precious (adj.) - cherished; beloved [freeman]
what is it about little baby feet that univerally causes mothers to deliver a nostalgic sigh? i jumped at the chance to photograph this precious child when she was just a couple of weeks old. this first image is from that shoot a little over a year ago. i simply adore this shot of her perfect, pink toes, and tiny newborn wrinkles. did you just tickle your computer screen?... needless to say, i was more than excited about the opportunity to do another session with baby m! those little toes have grown just tad over the past year, but they are still as irresistible as the day she was born. one of my favorite shots below features her one year old tootsies squirming against mom & dad's gentle tickles. her squeals and giggles were deliciously contagious. if only photos had sound.....
some things never change...
so much about being a kid has changed since i was little. sometimes, while i'm anchoring and tethering my daughter into her five point harness, triple-quadruple-latch, nasa-inspired car seat, a childhood memory pops into my head. several moms in our neighborhood had organized a carpool to transport us to mrs. squire's preschool. all the moms drove those little station wagons - our version of today's honda minivan. the really fancy ones had "wood" side panels! i would wait for my ride at the end of my driveway. the chauffeur du jour would get out, walk around to the back, and pry open the heavy, creaky back hatch. i would climb into the pile of already picked-up kids. those wagons had a little vinyl-covered lounge area in the back. remember that? one bench seat facing backwards (makes me need some dramamine just thinking about it) and two on the sides. i don't think seatbelts were even an option. with each turn, we would slide on the slick seats, let out exaggerated screams and try to pin the poor kid at the end against the side of the interior. (incidentally, my mother never owned a station wagon. ruth drove a 280z - a hot little silver sports car. a couple of us would have to squeeze into the front when it was her turn. let's just say the parking break in between the seats was not a comfy spot. not a lot of room, but we were riding in style!)i also remember playing rock-paper-scissors with my brother to decide whose turn it was to get off the couch and change the channel. if there wasn't anything good on channel 2 or 6, "lavern and shirley" or "chips" might be on 8. i remember the sound of jiffy pop on the stove, and i vividly remember the time my babysitter pulled the lid off the jiffy pop pan before popping it! i laughed my head off at the popcorn flying all over the kitchen, landing silently on the mustard linoleum. i recall the first time i played pong on atari, the sound of the aluminum tab peeling off the top of a coke can, and the time my friend carrie showed me this cool machine called a microwave, in which you could instantly heat your cocoa and make the marshmallows all melty! i remember the feel of the dial on our avocado green kitchen phone - and just how far i could venture with it in my hand before the cord reeled me back in. i'm sure i'll spend some time in the trying to explain the days of my youth to my girls, but i know they'll never quite "get it", just as i could never fathom the world in which my mom and dad grew up.
there is one thing, however, that's really stayed the same: the nightly bath time ritual. the basics never change. the sound of water pouring from the faucet onto the white porcelain, the scent of johnson & johnson, the bubble beards, the bathroom echo of splashes and squeals, the "please? five more minutes?" the pink pruned feet making puddles on the tile and the mummy wrapping in the soft terrycloth towel. it's one of my favorite times of the day, a time when my girls get my undivided attention. i guess that's why i'm such a sucker for bath time shots, and i'm certainly not alone. they are little reminders of a simpler time, and evidence that, thankfully, some things never do change.
old poke...
this project took a long time to put together, but the end result was a truly priceless and timeless gift. several months before my hubby hit a major milestone in the aging arena, i wanted to plan something special to mark the occasion. i decided to contact as many of his friends and family members as possible, and ask them to write him a birthday message. i sent letters, encouraging them to send stories, birthday wishes, copies of old photos, etc. if they had young children, i asked them to draw shane a picture. (i had them snail-mail or email responses to my friend, amy, so birthday boy wouldn't suspect anything). i started way in advance, so i was able to compile a large list of new and old friends. i must mention that my husband has more old friends than anyone on the planet. as a baptist preacher's kid, he moved around oklahoma and texas, finally settling and graduating in amarillo. we run into someone he knows everywhere we go. seriously, everywhere. from the beaches of cabo to the mountains of colorado, in restaurants or airports, we'll hear, "oh my gosh! is that shane laduke??". upon my inquiry he'll explain, "oh, i went to kindergarten with him", or "she was my seventh grade math teacher", or my personal favorite, "oh, we played a little bit of kissy-face in college". so i had my work cut out for me. i played dog the bounty hunter and tracked down people from his grade school, junior high, high school and college days. i used old yearbooks, rosters, his planner/address book and a high school reunion contact list....anything i could get my paws on. within a few weeks of my original request, responses began pouring in. i soon had a stack of funny stories, drawings, and sweet letters from all over. the coolest part was that i felt like i was getting to know my husband all over again. the hardest part was keeping it a secret - my excitement grew with each new batch. a note from his old football coach, a letter from a summer camp friend, a long-forgotten story from a college roomie and baby pictures from his parents were among the treasures i received. one of his high school buds sent an old newspaper clipping from shane's glory days as #32. i couldn't believe he'd saved it all those years! i eventually scanned in letters and photos, and retyped the email messages in creative fonts. i took the final collection to a printing company to have it bound. for the cover i used a picture i had of his old license plate, which was a nod to his alma mater as well as his favorite movie, lonesome dove. i felt the sentiment was appropriate for a birthday, as well: "old poke". (um....the personalized plates mysteriously fell by the wayside shortly after we began dating). needless to say, shane was overwhelmed when he opened his birthday book. he laughed and cried as he leafed through the pages and relived bits and pieces of his past. it was definitely time consuming to put together, but it was so, so worth it. it's a gift that can truly be enjoyed forever. it's something our girls can keep years from now; a little link to their dad's past and all the people that love that old poke.
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