Wow, I am off to a bad start! At least I remembered about Family Friday before the weekend was completely over, right? Do I get even a few points for that?

This is probably one of those Mommy-goggles photos. But give me a chance to explain!

The babydoll she is holding in the image used to be mine. Her name was Cindy (Kaylee, of course, is free to rename the baby). When I was little, I thought Cindy was the most beautiful name ever. (Not Cynthia, just Cindy)

When I grew up, Cindy got packed away. I still have her little diaper bag, her bottles, her clothes, and her blankets. It was all safely stored in bins, buried in the basement and forgotten.

Fast forward to this week. I am helping my mom open her first Etsy shop–Bluebirds Boutique! She needed photos of her newborn hats, but as I don’t have a newborn in the house, I suddenly remembered Dear Little Cindy buried in the rubbermaid bins. I dug her out and shoved her in the beanbag. She is not as pliable as a real newborn!

I was lazy and left the beanbag, blankets, and babydoll off to the side of my little studio. Later, I brought Kaylee down to model some of the toddler hats. Here I am, looking around for something to keep her distracted so she will actually stay on the backdrop when low and behold she notices something and gets REALLY excited. She starts pointing and grinning and doing that little thing she does when she is REALLY happy (stamping her feet and sort of bobbing her head up and down). And where is she pointing? Right at Cindy, who is unceremoniously flopped across the beanbag.

I give her Cindy and she immediately starts to rock it, kiss it, sing to it and generally love all over this 25 year old baby doll. She brings it upstairs when we finish (she never even TRIED to leave the backdrop), and continues to love all over it. She shows Cindy her toys, she shares her snack with Cindy, she tells Cindy the names of various body parts and what sound a sheep makes. It’s love at first sight.

I couldn’t be happier!

Another image of Miss Z, with some texture added. I love the look of textured photographs.

© jen snyder photography

Ok, so Friday has come and gone and I never got around to posting. I apologize.

I wanted to share this snapshot of my daughter. She clearly has her own sense of fashion.

Note the path of destruction around her.

My poor little princess is teething something fierce right now. She’s got the top and bottom two, and 1 off to the left of the bottom ones, and her right eye tooth broke through today. She’s still working on the other matching teeth. I noticed her gums where her molars will be are also looking puffy. I feel so bad for her, she is chewing on everything.

We are thinking about going down to visit Grandma for a couple of days in Chesapeake Beach next week. If anyone in the Calvert/St Mary’s County area is interested in a session without having to pay all those travel fees, let me know and we can try and schedule something.

I was visiting with Miss Z and family today, where she earned her nickname of Animal. Poor Mommy was covered in teeth marks by the time I left.

But seriously, though, how could you be mad at this face? She’s too cute.

I feel like she toddled right over to the camera to say, ” ’sup?”

Tickles!!

LOVE that smile.

Thank you for having me over today!

© jen snyder photography

This little one was so precious. He also really made me work today! I didn’t mind at all, though… how could I? Look at that sweet little face! It took some brainstorming between me and Mom but I think we were able to make it work.

He loved snuggling in the cocoon. Can’t say I blame him… if I had one my size I’d spend all day in it.

Thank you so much for having me in your home today. I really enjoyed your beautiful baby.

I wanted to share Kaylee’s Valentine photos with you!

This horse is available as a prop for anyone who might want to use it. It’s a gorgeous handmade rocking horse. The pettiskirt is also available as a prop for any little girls out there. I will be getting some in other colors and sizes, too. (Kaylee wears 18 months right now, but it has an adjustable waist for thicker babies)

I know I’m very biased, but I had such a hard time narrowing down which ones to share. I wanted to show them all! (But that would probably bore everyone but me and her grandparents!)

Pardon the mess, here.  I found a new template that I fell in love with, so there may be a bit of dust around here as I finalize everything.  It shouldn’t be too long before all the detailed are ironed out.

I also wanted to take this time to point out some of the new features here!  My favorite, of course, is the bigger photos.  bigger=better!  (If things become too big for you, feel free to let me know and I can try to tone it down)  Also, take a look at the bottom of each post!  There are now little icons you can click on which will post an entry to your favorite social networking site.  So if you want to share your session sneak peek with your facebook friends, all you have to do it click on the facebook icon!  You can also digg it, prop it, and add it to google bookmarks, among other options.  I’m also loving my new banner, which will probably change constantly.  If you haven’t noticed by now, I love to change things up.

I also am going to (try to) institute something new to keep this blog fresh: Family Friday!  Just a little time for me to talk about what’s going on behind the lens, so you can get to know me and my beautiful family.

And since today is Friday, here we go.

This is my daughter Kaylee. I’ve talked about her plenty before on here but I don’t think I’ve ever given her a proper introduction. She’s 15 months old and she is amazing! Her favorite thing to do is point out bodyparts. She’s got plenty of them down, but “eye” and “arm” are her favorites, and she announces what it is as she pokes you. (”EYE!” as she stabs her finger in your eye) She does this all day long, and she especially loves to be quizzed. (”Kaylee, where is your leg?” “Where is your butt?” “Where is your ear?”)

As you can see in the photo (which I am cheating, I apologize, I did not take it this week), she also loves to have “big hands”– watch out if you leave your gloves laying around.

She has learned to open zippers and unscrew things (all in the same day)… how did I find this out? She got really quiet (why is it that being quiet always means there is trouble?) and I peek over at her to find that she’s got my purse around her neck (this is where she likes to wear purses), it’s open, and she’s got my lipgloss open and she’s waving it around like it’s a fairy wand. There is lipgloss all over her face. There is lipgloss all over her shirt. There is lipgloss everywhere.

Must. Not. Giggle.

She’s a girly girl at heart and I love it. She got a new pettiskirt from Grandma today and she insisted on wearing it over her pants all day long. To the point where we had a total toddler meltdown when it was time to take it off so she could take a bath. She wears her plastic bracelets every day (and actually, anything that is circular is a bracelet, she often wears my roll of gaffer’s tape around her arm), she “applies” my chapstick often (luckily she doesn’t know how to take the cap off yet), she has to have a purse on most of the day. I did not try to make her a girly girl, I did not push her in any direction so she could forge her own path, but I must admit I’m so excited for the girliness. I can’t wait for tea parties and dress up!

Well, I’ve probably babbled your ear off, so I hope you will forgive my tangent. I’ll try to have more of a point to my family entry next Friday.

I met up with the beautiful L yesterday to update her headshot. It was nice working in the studio since it was sooo cold out!

© jen snyder photography