I've been sorting and working on personal photos from, oh, way back in 2009. Which, until I look at photos, doesn't FEEL all that long ago. But my GOSH, seeing the changes in my sweet Noah is what reminds me that time is indeed passing.

It's been really neat to revisit 2009. I have jokingly declared 2009 and 2010 to be "The Lost Years" with regards to my personal photos.... I was simply too busy with professional sessions and other miscellaneous LIFE to keep up on culling and editing them, especially after I switched to RAW at the end of 2009. In fact, because of that switch, many many many of my 2010 photos are truly a mystery to me, still in their RAW form, no thumbnail to even hint at what might be tucked in those carefully labeled folders on my hard drive. A Lost Year for sure. So I am desperately trying to reclaim those years, and it's been a revelation--- the memories, locked inside photos barely glanced at in the last two years, come flooding back... It turns out, I have been LIVING, man. REALLY LIVING this life. Even when I'm so busy catching up that I forget to notice.

And crazy to think about (has it really been TWO YEARS?): 2009 was when we moved into "Kate's House". We've lived here, in this "temporary home", for TWO YEARS. Funny how life twists and turns in ways you can never imagine. Here we are, two years later, and Noah no longer calls it "Kate's House". We've really started to claim it for our own, finally.

Anyway.... I've not got much else deeper to say for the moment, but in honor of the time that's passed, even though I cannot believe 2009 was so long ago, I threw together some photos of Noah when we first moved in here and then some of his most recent shots.... Just to demonstrate what a difference two years can make. (In more ways than just physically...! But that's a philosophical discussion for another day... when I don't have to finish my preparations for Grandma Vicki's return to stay with us for the week. I can't wait to have her back, so it's been fun to tidy up and prepare the house again...)

So, this is Noah, freshly turned 2, January 2010:

And this is Noah, 4 years old, right now:

And side by side:

 

Huh. Amazing. 

Just a reminder that time really IS passing, and that sweet face we think we know so very well is totally changing, right before our eyes. Take a minute and really LOOK today, and capture today's moment. It's gonna be gone before we know it. Replaced, of course, by even more marvelous moments and versions of the same face... but still. Hold tight to the moments when you can remember to.

Back to work.... Poppyseed Chicken Casserole and Puffed Butternut Squash for dinner tonight.... What about you?

Special Moments With My Son...

Way back at the start of this school year, Fall 2011, Noah began preschool for the first time. He was on the cusp of 4 years old, and was MORE than ready to get out of the house and be around a lot of neat kids his own age. And as much as I loved having him with me, I knew school would be a marvelous thing for him, and so I enrolled him. Three days a week, for 2.75 hours at a time.

The first day of school came, and I took a quick few photos... Then the second day of school rolled around and I took a few more, this time of him in his classroom... And then Fall began kicking my tail with photography business, and those photos drifted to the bottom of the editing pile and never emerged. I felt a bit wistful at that, but vowed I'd still get some "formal" fall school photos of him and POST THEM.

Well, I managed that first part--- in October, with only a little bit of light left, I dragged Noah, Joe, Lucy and an old desk out to my favorite spot in my favorite park, and we found time to get a series of photos that instantly became so DEAR to me. I mean, this kid of mine, SO marvelous, is such a stinker in front of the camera.... But for this magical 30 minutes, he was EVERYTHING I needed him to be, and more. And the light was magical, the setting was incredibly lovely... it was just utterly perfect-- exactly what I'd hoped for.

And yet... as precious as these images ARE, somehow I kept putting off getting them done and blogged... Almost like my harebrained tendency to hoard gift cards for months, like a secret treasure, that's how it felt when I thought about these photos. They were so special to me, I wanted to hoard them just a little longer. (I have a set of photos my amazing friend Katie took in August I'm doing the SAME THING with. What is my PROBLEM??)

Anyway. Now that it is the dead of dreary winter, the golden tones of these photos have finally called out to me and I have gotten them done. And you know what? Like a fine wine, they have only gotten more dear to me over the months. So. Here is Noah. In these photos, he is nearly 4. Already, in the 3 months since taking these, he has changed a bit. How quickly they change.... But. I want to post these simply as an homage to HIM. At 4. My little son, not a toddler anymore at all, and well on his way to being a full-fledged kid. So I will intersperse the photos with little snippets of my Noah, right this minute, and even though the photos are a bit behind, it will all mesh together and be well.

My sweet son:

He is a natural clown, and plays to the laughs as much as he possibly can.

Noah is confident, outgoing, and kind. He has never clung to me or fretted when I drop him off at school. He LOVES that place. When he plays with other kids, be they ANY age, 2 or 12, he immediately thinks he's a "peer" and starts socializing. He loves kids, period. And loves when kids love him back.

He is still completely attached to Old Mai, his lovey. But in addition, he favors various pals that join his merry band. These have included: Llama Llama, Bumblebee the Transformer (up until yesterday, he played with the classic plastic one, but now that Dad has found his plush one, that's his NEW friend), Iron Man, Spider Man, Alfred the kitty, among other critters. He is NOT as attached to "Ducky", the blanket. But that's okay. I love it, and love how he used to love it, so I still brought it for his session.

Noah loves books, verbal storytelling, and music. His most recent favorites have been:

Books- Dad's Calvin and Hobbes books, his new Pop-Up Book about anatomy and physiology, and the Poingo books he got as a Christmas gift from our neighbor Opal.

Storytelling- We just made up a cute one yesterday about how a rainbow was formed. We were both enjoying it so much that I forgot to park the car a mile from school for our walk like I normally do, and had to scramble to park somewhere else to get SOME of the walk in, still.

Music- Most recently, he's been begging for me to play the "giddy yup song", i.e. William Tell Overture, i.e. the Lone Ranger song. He loves it! He also loves the Peer Gynt "In the Hall of the Mountain King" song, as well as several Regina Spektor songs, "Dinah" by _____ (Sarah, fill in the blank!), and "Yoshimi Defeats the Evil Robots" by the Flaming Lips.

 Noah is deeply into "games", i.e. pretending. He has these scripts in his head, and INSISTS Joe or I play the other part. More often than not, he is the robot of the story... Even when the story doesn't typically include a robot. For example, his most recent "game" has been for me to play Nala from the Lion King, and he is Bumblebee the Transformer. We are in the Savannah, but other than that, he's not shaped the story much... except that we go to explore the Elephant Graveyard, a concept from the Lion King story that has captured his imagination.
Other "games" include me driving to the pet shop (as just me) and buying a kitty cat, him, and naming him "Sprinkles"/"Picky Picky"/"Alfred"/"Fluffy". He  is usually a blue and turquoise cat for this game. Other games include playing Iron Man, Iron Giant, Wall-E, and so on.

My sweet Noah is the BEST brother. He loves his Lucy and wants to be the first in her room when she awakes. He wants me to lift him in the crib with her so they can play. And he takes GREAT pride in the fact that he can get her to laugh more than anyone else. He wants to take his bath with her, he loves to see her in the car when he gets in after preschool, and is honestly never rough with her or mean about her. It is heaven to me.

And he's been the best kid in general. I cannot honestly remember the last time we had to follow through with a "time out" situation... he listens to our warnings and adjusts his behaviors. I am amazed and grateful for that.

He is a happy kiddo. He is a sweet kiddo. I marvel at him and wonder how we've already come this far from the day he was born. I feel incredibly blessed to be his mama, and his steward in this life.

 I love every last one of these photos... I love how much of his true self is in them. And I love that we get to keep him this age forever, if only in images. Because for the moment, I think this little family of mine, just as it is, is just about perfect.

(And there they are. No more photo-hoarding for this session. Maybe I can even convince myself to prepare and share the other couple of sets of images I keep hanging onto for a rainy day. It's rainy and dreary right now. What better time than now?)

*

For now, though, it is bedtime. Time to take more Advil to nurse my surprise root canal from today, and time to get to bed and get powered up for another day in this life o' mine. 

G'nite.