Belated Celebration

Today I made cupcakes and brought them into my son's classroom to celebrate his birthday (better late than never), which was during Christmas break.  After the children sang "Happy Birthday" to him, they all raved about how yummy my "triple fudge chocolate" cupcakes were!  :)  Here's a photo of my big boy blowing out his candle.

Highlight of the day? One of the girls in my son's class found out that she and I have the same birthday (tomorrow) and asked if I was "so excited"...  When I laughed and said "not really"... she asked "Why??" incredulously. She was literally bouncing around with excitement about birthdays. I told her I was "getting old", and she took my hands and said "It's ok, Ms. Chloe, you should just be yourself and be happy with who you are."  Then, my beautiful boy walked up and hugged me and said "At least you don't look old".  Ha ha! Wow...out of the mouths of babes.  Gives a whole new meaning to "Happy Birthday".  :)

My heart

"Making the decision to have a child - it's momentous. It is to decide forever to have your heart go walking outside your body." - Elizabeth Stone  


Have you ever felt like your heart would literally explode out of your chest?  I have and do regularly.  It's pure love.   It still amazes me daily.  This is my sweet, amazing son.  Look at his eyes.  He melts me.  He is growing up.  SIGH....  

He was my helper last night. We had a family pizza picnic at the the beach and watched the sunset.  I needed to take pictures for my first "beautiful portrait" Week 1 assignment in a photography course that I am taking.  He was totally willing to be my "subject".  I think he is the most gorgeous client I have ever photographed....just sayin'.  I could be biased.  But, I wanted to capture not just his superficial, physical beauty but his inside beauty.  I wanted to show what I see when I look at him....... a gentle boy who has a heart of gold, who is a pleaser, who is super-smart, who adores his younger brother, who has a contagious belly laugh that makes him fall on the floor in hysterics and makes the whole room laugh with him,  who is so empathetic and even cries when I cry, who loves to read books, who, on Thanksgiving, told me that he was grateful for a family who loves him..., who, every night as I'm leaving his room, yells "I love you more than anything, Mommy", who loves to dance and sing, who loves baseball, who loves running FAST, who loves nature shows like Planet Earth, who just announced his new favorite animal is a giant Pacific octopus, who wants to be a scientist like his parents but also a "marine policeman" to save the oceans....  A photo can't show all these things....but I hope that I at least managed to show just a glimmer of his beauty as I see it.  There he is - my heart - slowly walking farther and farther away outside my body every day.......  

365 days. One Photo a Day for a Year...

365 days....well actually 366 since it is a leap year.  My life.  One photo a day.  One camera.  Hmmm. I've heard of so many people doing this type of project.... can I do it?   Do I have the time?  Do I have the discipline?  It's already Jan 10....is it too late?  Shouldn't I have started on Jan. 1?  Well, no more excuses.  Life is now.  I already do take tons of photos a day. So, why not capture those precious, fleeting moments of my babies doing normal, everyday things....or landscape/sunset/wildlife photos that I just place in yet another folder on my computer called "nature" to be forgotten.  I think that a year from now I'll absolutely treasure these daily moments...  it'll be like a daily diary.  I've always wanted to keep a diary.  Why not try out a blog in this day and age?  So....here goes.

Today's photo:  Sesame Street Time

My "baby" (not really anymore.....how is that possible?...don't get me started on how time is flying...but I digress...) was lying on the couch watching his favorite tv show, Sesame Street, with his lovie (Tiger) and his big brother's lovie (Monkey) - when I snuck this shot.  Such sweetness.... It's his big brother's first day back to school, so he's a bit sad. :(  I think holding Monkey helps a little.