Photography

I am thankful for photography. As I've had my children and they've begun to grow up, the pictures I've taken have become some of my most treasured possessions. I'm going to post 5 pictures each from their babyhood that I love the most or that I am most thankful for.

LEIA
1.

I took this picture when Leia was 11 months old. We took a walk in the grounds of a great museum in Newport News Virginia where we were living at the time. I was just becoming really interested in photography and was looking for those "natural" shots. Leia was fascinated by a ride-on lawn mower and perhaps a little bit apprehensive at the same time. I was using a film camera and had no idea what a great shot I had got until it was developed. How spoiled are we now with digital?

2.

This is one of those pictures that just captures Leia's personality. She had climbed onto the dining room table to steal some grapes and she knew she was caught!






3.

This is another one of those magic shots that you accidentally get when you happen to be in the right place at the right time. I think Leia was about 3 and we had gone to a local working farm called Carriage Hill in Huber Heights Ohio where we were living. Leia took a liking to one of the farm cats. I'm amazed it stayed still long enough to get this picture.



4.

This photo is special not just because it's of my daughter but because it reminds me of a wonderful vacation we had to England. Spencer was a few months old and Leia was 2. This picture was taken by a boyfriend of my sister and somehow it just manages to capture what was so lovely about her at age 2. Her hair was always wild, she was always curious and excited about what was going on around her. Truly a joy!

5.

I am a teensy bit ashamed of this picture even though it's a favorite. Leia was a year old and where we lived at the time we had a great pool a short walk from our house. I was anxious to try an underwater camera I had bought and I had my Mum dunk Leia under the water so I could take this picture. Now before you shout child abuse let me tell you that I knew she would be fine. She has always adored water and had a lot of confidence. After the dunk she didn't blink an eye and I got a fun shot.

SPENCER
1.

I love this picture so much. Just an afterthought at the time. Spencer was very new and had just had a bath. So snuggly and so cute.







2.

One year, and I think it's been the only one, I got to dress Leia and Spencer in the same Halloween costume. This year when Spencer was 5 months and Leia would have been 2, they were little lambs. Probably one of my favorite years because dressing your kids as fluffy animals increases their cuteness by at least 50%!




3.

This picture was taken on the vacation I mentioned earlier where we went to England. We went to the Lake District in England for a week and stayed in a Caravan. The only place available to wash babies was the kitchen sink. Spencer was very fussy in the evening time and putting him in the sink really calmed him down. This picture also reminds me of Spencer's first teeth. They showed up before he was three months old and I was trying at this point to get him on a bottle so he wouldn't bite me. My Dad managed to get him to take his first bottle on this vacation and it was such a relief.

4.

This picture is priceless to me. Spencer has always been quite quiet when he wants to be. He's not extremely talkative especially with strangers and didn't babble as a baby like Leia and Nathan did. But he has a very feisty part to him. If he doesn't get what he wants he lets you know about it. I love this face and even now he can bring this out on occasion but with a little less drool.


5.

Spencer has an eye condition called Nystagmus which causes his eyes to move from side to side. It doesn't affect him but on top of it he has an astigmatism like both Gary and I do. I love this picture because he is wearing his first pair of glasses which were a bit too big for him. He's also just come home from a Thanksgiving event at pre-school. I don't know why but I love that he has food all over his face and that his glasses are forcing his ears to stick out.


NATHAN
1.

Nathan has always been our ray of sunshine. This picture was taken when he was four months old and I layed him down on the grass for the first time. I think I was worried he might not like it since the sensation is so different to anything babies regularly experience. But, as we came to learn is Nathan's thing, he took it in stride and smiled as if he was having the time of his life.



2.

To most people this picture is disgusting but it's a very important picture for me. Nathan had reflux for his first year to the point where I couldn't let anyone hold him because I was scared to death he'd do this while in their arms and ruin their clothes. It was such a worry to me as it would seem at the time that his whole feed would come up. But everything worked out and he has actually been the biggest of all our kids. It's good to remember trials and how we came out of them unscathed.

3.

When I showed this picture to my Mum she laughed out loud. Nathan's personality has been large from day one and this manages to show that. I can't even remember what Leia was doing to him but it certainly looks as if he was horrified or scared silly. The thing is that he was neither. He's just always been the master of funny faces.




4.

You know those times when you're in the store and the kid is just cranky or out of control? You promise them some candy if they behave and then they fall asleep on the way home because they are so tired. Nathan is only 18 months in this picture so I don't think I could have bribed him on this day but I love that picture of a baby asleep in a pool of candy. He's experiencing a total sugar coma!



5.

This picture reminds me of the attachment both the boys had to pacifiers. It seemed that for at least a 5 year period our lives were ruled by whether we did or didn't have the pacifier when we left the house. As well as that, Nathan is smiling at me behind the pacifier. He ALWAYS smiled as a baby all day. I remember once when Nathan was crying over something and I wanted to take a picture of him, I asked him to say cheese and he still smiled and said cheese through the tears.