my files in Lightroom. This was a photograph of Jake from exactly two years ago today. I vividly and distinctly remember taking this picture. Jake was just over a month old and had lost most of the hair on the top of his head. I thought this was the most beautiful he had ever looked so far. It was an afternoon that I spent in bed with Jake while I was still on maternity leave. I think it was a Saturday. Jake wasn't in a particularly good mood that day, but I spent about an hour or so photographing him and Ralph and Ruthie on our bed, with my Rebel XT and my kit 18-55 lens. I was purely a novice when I shot this. I hadn't really started my photography career and I was still a week away from shooting my first wedding. But I look back at this picture and I am proud of it today. No, this is not exactly what it looked like when I shot it, I took it into Photoshop today and used some of my favorite Kubota actions on it, but I decided against airbrushing away the piece of dog hair on his onesie, the tiny baby acne under his chin and the stork bite between his eyebrows. I want to remember him just as he was that day, my perfect, plump, beautiful, balding baby boy.

Our Precious Girl

I just thought it was time for my favorite Boston Terrier to be featured on the blog since her little brother has, so far, stolen all the limelight.


Our little girl Ruthie sits dutifully under my desk for hours a day as I scrutinize the images on my monitor and click-click-click with the mouse. She will sometimes stand on her back paws to press a cold wet nose into my arm when she thinks it's time for a break. (As is the case in this image.) Occasionally, she'll decide to sit on my lap and assist with the editing process. But mostly, she is content just keeping me company.

On Wednesday, it will be three years that Ruthie has been a part of our family, since we rescued her (all 17 starved pounds of her) from a shelter in Delaware on Mother's Day weekend 2005. Ralph (who was not a 'dog person') somehow managed to fall in love with her. Ruth had stolen my heart immediately. She curled up with me all 9 months of the pregnancy and was at the front door to welcome Jake when we brought him home from the hospital. Jake has grown to love her every bit as much as we do, and it's hard to remember what life was like before we had her.

My public service announcement in honor of Ruthie: If you are considering adding a pet to your family, please consider a shelter dog first. So many shelters are overcrowded with dogs (and cats) that may never find a home, and you could be a pet's last chance at life. And please, remember to spay and neuter your pets so that more animals do not end up in the shelters.