Hello all,
It has been a while, but since most of my days are filled with folding endless, sky high mountains of sweaters in a variety of colors and wiping noses of two year olds, my nights are pretty much dedicated to the most important thing in my life right now: sleep. I do not have as much time as I would like to dedicate to writing, meaning my blog and other mystery project are getting the short end of the attention stick right now. It really does sadden my soul, because this is my biggest passion in the world.
This weekend, before I went and watched my Florida State Seminoles defeat the Miami Hurricanes into something more like a nice autumn breeze, I spent my day with a pregnant woman while working on another one of my creative outlets: photography. But seriously, I cannot be more proud of my boys! They showed stamina and grace on the field even in light of a few mistakes and mishaps, and I am delighted that I had the pleasure to watch the game of the year.
Okay, back to my day with a pregnant lady whom I had only met once. My work had talked me into taking pictures for an Instagram contest (of which I was also pushed into being in charge of). My friend Sarah and I do pictures on the side, just because she is really good at it and I thought she should make a little money from it. We have a page called Little B Photography on Facebook. She is definitely the master photographer, where I am more of the idea girl. My creative outlet is always on overload, so coming up with poses and the looks for picture sessions every once in a while has got to be healthy for me.
Let me start with how I met Julia. It was at my work. My boss came up to me one day and asked me if I would be down to promote the huge baby sale we were having a few weeks ago by dressing up in a cute "baby shower-esque" outfit and standing back in the baby section. Of course I was down! I love sitting back there in the land of all things cute and cuddly. It almost makes me want a little one to stuff into the overly fluffy jackets with the animal ears. But at the same time, it makes me want to get sterilized because the adorable clothes don't look nearly as sweet on a toddler who is screaming at and kicking his mother.
Working with children has got to be the best form of birth control out there. Someone should really get on that and profit from it. Like have class a few times a month where a few girls are left with a bunch of out of control toddlers, all with loaded diapers and hangry (pissed because they are hungry). I guarantee you the next time her boyfriend crawls into bed with her and tries to turn up the magic, she stops him, makes a saran wrap pair of underwear, and builds a wall of pillows between them that his penis couldn't possibly hope to get through.
While hanging up baby booties and folding onesies, I had another job. I was to use my cellphone and take pictures of pregnant ladies and babies for the two contests we had going on. One was cutest mommy belly and the other was cutest kid. "Go up and take their pictures" they said, "You won't look like a creeper at all" they said. Well, that was totally false. I attempted to be charming by complementing the rosy cheeked tots or the beautiful glow the preggers had, but some people still looked at me like I had a pedophilic gleam in my eye and pulled their babies a bit closer to them when I asked to take their pictures on my personal cell phone. I have to admit, if some lady in a pink shirt with bows for buttons came up to me with their iphone and asked me to let me photograph their baby, I'd probably see little red flags popping up faster than zit on a thirteen year old's face, too.
I met this one lady who looked like she might pop if she brushed up against something hard enough. She was looking over at the boys clothes as I approached her trying to look not like a child snatcher. I asked her how far along she was and she blushed redder than a candy apple and said, "Don't laugh, I am only 23 weeks along. I am having twin boys, I know I look huge and ridiculous." I could tell she was feeling, I don't know, self- conscious maybe? I proceeded to tell her that she was beautiful and that I didn't think she looked bad at all. She had warm, chocolate hair with hints of natural red and had very pretty smile. The only thing big about her was her belly, and when you are carrying twin boys, how could you be anything else? I told her about our contest and she seemed rather reluctant telling me she didn't feel very up to a picture, but I told her the prize was supposed to be pretty cool, even though I didn't know all the details yet. She let me snap her picture and then we went our separate ways after a few more minutes of chatting and me trying to reassure her she was a cute mommy to be. After she left, I couldn't help but hope that she would be the one who won the contest.
A few weeks passed and I was delighted to hear that she had in fact won. My boss told me she wanted me to take a few pictures, maybe like ten, let her choose the picture and then we would print it. Well, we all know that I like things bigger and better so I wasn't about to be able to take just ten pictures. My creative flow would have turned to poison if I would have limited myself. Instead I went absolutely crazy, pinning ideas on Pinterest and scouting possible locations for our shoot.
I just have to say that my morning with Julia and Mason and Tucker (her twins) was absolutely stunning. We had fun kicking people out of filming because we wanted to take pictures in front of this really pretty door to a grief and counseling building. I told her to look super pregnant when we needed someone to move or let us borrow a space for just a few moments. She laughed and told me she liked my style. She was such a trooper getting up and down into different poses that I suggested. We told jokes and laughed over the snow cone she bought me as a treat for doing this for her. She was super excited about one of the locations being Lake Ella because the Snowball place was right there beside it. She said it was her biggest pregnancy craving and this was their last week open for the regular season. I thought it would be funny to document her craving and we took some pretty hilarious pictures in front of the sign with her holding her snowball and eating it.
One of the funniest moments of the day was when we were doing a picture that she really wanted done. She wanted the belly shot with the blocks on top spelling out the word "twins." I had just put the blocks on her belly when one of them fell off. I asked her if that was her and she giggled saying, "No, that was the boys kicking." I laughed so hard as I kept putting the block back up and watching it slide back down again. Another highlight was when we were talking about her husband's parents and how she loved them so much. I told her about the one set of parents from a boyfriend I dated that I was really fond of. I told her the mom was cool like she is and how she got younger people's banter and jokes, and told her about the time I explained to the mom how babies were born with dimples. "It's from the dad having sex with the pregnant mom, and the baby gets poked in the face and that is how the baby gets dimples." Julia's reaction to this was priceless.
She was one of the sweetest people I have ever had the pleasure of taking pictures for. She has to know I was being honest, because she wasn't charged for this. She made it fun for me by relating to me in ways most people over 30 can't anymore. Her conversation skills were on the same level as mine and we talked the whole time. At the end of the day I dubbed her the coolest pregnant woman I have ever met. If I couldn't make it to College Game Day, I am glad to say I spent my time with her. Pictures to come soon! Be sure to check out our page on Facebook.
