I’m back from a fabulous trip to Napa/Oakland/Monterey!  I’m so backed up with weddings to blog at the moment, so I thought it would be fun to take a little detour and blog about little Cayden.  This little guy is special to me because he was the first baby I ever photographed!  He was only 6 or 7 months at the time.  Sadly, his family moved to New Mexico shortly after our shoot.  Luckily though, they come back to CA to visit every now and then, so it has been fun setting up shoots while they’re back.  It felt like just yesterday when we did his one year old shoot!  We did the park on his first shoot, a beach on his second shoot, so this time, we thought we’d give his aunt’s house a try.

I wish I could see him more often because he was really shy when he first saw me.  It was like I was a stranger again!

That photo on the above right cracks me up!  What do you think when you see it?  *loser*, right?  haha.  I actually asked him how old he is.  He can’t lift his pointer & middle finger yet, so this “L” is how he does “2″ at the moment.  Isn’t it adorable???  And how great will this photo be one day in his wedding slide show!  A fun side story: he plays rock-paper-scissors…. however, he can’t do scissors, so he’s always rock or paper.    If you ever play against him, just always be paper and you can win!… or always be rock so he can always win. 

His current obsession, Cars.  I think photos of a child’s favorite things are just as important as portraits of them.  They change so fast and they will never be this exact age – to the day – ever again.  It’s important to document their growth.

He also makes the funniest faces!!!  I forget which face is which, but one is “What does mommy do?” and another is “What does daddy do?”

Peek-a-boo!

above left – “cool beans!”

And then bath time.  Check out his little Mohawk!

He gave himself a beard!

And after the bath, what else do boys do… run off naked!  He ran so fast, I barely caught this photo at the very end of the hall.  Would’ve been a shame to miss this shot!!

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Naturally, kids don’t look at me when I have a camera in front of my face.  I kept chasing him around trying to get him to look at me, but he wouldn’t look at me.  I eventually put my camera down to just watch him play and he waves at me saying, “Hi!”  So I quickly snapped this photo of him waving at me.  Isn’t he just the cutest?

It must have been like peek-a-boo for him because while I was photographing his parents, he came looking for me behind the camera.   It was a fun outing for him.  It was his first time at the beach, so he was curious, but scared at the same time of the water, so Cindy & Todd took him walking along the shore.

I love this next photo.  It reminds me that no matter how old and independent we are, our mom will always be one step behind.

And this just looks like he’s growing up as fast as he’s running.

And this is Cayden saying “Hi!” to Jonathan.  He is such a cutie!

All kids love airplanes!

And I love his squished face here!

I can’t even imagine how big he’ll look next year!

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I just love to document a child’s innocence and their expressions as they explore this big world.  We started out in the park to warm the kids up.  Here’s mom and dad helping them walk across a balance beam… as if that’s not difficult enough, the beam bounces!

She’s such the older sister.    It took her awhile, but everytime anyone offered to help, she would say, “I want to do it myself!”

And then, they discovered the water…

Daddy J helping little J pour the water, but where does it go?

well… baby J discovered the water coming out of this other tube and decided to stand and sit right in front of it.  Yes, he was soaked.

Little J had trouble peddling forward on the tricycle – she kept going backwards.

Baby J made a new friend!

Thanks JL family for letting me spend a morning with your family.  I had a lot of fun and hope to hang out with you again!

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She was so sad when daddy took her away from the water.

She went wandering…

and found a little stream!

Then she found MORE water. She didn’t seem to mind that it was January.

J loves his wide-angle lens. And so did she. hehe. I love this last photo. I feel like she’s poking my eyeball.

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