We had dinner tonight with our friends Camille, Jason and Theo. It was such fun and I am getting sad to be leaving all of our people in the Bay Area in three short weeks. I can't imagine not being able to pop over to their house for a quick walk or jaunt to the park. Sigh.
This is a recent client fav.
Just got back from an amazing five days in Mexico with my high school girlfriends. Will write more about it soon, but for now here are some pics.
Today when we were at Target (when I ask are we not there?) the pharmacist gave Ben this little stuffed dog. It was very sweet of him, but I couldn't help wondering if it was supposed to be a consolation prize for having such an overly medicated mom or if it was the first of many steps to bring Ben over to the 'dark side'.
I took this at a client shoot last weekend. This little girl was taken with my light meter.
Ben woke up at 5. There was no more coffee in the house. Then one of the dogs bit my ankle. Then my head ran into a tree. It's only 6:00 in the evening. I am prepared for more.
Tuesdays I am home with Ben. All day. I love him to death, but it is exhausting. We set out this morning with Lula to take her to the vet. This passes as an 'outing' for Lula these days. Sad, but true. We get to the vet's office and I manage to get in the door with one hand holding Ben's, one hand holding Lula's leash and my mythical third hand holding my travel mug of coffee. We get settled and then all of a sudden the coffee is all over the floor and the wall. So I am going to the restroom to grab paper towels while Lula is lapping up the coffee and Ben is jumping up and down on the benches in the waiting room. Needless to say I had one of those "I want to physically disappear right now" moments. All I knew is that if this was an indication of the tenor of my whole day, I was screwed.
Josh and I took Ben to the park the other day and I asked Josh if he got Ben's hat out of the car. He explained to me that he did not bring the hat because there was another child's name written in it. Of course he yelled this across the park and I could hear the sound of about 20 necks snapping to look at us. They wanted to know what a child's hat thief looks like. I loudly replied that we bought it at a resale store and thus I did not deprive some cute little two year-old of his sun protection. So then they knew that we were no longer thieves. Now they know that we don't pay full price at the Gap.Yesterday for Mother's day we had brunch with my family. We got Ben dressed and in the car and then noticed that once again he was hoarding food in his cheek. Our little hamster. He eats something but keeps it in his mouth for a long time until finally he spits out the completely mushed food. Let me tell you how pleasant this is. So yesterday we knew he had a tomato hidden in there and I was dreading the mess that was going to make. He held onto it for about an hour and even kept it in there after we got to the restaurant. Finally once some food came to the table he got that look on his face, so I knew it was time and before I could get out of my seat and across the table to lessen the damage, he stuck his finger in his mouth and pulled out the perfectly intact cherry tomato. He had it in his mouth for over an hour and never even bit it. I can't tell you how funny this was. What a weird kid. It's obvious that he's mine.
As my card from my mother-in-law said "Motherhood isn't for Sissies".
I recently read a really great book written by an adult adoptee. It is called The Mistress's Daughter and is written by A.M. Homes. She doesn't sugar coat anything and writes not about growing up adopted but about her reunion with her birth parents.Almost all of these stories that one sees on 'Oprah' or reads about in magazines are uplifting and healing. In real life they are messy and unpredictable. In 2003 I had to do a thesis project at the the end of art school. Thesis is a bit of a misleading term. The idea was to make a proposal and then set out to prove or disprove it using the visual media of your choice. So I decided to do a film about my search for my birth parents. (You can see it here and/or hear me being interviewed on the radio about the project here—just click on Interview on KALX 12/2/2003). Once I found my birth parents and finished the film I thought that this was a chapter of my life that I could finally put to bed. But what happened next was the real surprise. Discovering where I had come from and the people who had brought me into this world, as well as bringing my own little person in the world, started to re-frame everything. And what followed was way more 'Jerry Springer' material than 'Oprah'. So I decided to re-visit those heady days after I found my birth parents. I want to pick up from where the film left off. And I want to write about it so I will never forget. Think of this as one of the old magazine serials. The story is too big and overwhelming to do in one chunk. So here goes...
I had the honor of photographing Frances England and her family last weekend. They were so much fun to be with. I wanted to join in their family too. I wouldn't take up too much room. This is her son Liam who is such a special little guy. He was a bit shy at first, but warmed up in no time.
It is 84 degrees in Berkeley at 10:00am today and I am roasting. Soon I will be living in Austin, whose temperatures make this area look like Antarctica. I am so screwed.
A few kids from our mom's group had an impromptu reunion at Studio Grow on Friday. These boys all met as babies and look at them now.
I know, I know. People call them the terrible twos. But they are just plain rotten at this age. They are irrational little devils getting into anything and everything and having a meltdown tantrum ANYTIME you try to get them to stop doing whatever they are doing. I save Ben's life a million times a day when he is about to shove some really sharp object into his eye, but how does he thank me? By screaming his head off when I put him in the car seat and demanding I let him hold my coffee cup for the next two miles. I want my money back.
