I started my Sunday with a trip to the Japanese Gardens at Roger Williams Park.  It is a great place that I first went to with little miss A. a few weeks ago so I was glad to go back!  I met D. and her mom and dad for some shots and off we went to explore.  We went over a lot of bridges, climbed rocks, and sang a lot of songs. D. was great and such a treat to work with – not to mention she is just absolutely adorable! Check out the photo on the bench, she looks like a porcelain doll!! Mom, Dad and D, I hope you enjoy these last few weeks as a family of three. 🙂   Four is a blast once you get used to it!

Don’t tell Matt, but I am in love with another man.  He has blond hair and beautiful blue eyes, has a great sense of style and drools occasionally. Meet the object of my crush – little A. We met on Saturday afternoon at Colt State Park down in Bristol and had such a great time taking photos! He was a total sweetheart clapping his hands, crawling on tables, grabbing sticks, such fun!!  We played with flowers, climbed on rocks and trees and I even got stabbed by a pricker bush trying to get a shot.  (Hey, it’s a dangerous job but someone’s gotta do it!)   Overall (okay, minus the bloody knee) it was a really cool way to end my Saturday sessions 🙂

I went back up to Rhode Island this weekend for a few more advance sessions and my first was with the brothers C. and N. In what works out to be a really funny coincidence, these two are almost to the day, the same age apart that Nolan and Layne are 🙂 Although I was mainly there for pictures of N., I had a great time doing trains with C. AND capturing some adorable photos of the new little N.  It is so nice to see siblings, especially when the older one loves the little one as much as C. obviously does 🙂

It’s happening too quickly.  Layne is becoming a baby and not a newborn or an infant.  She’s growing too quickly.  The chub is appearing, the drooling is starting, the hands are reaching out, the head is being held high and steady.  Sigh.  Three and a half months have just flown past…  Of course the good part is that the pictures get better and better…

A lot of people ask how I get those shots where the kid looks right up at me and the camera.  Usually all it takes is getting really close over them while they are sitting down, or standing on something over them and then calling their name, or quacking like a duck, mooing like a cow, shining a light, etc.  But sometimes you need something more.  A trick up your sleeve…think of what almost every toddler and preschooler would look up for and follow with their eyes and head…

Of course, the trick is to snap the photo while they are looking at it BEFORE they try to reach for it 😉