mI haven’t posted any images of Allison in QUITE a while. There’s a very good reason for that – she’s 18 months old now!! LOL. I know all of you moms out there know exactly what I mean without even describing it. But trying to get images of a child once they’re walking is like scraping cheese off the moon. (wow I’m not sure where THAT analogy came from – but whatever!) A little backstory: when I found out we were expecting another little girl – I was just elated. I was so excited to go through the princesses again, to buy little bows and ruffles and pink toys…I love it all – LOVE it. Well, one of the things I bought was the PERFECT outfit for her 18 month pictures. Why 18 months you say? WELL – I knew she’d be standing by then and the dress wouldn’t get all bunched up of course!!! So I bought the dress -now almost 2 years ago- and have taken it out periodically to think about the perfectly posed portraits I would make of her in that beautiful little dress. (OK insert screeching record against a needle sound here and fast forward to realityville). I started attempting Allison’s 18 month pictures A MONTH ago (2 weeks before the mark). We’ve been to the beach, we’ve been to the park, we’ve been to the duck pond, we’ve tried putting her in a CHAIR in the park. I’m telling you there is NO getting pictures of her. It was like she thought a canon would fire out of my camera if she looked my way and her life depended on her running away from me and keeping her eyes on her feet. Whatever. Pictures aren’t going to happen. I fold – I have no more cards left.
Then last night happened. Funny thing though – she had messy, braided, bed-head, sweaty hair. She was wearing just a regular everyday Carter’s outfit and she had red ant bites all over her legs from the attempt at her pictures the night before and getting set in a pile of red ants while mommy was 30 feet away drying desperately to get her picture in the weeds at the beach….So perfect conditions, right? OH and the sun was going down in about 1/2 hour. BUT on the other hand, she was very happy and acting silly. I thought – what the heck. I feel like playing with the camera, let’s take the baby out into the middle of the street and PLAY. Can’t HURT anything!! Well what happened was nothing short of MAGIC. I have to admit that these are my favorite pictures of her – bar none. THIS is my baby’s personality…messy braids, bug bite legs, nail polish on her shoes, dancing in the street in front of our house. Emma and I rocked out the Laurie Berkner Band songs – especially “ALLISON HAS A COW ON HER HEAD” – (c’mon moms – sing along with me) and “Let’s go swimming let’s go swimming”…she rocked out and smiled and laughed…magic I tell you. Here are some of the results…my heart be still…..
These little thighs….what can I say??!?
The next little series here has very special meaning to my heart. If you know Allie, you know she’s a very nurturing little soul. She LOVES her loveys, she loves anthing with a kitty on it, really. Emma has even drawn stick figure pictures of kitties on paper and she’ll hug it, rock it, pat it on it’s little paper back – it’s very sweet. When she RRRRRRRRRREAAAAAAAAAAALLY loves something, she’ll go through her routine of rocking and patting and then start kissing it and FALL on it -just total love there. She can’t love it enough, so she must SMOOSH it with her entire body. I’ve always wanted to capture this in a series – I just never pictured that I’d capture it in the ROAD in the front of my house!!! Nevertheless, here’s my little Allison loving her little “Beries” lovey….These are the steps to properly showing affection to your trusty bear.
Step one: hug bear around the neck really, really tight. Pat him a little and rock back and forth: 
Step 2: Whisper sweet love in his pink furry ears…
Step 3: I’m not sure about this, but I’m suspicious that he whispers back because all of a sudden there’s a flood of emotion…
Step 4: Fall on bear in full-on bear lovin’ love…
Lastly: FACE PLANT (make sure you remember that it doesn’t matter where you are, even in the middle of the road in between cars – this last step is CRUCIAL to showing your bear your love…)
Well, that’s it. I have triumphed over not only photographing the ever-elusive 18-month-old, but 18-month-old photographer’s kid. I’ll be back to conquer another day. You can count on it. :)
