They were reading comic books togther, COMIC BOOKS! I have a child old enough to appreciate comic books!? Right above their heads was a collage of his newborn baby photos. Where did the time go?! It is as if I blinked and he went from being that teeny tiny helpless baby to this big indepedent boy!
My mind raced back to the day we had those pictures done.
I remember that day like it was yesterday.
We had just returned home from our appointment to get his bilirubin levels checked, I felt frazzled and unkempt, my boobs were swollen from nursing around the clock, I hadn't showered in days, and my house was a mess.I tried to pull it together before my friend got there, but needless to say the past week had been quite the rollercoaster for us, and despite my efforts our house was gross.
When she got there, we exchanged hugs and she quietly walked our home for the perfect place to take pictures. I was kinda embarrassed, because we hadn't had a chance to even get stuff put away with him. But she found a place to take pictures of him, regardless of the chaos that surrounded her.
She placed a mat on the ground in our front room, (then it was our office/entryway) we had a craft table in the corner, a dog crate against the wall, needless to say it was probably the LAST room I would have picked to put my baby in. She covered the baby mat with one of his blankets and went to work.
I remember watching amazed as she started to photograph my baby. This was the first time I had seen her do her work since she graduated from The Arts Academy in LA.
She was amazing to say the least. One minute she was standing above my baby on her tippy toes, to laying on the floor beside him. She was done in no time, she even let me stop and feed him :)
Then the phone rang. It was our Dr.
He told me we needed to get to the hospital right away and have Axel put under lights, his bilirubin levels were life threatening high, and we needed to get to the Pediatric Unit... NOW.
I hung up the phone and started to ball. Our visit with Jessica ended, and I was bummed we had to cut it short. Kory and I, rushed our new little baby to the Pediatric Unit of the hospital, scared and uncertain as to what was ahead of us.
There our doctor informed us that there was an error in the lab read, and that instead of his levels dropping like they had told us, they had in fact risen, and to dangerous levels. Had we gone a day longer, we would have been facing possible brain damage.
These words were hard for me to hear. We were so close to losing him, what if we hadn't gone that last time to get the blood draw "just to be safe"! What if I had rushed home to shower and clean my house to make myself "presentable" for my visitor instead?
To this day I am so glad we kept getting his little feet pricked even though it was tiring and hard. It could have been so much worse.
That evening Kory went home to get some of the things we needed for that night. In our mailbox was a small package addressed to our family.
He brought it to me in the hospital. It was a disk wrapped with care in the most adorable stationary, with a thoughtful note, that is too personal to share, but is tucked away in his baby book, and still brings tears to my eyes.
We put the CD in our laptop and gushed over the hundreds of pictures she took of our beautiful baby boy. I was shocked how beautiful she was able to make them despite the surroundings she worked with. Each one so delicately touched up and edited. She captured every adorable side of him that we were soo smitten by. I wasn't able to hold my baby longer than to nurse him at that point, so I was sooo grateful for this precious thoughtful gift that allowed me to see my baby again, without all the scary monitors or big neon bed.
It was the perfect gift.
Before we had kids, Kory and I would joke about how we couldn't wait to have kids, so we could snap some pictures of our kids and give them to our parents every year for gifts because it is sooo hard to find gifts for them. And each year when I ask my Mother or Mother in law what they would like, it is always the same "Just some pictures or a card is all I want".
Now that we are parents, we totally see how something like this means soo much to them. Kids grow up quickly, and then you blink and that stage is long gone and forgotten, all you have left is memories and photographs. Hand written cards and photographs to help you remember that wonderful and fleeting time.
Since then we have had her photograph many events in our lives, and all of them equally as important as this one, and each time I am completely smitten by the beauty and delicacy that surrounds her photography, and how she is able to capture the images I try, but fail to. She photographs my kids the way I see my kids, and I LOVE it.
I can't belive how much Axel looks like Dani here.
I still love the way she made my "Ghetto Circus Party" look super awesome!
These were the most recent ones she did in her new studio "The Charcoal Loft". They are now all over my house, and it was SO hard to narrow it down to which ones I loved the most, cause I loved them all!
What better gift to give this Mother's Day to your wife, your mother, or your daughter than a chance to be photographed by the most talented, gifted and caring photographer I know!
She is doing this great deal this weekend, and you do not want to miss out!
