"irdies, irdies!"

Excuse me, but where in the world does time go? My baby is going to be two in three months and I am having a hard time beleiving that is possible! The other day I realized it has been a while since I have taken Miss. E's pictures, so on a whim, I dressed her up in a cute little dress, placed her hair in adorable little pig tails, transformed my house into a instant 'studio' and I was ready to shoot! Unfortunately, I was the only one in the mood for doing pictures. Photographing children can be challenging, photographing your OWN child IS challenging, especially when you are in your home.

You see at home, there are distractions... such as the dog, the TV, her Tickle Me Elmo doll who spontaneously combusts in hysterical laughter at any given time of the day... which for the record is NOT hysterical to anyone over the age of 20 months! Pretty much anything can be a deal breaker for a little ole' Mom with a camera trying to capture her daughter before her second birthday.

So I got smart and turned the TV off and shuffled the dog downstairs, I was in the clear right? WRONG!



While I was busy taking care of the distractions, my little photographer in training found a new model for me to photograph. I thought 'huh, child's play', so I appeased her and took some picture of the doll.

After each click of the shutter she would grab at my camera to see the image and would laugh at what she saw. Having taken almost 30 pictures, it was now time for Mommy to take charge, so in my most excitable Mommy voice I said 'how about YOU go sit with your baby and Mommy will take a picture!!!' It worked!! She walked over and sat down with her baby, but not before fixing baby's posture.

FINALLY!! I got her sitting there, looking at me, and smiling. Snap, Snap, Snapping away until...

Down goes baby E, down goes my background, down went the camera... But I was determined not to let his rustel my game. I quickly sprang on my feet, picked up the baby, fixed my very sophisticated studio and was ready to keep shooting. But who was I trying to kid, at this point, she was done, I was close to being done, and her hair... well it was definetly done.



So we called it quits. As I was putting everything away, some birds flew up on the deck and I heard baby E screaming 'irdies, irdies' so I picked her up and we watched them flutter around outside the window. She looked so beautiful gazing out the window, eyes wide with excitement and wonder.  So I put her down and grabbed my camera. Luckily for me, when I came back the birds were still there and I was able to snap this picture. It's not posed, it certainly was not planned, it just happened and it is my favoirte picture of our whim shoot.

Happy Saturday!