Laura Cashion Blogtography

Her life of living with a paparazzi mom has created a monster.  This evening after putting on her princess pajamas she grabbed her crown and insisted that I get my camera, immediately, so that we could take pictures for Daddy and GranPat.  After each shutter release she demanded to see the image preview.  Then she told me that she wanted to take another one.  I was the one who finally had to put a stop to her impromptu photo session.  There are another 20 images.  She selected each spot, each pose, each facial expression.  What have I done?

Time seems to be flying by with this kid.  The time went by fast with Riley but she was center stage in our family.  She got all of the attention.  I had nothing better to do then to document every single stage of her life.  In her scrapbook I have a full page of pictures, every month, for 12 months and then some.  Then came Gavin.  Having 2 kids changed everything.  My attention was divided.  I was chasing around a 2 year old and trying to take care of a baby at the same time.  Let’s not forget moving from a different country and being thrust into the life of a single mother.  If you look in Gavin’s scrapbook, nothing.  Not one single page has been done.  There are pictures, I think, but no where near what I have for Riley.  I feel like I have lost so much with Gavin.  He has grown up so much and I don’t feel like I was really present for a lot of it.  I hear time and time again that this is the case when you have a second child.  You remember every detail of your first child’s first year.  The second, not so much.  Everyone has pages of pictures of their first, not their second, and most definitely not their third.  I never thought that would be me.  As much as I love photography how could it be me.  And here I am.  It IS me.

Now that Riley is in school maybe I can regain some of that time.  Gavin and I have the whole day to ourselves.  He gets my full undivided attention.  He also can be the single subject to a once again paparazzi mom.  Maybe I might even find the time to start working on the scrapbook that has been collecting dust for the past 15 months.

I did remember to catch a few shots of Gavin’s first haircut.  Riley had so much fun helping.  She is finally getting into the stage where she loves having a baby brother, and she loves getting to teach him new things.  Finally she has realized that he is not here just to steal her toys.

Riley has been waiting for this for the last 2 weeks.  Asking every single day if she could go to school.  She was so excited about the first day of school she didn’t sleep last night.  She woke up every single hour.  This morning she was up at 5:30, on her own.  She could barely contain her excitement.  She was finally going to school.  She bounced into the school and then she looked lost.  All of the parents, all of the teachers, all of the kids.  I knew that once she got to her classroom and things settled down she would be fine.  And she was.  She had a great first day of school.  Her teacher said she did really well.  She cried the whole way to the car because she didn’t want to leave.  Then as soon as we got to the car she was done.  Then started the whining and the crying and the asking for juice 60 million times until we got home.  Once we walked in the door she turned into the Energizer Bunny.  She was so tired that hyperactivity took over.  She was bouncing off of the walls.  I got her settled down to take a bath and after that she was out.  Both kids in bed by 7:30.  I love school!

My day was so incredibly quiet.  Gavin went to daycare and I had the whole day to myself.  I got some school work done in the morning and then, thanks to the Army’s change of plans, I spent the entire afternoon mowing the grass.  Have I mentioned before that I hate mowing the grass.  I am wishing for lots of rain for the next two weeks so that he has to mow the grass while he is home just so I get a break.

Oh yeah.  I guess you want to see pictures.  Check out the last picture.  She looks so tiny next to her classmates.

I was going through some pictures for a project Riley is working on; yes a project on the first day of school.  In Pre-K.  Anyway, I ran across this one.  This is one of my all time favorite pictures of Riley.

This was taken on an airplane traveling from Austin to Dallas during Riley’s first trip to Texas.  It was also her first trip to the United States.

While I am at it…there is this one too.