This child! Oh man, this child. His name is Wyatt and he’s currently two years old. Last year, he hated hats. This year, he’s moved on from his disdain for hats and instead is now laser focused on his love for slides and Locopops. By and large, he prefers an extremely clean existence and isn’t very fond of grass or bugs. He possesses an undeniable skill for striking unprompted senior picture poses even though he’s not yet in preschool. He can name all the names of the animals on the carousel, and pretends to cry in a corner if you ask him to take pictures by some flowers. His incredible hair is easily afflicted with static cling. He runs very quickly when excited and wants to climb all the things he can’t reach. When he can’t climb them, he’ll ask you to climb them instead so he can watch. He likes to pretend that he’s very serious sometimes but he can’t keep up the charade for that long. He goes extremely slowly down slides and is thrilled nonetheless. He loves swings and is unsure about sand. He is one of my favorite clients.

I’ve known Lacie for years through my work with the Downtown Raleigh Alliance, and she’s one of the happiest, bubbliest humans I’ve had the pleasure to know. I’m always excited to see her whenever I do work for the DRA or whenever I randomly run into her in downtown Raleigh. I had met her husband Adam during one of these random run-ins (I believe outside of The Pour House, which he owns), but I was excited to spend more time getting to know him during his and Lacie’s newborn shoot with their son Desmond. Turns out that Adam is equally as amazing as Lacie, and also has very incredible hair. Desmond has a little bit of hair, but I’m kind of surprised that he didn’t come out with some sort of flowing mane as a nod to both his parents. He does, however, have baby eyebrows! Adorable. He was very excited and interested in what we were doing, so he wasn’t a big fan of sleeping except for a.) when he was held or b.) whenever Adam would put on Surfer Rosa by The Pixies. I have 100% confidence that he’s going to be a super cool kid because his parents are, plus he’ll be attending a lot of shows at The Pour House sporting his adorable baby headphones. A huge congratulations to Lacie and Adam, and a big welcome to the world to little baby Desmond (also a big big pet and a “WHO’S A GOOD BOY” to doggo Mud).

Ohhhh remember baby Alden from last year who loved to stare into your soul with intense, prolonged eye contact? He turned ONE during this session (happy birthday, Alden!) and now stares into your soul slightly less (disappointing but age-appropriate). Now when he looks at you, it’s quickly followed by a clever little smirk like he knows everything about you from previous soul-stealing baby sessions and is definitely going to use it against you in the future. His smile is hilarious and almost looks like he’s incredibly proud of himself… the type of smile that happens right before you’d get a big head nod and he’d open his mouth and say, “Hey bro,” except he’s a baby. It’s incredible. I’d be confident too if I knew how to successfully fish for cats at the age of twelve months. Also, his parents are Kathy and Andrew, whom we love, so obviously this helps to bolster his self-esteem. He’s cute and charming. We did a lot of activities and so by the time we busted out the adorable water table that Alden’s parents bought him for his birthday, he was way tired, and I can say with hands-down certainty that Kathy was the person who enjoyed that table the most (this may have happened even if Alden wasn’t wiped out… Kathy really loved that table). We’re so glad we were there to document this little future-cat-lover (and hopefully extremely good secret-keeper) turn one.