Happy Holidays!

I feel so incredibly blessed to have the job that I do. I truly love it! I just adore the heartwarming e-mails and messages that clients, grandparents of clients, friends of clients, and even complete strangers have sent to tell me that they are touched by images that I've created. So here is my own holiday "thank you"...Blue Candy style...

thank you

Have a wonderful Christmas and a happy New Year!!

If you haven't noticed...

I've been posting more of my own kiddos and less client stuff here... Everyone is more than welcome to stay (I love reading all of your comments and e-mails!!), but I'd also like to invite you to see where I've been putting my client work here

Don't worry, I'll still be sharing here; it just may be more frequent over there! Here is a recent cutie - a repeat client from this summer.

It's the most wonderful time...

...of the year - especially if you are four years old! Kaleb and I went shopping for special decorations for his room and then had a mother-son decorating party. He is so very proud of his little tree!

I'm going to stay in *my* pj's tomorrow...

...and eat to my heart's content!

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Red

I haven't meant to be avoiding my blog - just busy, busy, busy! I'll try to pop back in here more often though - I have so many fun images to catch up on!

Check out this redhead - I adore his hair!



and with mom...

This little guy could use some well wishes...

...and lots of prayers. He was born with Downs, hemophilia, high lung pressure, and a heart defect and will be undergoing heart surgery on Friday. His family is amazingly strong, but still very scared for their little boy. As a mom myself, I can't imagine the feeling.

Photographers frequently donate sessions to families with very sick children. We often feel just as blessed to get to know these strong families through their difficult situations as they are blessed to receive priceless captures of their children. There are official organizations like www.nowilaymedowntosleep.org and the American Child Photographers Charity Guild (www.acpcg.com) that work to connect photographers with families in need. If you know of anyone who would benefit from these one of these services, please contact either of these organizations or feel free to contact me. Photographers tend to have big hearts and are often quite willing to donate their time and talent to those who will treasure it most.

Here are a few of their images and a link to their slideshow. And if you can pray for their sweet baby, I know that it would be greatly appreciated.

edited to add...the images are not uploading correctly at the moment, so I'll just leave you with his slideshow for now...


http://www.bluecandyphotography.com/slideshows/slideshow.php?Slideshow=kaufmann&Testing=true

(sorry, it's not linking correctly either...you can just highlight the address, then copy and paste it into your browser's address field - you will not want to miss seeing his amazing smile and his adorable older brother!)

Two

A birthday balloon...



Some cake and ice cream of course...




Two.

I found them like this...

...and realized that Kaleb has the entire book "The Poky Little Puppy" memorized. Word for word. Wow. (And I have yet to even read it to him, so Grandma Was must have done a loooot of reading while I was away!)





I tried to "look in" on them...but someone caught me and wanted to escape!


So we played peekaboo instead. :)

Stump sitting

Toddler Linguistics

Two weeks ago I took Micah to his two year check up with our pediatrician. I really enjoy these types of doctor visits. I am always eager to hear how much he has grown, see what cute things he does for the doctor, etc. Micah has such a fun personality - he just loves to make friends and show off his goofiness.

Everything started off great. Dr. N proceeded to examine Micah, who complied with a grin. That's my kid, I thought proudly. "Oh, he has quite an expressive personality! So cute!" Dr. N. said. I smiled. Next came the developmental questions. Yes, he sleeps through the night...of course he rides in a carseat...yes, he is running, climbing, and jumping... Piece of cake. Then, a surprise.
"Does he know his colors?" asked Dr. N.
"Well, no. He's not quite two yet. Isn't that a three year old thing?" I answered.
"What about counting?"
"Ummm. Not really. He likes the number two a lot though."
"How many words does he say?"
"Gosh, I've never counted them. Well...probably...at least twenty or so, I think."
Silence and scribbling. Uh oh.
"We should keep an eye on that," Dr. N. told me. "I'm sure he'll start picking things up soon. Just for reference, most children know at least fifty words by the time they are two."

My heart sank. Maybe we haven't been reading to him enough, I began to wonder. I'm sure we read to Kaleb a lot more...but he wasn't as active...Micah never wants to sit down long enough to read. I haven't even tried teaching him colors...or numbers...or even puzzles. We make silly faces and animal noises quite a bit though. I wished there was a test for that. We got in to the car and I began to count. He knows "momma-s" - that's one. "Daddy-s" - that's two. It counts if it they are always plural, right? "Crackers" - that's three...

By the time I'd left Fishers, I'd made it to forty-six. I began to feel better, but couldn't quite give up there.

Hmmm. I'm sure I'm forgetting a few, I thought. Maybe I could teach him some on the way home.
"Micah, can you say 'sign'?"
"Siiiiine," came from the back seat.
Great. Only three more.

By the end of the day we were well into the fifties and I was resisting the urge to call and ask the pediatrician to remove the blemish from Micah's chart. Randy told me I was crazy.

*************************************************************************

Fast forward two weeks. Micah has been learning new words at an amazing rate. It's like a switch in his brain was recently turned to ON. He even learned how to say his own name yesterday...and is so proud of saying, "Bmicah." His pronunciation sounds a bit like he has a cold...but it works.

I was tucking in my sweet almost-two-year-old with his beloved stuffed animals - an adorable lamb (I bought that one), a hideous blue shark, and a somewhat obnoxious singing bunny. I often wonder what has led this child to become so attached to such a strange crowd of sleeping buddies? Anyway, Micah kept repeating the word, "Baaaasssh". It sounded very much like the word "bash", just longer. And when Micah wants us to know something, he will repeat it over and over and OVER until we understand. Amazing determination in this kid. Well, I tried and tried, and simply couldn't guess what he meant.
"Bath?" I guessed.
"No," came his quick reply.
"Shower?" (similar to bath in his mind).
"No".
"Ummm, bunny?" I already knew the answer to that one. The word bunny is pronounced "ahsooo." Makes sense to him.
"No."

I finally distracted him with the singing bunny and kissed him goodnight. However...I'm sure you can imagine what his first word was the next morning. Yep, "baaassh", bright and early. Incredible. I wondered if he had been lying awake all night trying to remember his new word. How can young brains remember certain things so easily? Randy took him in to the bathroom for a change and he spotted my hairbrush with a goofy grin. "Baaaash!" Pheew. We'd figured it out.

And...that makes seventy-two, doc. Not that I'm counting. :)

Hey...Heather!!

Look at your sweet little guy! I had such a blast talking with him...learning about the next top model, his daddy's dancing, and so much more. You gotta love four (well, almost!) year olds!

Classic

This may be a new favorite of mine. I can't quite put my finger on why...but I like it. Something about her posture and her classic look I think...


And a few others from her family's session...




And just for fun...

Graceful

Such a sweet six year old!

Sisters

I had a pretty rough day today...but these images are bringing a smile to my face...

Invisible Sign

I'm beginning to wonder if I have an invisible sign on my website saying, "Specializes in one year old boys." I get an awful lot of them! And while they surely are a big challenge (I know - I have one at home!) and I go home exhausted, the photos are so rewarding!



Oh boy did I get nervous when a mom called to book a session for her twin one year old boys...but it was one of my favorite sessions yet!




And a few more of one of my favorite one yr. olds...