Who: Abigail & Lilly - with appearances by Mom (Rachel) & Dad (Stephen)
What: Kid session
When: February 2, 2007
Where: Grandma’s House

A little history to start:

Last August Charles and I shot Brittany & Tom’s beautiful wedding in Gulf Breeze where little miss Abigail was the oooh-too-cute flower girl. I remember snapping off a few frames of Abigail racing down the aisle toward her then-very-pregnant-mommy and thinking “I know that mom!” But before I knew it, we were full swing into the reception and there never seemed to be the ‘right time’ to go over and (re)introduce myself. You see, Abby’s mommy is Rachel R - now Rachel M - from my Booker T Washington High School, my alma matter. When I was a lowly freshman, Rachel was a mighty JUNIOR and I thought she was totally cool. She was an awesome actress/singer/dancer - heck, probably photographer too! - and I *so* wanted to be just like her. She was, of course, the lead in every show those next two years - we even shared the stage a few times before she graduated. Definitely the “it” girl for a theatre geek like me.

So anyway, a few weeks pass and then I get an email from Rachel that reads something like:

Hi Meg,

My daughter, Abigail, was the flowergirl at Brittany & Tom’s wedding in August. I love their photos - was wondering if you would be available to do a family session for me after our second child is born.

- Rachel

… heh. I really used to believe that I was over all of those little high school insecurities - that I had moved past those “are they going to like me?!” feelings I felt as a military brat bouncing from school to school. Now that I am a little older - some might even say wiser - and definitely more established, bumping into a classmate would be so … I dunno … uneventful, maybe.

No - you’d think I had just received an Oscar the way I anxiously dragged Charles to the computer - pointing to the screen ” DO YOU KNOW WHO THIS IS!?!?”

No, he says, should I?

YES! THIS is Rachel R! Well, Rachel M now I guess… but STILL! This is Rachel!

And thus began my panic attack leading up to this shoot

So, now that you know who Rachel is - meet her beautiful family:

Like any good musical theatre mom would do, Rachel had already started Abigail on Annie (the musical), seen playing on the TV in the background when we arrived:

Abigail played a little shy at first (who was she kidding? SUCH a ham!) and went to sit with Mommy - notice the rainboots?

I dig her style. Tinkerbell costume + boots at the grand piano. Of course, she can’t read yet - much less read sheet music - so I couldn’t help but smile watching her thumb through this Broadway Anthology piano book.

Mom coerced her into changing into her pink dress - but Abby wanted to wear pants - so she pulled on both.

Singing to her babydoll.

Lilly practicing her model face in the mirror:

A nice moment with Grandma:

Lilly wide awake:

Watch the tongues in these next two

I guess she gets it from big sis!

A personal note here - I think too often parents are never pictured in photos WITH their kids. Think back to your childhood snapshots. I have one really great photo where I was riding on my dad’s shoulders when I was three - a real moment that I will love forever. But mostly, there are photographs of me alone or me with my mom - and my dad was always the one BEHIND the lens. So it was important to me to make a little time to show Stephen with his daughters, too.

Here are a few of father & daughter at play:

And then it was time for Abigail’s Tea Party:

Mommy & Abby

And I’ll leave this post with the face that makes Charles say “we should have one of those someday”: