the good stuff

one more CRAZY cute sneak peek...

For Maureen (Boston Latin, class of '94--with Rebecca!) and Chris and their super adorable son Keegan, three weeks old at this shoot.  I was prepared for a wide-awake and stretchy baby, but that boy was perfectly content to sleep his way through the session, letting me pose him every which way, waking only long enough to pee on his mom. 

You'll see these photos again, as I love them so much, they will be reappearing in a lot of marketing and promotions for Sweet Jane Photography 2009.  So when you see his little face again, be sure to say "hellllooooo keegan!!"

(It was so great to catch up with you, Maureen.  I hope we can make a habit of it...and I hope that Rebecca will be able to join me next time!)

(and you KNOW I can't resist a shot or two of the family dog...meet Thunder!)

spring session sneak peeks

Just a couple to share with you:

1.  You might remember that I recently posted the sneak peek for Liz's maternity session and I was so excited to head back to the Sullivan house for Jack Walter's newborn session! He was 6 days old when we had our shoot, and I thoroughly expected him to snooze through the entire thing...but Jack had plans of his own.  He decided he would rather be wide awake through the whole thing...and I even managed to snag a couple of sneaky little grins from him!

Thanks, Liz and James, for having me back, I adore the little Lima Bean and hope it isn't too long before I see all of you again!

 

2.  As everyone knows (I hope!) I am participating in my third Avon Walk for Breast Cancer next month.  This is a particularly busy time for me, as wedding season is kicking off, the walk is in a few weeks, T-ball has started, and because of the madness, I have to miss my lovely Goddaughter's first communion. I asked Wendi if I could come early and take some photos of Lauren in her whole get-up, (mostly because I was DYING to see her in it!) and Wendi had the brilliant idea to offer the same service to some of Lauren's friends, in exchange for a donation to the walk.  WONDERFUL!  So a few weeks ago, on a glorious Sunday morning, I had the pleasure of photographing 4 second graders about to make their communion, and thanks to their very generous families, I am much closer to reaching my fund raising goal!

Oh, of COURSE.

Sam brought home a beautiful masterpiece of marker on construction paper, with a beautiful rendering of planet Earth (including Madagascar, his favorite place to talk about, and he knows exactly where it is.  He even labeled it on the picture.) and the words "Earth Day" on the top.  We flipped it over to find a lovely little butterfly, a heart that had the words "I love you" in it and the letters SCKUY.

TK and I were obviously clueless and asked what sckuy meant.

"Mooooom, Daaaaaad, [in a most exasperated tone] it's my name."

"It is??"

"S for Sam, C for Charles, K for Kristiansen, U for SamUel, and Y for SammY."

Of course.  How could we have missed that??

cruel and unusual punishment with excruciating torture, or splinter removal

Picture it:

Last night, mom and I were cleaning up the supper dishes. TK is getting the kids ready for bed.

Suddenly, a piercing scream from upstairs and TK's (calm) voice, "Honey?  Can you come up here for a sec?"

The piercing screams continue, and I see Jane sitting up on the bed, TK examining her foot.

"She has a splinter in her toe."

Jane's face is BEAT red, eyes filled with terror. A constant repeating screaming stream of "Don't touch it! DON'T TOUCH IT!" from her, her arms flapping like she is going to take flight at any moment.

I grab my tools, clipper, tweezers, A&D ointment, warm washcloth.  TK carries her into the bathroom, where I have a look at the splinter.

In Jane's defense, the thing was huge. It was stuck on the underside of her big toe, and even as I was glancing, she was screeching.

"Don't touch it! DON'T TOUCH IT!! DON'TTOUCHITDON'TTOUCHIT!!!!"

She was SO irrational, that TK couldn't stop laughing.  I couldn't even press the warm compress onto the toe to soften up the skin.  You would have thought I was cutting off the foot at the ankle.  With a butter knife. 

She tried a different tactic:  "It's FINE.  IT'S FINE.  IT DOESN'T HURT!!  OW OW OW OWWWIE!! I'M FINE!" (flap flap flap)

I tried everything.  I tried to explain what I was going to do, so she wouldn't be afraid, I offered popsicles, I told her Dad would read her a story while I was getting it out, but every time I even mentioned coming close to her toe, the screaming screeching "DON'T TOUCH IT!" would start again.

TK was no help.  I kept trying to empathize with my little lunatic, but TK was in the doorway saying things like "The baaaad news is that you have a splinter.  The good news is that you have an inoperable brain tumor."

Finally, Jane threw back her head and wailed, "GRAAAAAMS!  I NEEED GRAAAAAAMS!!!"

And up the stairs she flew, and she sat down, holding Jane in her lap, trying to keep her still.  She somehow managed to get her to calm down, and had Jane taking deep breaths repeating the mantra "I am brave.  I am brave.  I am brave."  And I finally managed to pull out the horrible splinter.  A little ointment and a Dora band-aid and let the healing begin.

Cheers and whoops and hollers from the whole family.  As a reward for her bravery, Grams treated her to her own glass of orange soda and a little tv in bed.  Remember when that was all it took to make everything better? 

She woke up this morning, announced that although her toe was all better, she was going to need to keep the band-aid on until Thursday and Saturday.  You got it.

(and because posts aren't complete without a photo, here's one of the little invalid....)

hellooooo wedding albums.

Just thought I would post a handful of page images to show you what a wedding album from Sweet Jane Photography looks like!  All of the pages are full panoramic spreads, mounted flush to the page and ABSOLUTELY gorgeous.  I am partial to the silk shantung covers...love the black and the platimun...and hello, SCARLET red.  Can't wait for a bride to pick that one!  I can't tell you how much fun it was to put this together.  And to the couples featured, THANKS for making my 2009 studio sample album so freaking beautiful.

easter finest

Promise a full Easter re-cap, but could not wait to post some photos of the cousins from yesterday...

good points

(that's a wink, in case you couldn't tell.  Jane thinks she is EXTRA talented because she can wink BOTH eyes at the same time.)

~

So many posts lately about Sam, I wanted to give my girl a little front page time.  She just left with TK, off to Home Depot to pick up some yard-cleanup supplies.  She said, "See ya, mom!  I am going to Hopey Dopey with Dad!"

~

We have recently started using a point system for good and bad behavior here.  The idea came from the mom of one of Jane's gymnastics classmates, and I just thought it was brilliant.  It's like this:  Good behavior, extra effort, any kind of small reward is now given as points.  Punishing bad behavior now happens as the removal of points.  When each kids reaches 30 points, it is off to Target for a little toy.  This system is so simple, so easy, such a no-brainer, that it is immensely effective.

I sat the kids down together, gave each an ice cream sandwich and explained the point system.  They though it sounded great!  I went on to explain that we won't be giving points for things like using good manners, or doing their chores, because I expect them to do those things anyway.  They thought that was fine too.  (this is going to be so easy!  Give them an ice cream sandwich and they will go along with anything!!)  At that point, Sam broke off the bottom of his sandwich and said, "here, mom, you can have some of my ice cream!"  So I thanked him, and immediately awarded him a point, for sharing something special, when I didn't even ask.  For the rest of the day, I was inundated with good manners...

Jane, can you open the gate for me? 

My pleasure, mom!

Mom? Can We help you set the table?

Thanks for giving me some milk, mom!

And my favorite effort for a point came from Jane, at supper.  She grabbed a FISTFUL of spaghetti, looked lovingly at me and said, "Mom, would you please like some of my spaghetti?"

Once the candy-coated smiles and pleas for points subsided, we've really had a successful point system so far.  I have found that the threat of taking points away is by far the most effective weapon in my arsenal, and I have only had to take away a couple.  What is even better is that most times I award points, I am able to teach them some kind of lesson or encourage the exact kind of behaviors I love to see.  Sam was recently waiting to share a toy that Jane had.  He was clearly unhappy about having to wait, and I could see his frustration and anger starting to build.  He calmly said, "mom, I am really having a hard time being patient."  And I IMMEDIATELY gave him two points.  Being able to reward him for not only being patient, but articulating his mounting frustration instead of acting out was a spur of the moment lesson I was so happy to be able to jump on!  And it sticks with them--I have heard both kids use a similar phrase, to me, to each other, and every time I do, I want to give MYSELF a point.  Good job, mom, these kids might turn out to be productive members of society after all! 

The sweetest thing is that they have recently started giving me and TK points too:

"Dad, you did a GOOD JOB today, you get 5 points." 

"Mom, you are using nice words, you get 1 point." 

Let me point out that I ususally get a point when I say yes to a request for a snack, or to a tv show...and why is it that TK gets points 5 at a time, and I only get 1??  The scales are seriously unbalanced.  I think he is bribing them.

Most recently, Jane went on her first real purposeful playdate to her little neighborhood friend, Hannah's.  As I was getting her ready to go, I went over my list of reminders for her--say please and thank you, remember to use the potty, respect that these are Hannah's things, [and because she was having dinner there] do NOT say "I don't like this" if you see something new, try it and use good manners!  When I picked her up, I got a glowing report from Cheryl, who informed me that Jane no only used good manners, she asked to be excused from the table, ate some fish sticks and peas [for the first time], and remembered to thank her for dinner.  We got home and after some gushing over how proud I was, we immediately added a couple of very well deserved points to her chart.

That's my girl.

(**edited to add that three weeks into this, each kid has 25 points!  Go kids!**)

play it again, Sam

I am going to love this whole piano lesson thing. 

On Monday, Sam couldn't wait to get back to the car after school and get to piano lessons.  No wait, that was me,  I couldn't wait to go.

Miss Julie teaches out of her house, in a big room in her basement.  Sam marched right in and shook her hand, and hopped right up onto the bench. We talked for a minute before I headed to the waiting area just outside of the room, and happily, I could still see him!  Miss Julie is wonderful, and I imagine that teaching little little kids is her specialty.  I sat and watched him learn about quarter notes, half notes, measures, and bar lines.  I knew she had won him over when, in trying to explain how to curve his hands and fingers when he plays, she said, "make your hands like a claw!"  A woman that can evoke an image of a dinosaur while teaching musical theory is okay in my book.

The half hour zipped by, and I got to come in at the end and listen to what he had learned.  A couple of stickers in his new book, and we were on our way home.  We celebrated the first piano lesson with dinner and ice cream with Grams at Friendlys.  Really, as a family we'll use almost any excuse to celebrate at Friendly's. "Jane! Your socks match! Let's go to Friendly's!"  "Sam! Your ears are the same size!  To Friendly's!"

Grams ordered a new kayboard for Sam and THANK HEAVENS, headphones come along.  Daily practice has commenced, and though what he is playing isn't the most melodious tune yet, the sound of my boy at the piano is sweet music to my ears.