Amy and Ben welcomed little Nathan into the world in the spring of 2018 and now he’s somehow a walking, talking toddler who likes bubbles and DeLoreans. And while Amy and Ben are now part of the prestigious CSP 6 Timer’s Club, little Nathan is being welcomed into the CSP 2 Timer’s Club (not as devious as it sounds)! Nathan is an incredibly cute little boy who’s friendly and intelligent, much like his parents and also their cats. He has a friend named Mr. BokBok who is an oven mitt shaped like a chicken.
Nathan is the only toddler I’ve met who cheerfully volunteers to banish himself to his crib and wants to be buckled in his high chair (Amy and Ben claim that he does not, however, want to do either of these things if they’re not his idea first). He likes cheddar bunnies and has a 1980s-looking puffer jacket of which I’m profoundly jealous. He enjoys wearing it while driving around his dad’s model DeLorean car and looking so, so, so very Back to the Future. In his spare time, Nathan also enjoys looking through Amy’s credit cards and talking about trucks. He’s a busy fellow, but Amy and Ben keep up. They bought a new place that has the best wallpaper ever and, even better, a door where it’s now impossible for me to accidentally lock them out of their own house. Amy and Ben have been a part of my client family for such a long time, and I’m so happy to be documenting Nathan now too. GREAT SCOTT.
When I spoke with Katy over the phone before their portrait session, we got along quite well and talked for a long time about things totally unrelated to portrait planning. And Katy and Jereme are super funny people who have the same sense of humor as myself, so I was quite excited to meet them. And Katy was really talking Lucy up, the way you might talk about someone you’re trying to set your friend up with. “She’s really funny, you’re going to love her.” And she’s her mom and stuff, so naturally you’re going to think your kid is funny and that everyone will like your child (I think this about my cats), and I like children and I was sure I would at the very least like Lucy, BUT SHE WAS RIGHT, I DO TOTALLY LOVE HER. I think my jaw literally dropped open when I saw her. First of all, Lucy has the habit of staring very stoically at people in a quite serious way (which I was warned about ahead of time) but it is SO funny because she has the most INCREDIBLE EYELASHES that I have literally ever seen on ANYONE and this just makes her look so adorably cute that it is instant love. Like, I’ve never seen eyelashes like this. Ever. Well, maybe not in person because she is 100% like that guy that plays Richard on Lost that everyone thinks wears mascara on both his upper and lower lashes but actually just looks like that. It’s incredible and she will never need mascara or eyeliner ever in her life.
In addition to having beautiful eyes, she alternates between extremely serious expressions and THE CUTEST SMILE AND LAUGH that reveals exactly two bottom teeth and is seriously heart-melting. Someone get this girl an ad campaign stat. She loves both her mom and her dad, but I’m not sure I’ve seen any baby look at anyone the way this girl looks at her dad, which is also heart-warming and adorable. Her hobbies include chewing on plastic ducks, hanging out with her very good dog Sammy, waving like the queen as she walks her cart around the house, hugging her narwhal stuffed animal, mailing envelopes to her birthday party (THE CUTENESS), and being generally insanely cute. Her parents are in the medical field, and Lucy is named after a 98 year-old patient that Katy took care of. Grab the tissues and observe the cute.
I’ve said it before but it bears repeating: in-home lifestyle family shoots are my absolute favorite. But, they’re especially my favorite when they involve breakfast. I don’t know why. Maybe it’s because making a special breakfast has always signified to me that it’s the weekend because that’s when you have time to actually make sausage and french toast and all that other yummy stuff. So I enjoy hanging out at other peoples’ houses on Saturday mornings while they make breakfast and wear their pajamas – this is comfortable and fun for me. And sometimes it’s fun and comfortable for the kids too, particularly when their names are Andrew and their favorite activity in the whole world is being photographed.
So here we have Allison and Nathaniel, two very intelligent people with lots of incredibly fun hobbies (Allison used to make balloon animals for parties!) who have interesting jobs and a good sense of humor (plus a killer selection of vintage My Little Ponies). And we have Samuel, the very cute baby who we occasionally forced into a cowboy hat because he was wearing a bandana bib and it just felt right. And last, but certainly not least, we have Andrew, toddler extraordinaire, who immediately smiled at me when I walked in the door like he knew that I was another shot at the big time for his inevitable career in show business. Then he continued smiling directly at me throughout the entire 1.5 hours I was there. He was *this close* to winking at me pretty much all the time. He is a total ham and hilarious. When he’s not waiting for his career to take off, he enjoys walking like a penguin, working in his garden, making OJ, cracking eggs for french toast, and helping his Grandma June play the piano when she visits. I immensely enjoyed hanging out with this crew on a weekend morning.