So, if you ask a photographer specializing in babies what her favorite stage to photograph is, she will most likely say newborns.  There’s just something about being able to capture that sweet, fleeting, straight-from-creation newness that makes us get all giddy inside.  If you ask us our next favorite stage, 9 times out of 10 it’s going to be the sitting-but-not-yet-crawling phase.  Babies between 6 and 7 months love to smile, they adore their parents, they are awake and cheerful for longer periods of the day, they make all kinds of fun sounds and faces, and they can’t run away from you!

Again, my sweet darling boy is here to remind me to just enjoy being his mom rather than his photographer, as he started crawling 4 weeks ago and is just now, just barely beginning to sit unassisted.  What does this mean?  It means that I get about 4 seconds after sitting him down before he takes off crawling after a sister, a toy, my lights or me.  How long does it take me to sit him down, move back, lie down on the ground, pick up my camera and focus?  Around 4.5 seconds.  It’s as if he is non-verbally saying to me, “Mom, repeat after me, ‘Jack is a person, not a prop.  He is not here to fulfill your photographic flights of imagination.  He is here to cuddle and snuggle and tickle and love.”  And he is.  And I do.

So here he is in all his 6-month, crawling-but-not-yet-sitting glory.  My darling boy:

Gosh, I love that grin:).

Yeah, he pretty much wants to stand up right now.

This was taken 0.01 seconds before he launched forward and crawled off:).

See my muscles? I am more than just a pretty face:).

This was the view I saw most often: “See ya later, Mom!”

And finally, a sitting shot.  Looking a little bit like a frog, but still oh, so very cute!

Oh, baby boy!  Love you so much, it hurts sometimes!

February has been a crazy month for me.  Rescheduling and some late-arriving babies has led to a fuller than usual month of sessions.  On top of that, my entire family decided to take turns becoming ill over this past week off of school (yeah, we know how to party in this house).  Jack got the brunt of it though and was diagnosed this weekend with bronchiolitis and an ear infection.  It’s not serious, but he does need to be on a nebulizer every four hours.  At the risk of getting too personal, his breathing issues (and lack of sleep on my part) have created some eating issues and nursing has not been going well the past few days.

In light of everything that’s going on with him, I would just ask for some patience as I work on getting everything back on track.  If you are waiting for a gallery, a sneak peek, or to receive an email response, please know I will get to everything just as soon as I can.  In the meantime, I appreciate your patience as I focus on my family’s health for a few days.

Speaking of patience, no post is complete without a picture.  So here’s a recent snappy of my impatient boy, who at 5 months decided sitting up and crawling were on the agenda.  He can now crawl the length of the house.  Someone please stop my baby boy from growing up too fast!

Happy Valentine’s Day!  I had such a fun time taking pictures of my own valentines that I couldn’t resist sharing a few.  Or considerably more than a few.  Forgive this photographer as she slips into adoring mother-mode:).

The baby valentine (On a side-note, is it weird that my barely 5-month old thinks he can crawl and sit up?  He can’t quite manage it completely, but he sure thinks he can.):

The little valentine (She is beyond excited to hand out her valentine cards at church today and roams around the house randomly bursting out in exclamations of, “I love you more than chocolate!“):

Okay, the one on the right just kills me:).

The middle valentine (Super sweet, and so hard to get a real expression out of now.  We caught a couple, though.):

The big valentine (So beautiful, but so, so crazy for candy.  We managed to tame a little valentine sweetness out of her for a second.):

And a little more like reality:

Yep, that’s my girl!

If you made it this far, I commend and thank you!  Hope your Valentine’s Day is full of sweetness, hugs, and, kisses–candy or otherwise.

…and this is pretty much how we all feel about it:

When I asked baby girl at the airport if she was excited to go home and sleep in her own bed, she answered with a resounding, “No!”

“Well, where do you want to go?”

“I wanna go at another Hawaii!!!!!!!!!!!!”

Ah, baby girl, I don’t blame you.  We had a wonderful time visiting with my parents on Kaua’i.  We almost didn’t make it, as our itinerary changed without our knowledge and we missed our flight out.  Five hours, many phone calls, and a couple of really helpful employees of both United and Alaska Air later we were on our way.  We stopped over in Seattle and stayed the night at my parents’ home (we got to see some old friends and my little sister for a few hours!!!!!!!!!!!!!) and arrived in Hawaii 24 hours late, but not too worse for wear.  The girls are all great travelers and Jack slept much of the various flights.  Even so, the return trip home was a little brutal–leaving Hawaii at 11:30 p.m. Friday night and getting in to Albany at 10:00 p.m. on Saturday.  I was feeling pretty much done with travel for a looong time.  However, walking out to the car in 10-degree temperatures had a little part of me thinking, “I wanna go at another Hawaii too!”

I’ve just now had a chance to catch my breath and am starting to return phone calls and emails.  A couple of galleries are due to go out, and they should be up tonight or tomorrow morning.  I am excited for all the babies I have coming up this month and can’t wait to meet them.  Keep checking back for both newborn yumminess and the little bit of warmth I was able to capture and bring back from our trip!

Despite the cold, it’s good to be home:).

I just wanted to give a heads-up that I will be on vacation for the next week.  I will have access to email and voicemail, so you four mamas who are due any day now are welcome to give me a call as soon as your little ones make their arrivals and I will get back to you right away.  All other emails and phone calls will be returned the first of February.

On a side note, my littlest baby girl turned three today.  I do not know where the time has gone.  What a pure delight these past three years have been.  Don’t ever let anyone tell you two is terrible–two is pretty much the honeymoon period of parenting–goofy faces, silly sayings, burgeoning independence, something new learned everyday.  Three, on the other hand, well… let’s not think about that right now:).

Anyway, what’s a blog post without images?  Well, boring, but that’s probably best left a rhetorical question.  We snagged a few quick shots before running out the door this morning.

I can almost hear the giggle in this one:

JuJuBe, just love you more than chocolate!   Happy Birthday, big girl!

Oh, Baby Boy! I just love you so much–from your tippy-toes to your cute little chin (all 3 of them!). I had a session Saturday, stay tuned for a sweet 6-month old little girl in my next post, and decided to leave my equipment up so I could do a little mini-session with Jack. I cannot believe he is 4 months already. I can hardly stand it.

Just wanted to share the sweet face I find staring up at me all too often at 12:00 a.m. And 1:00. And 2:00. And… well, you get the picture.

Love this little giggle!

We have just discovered how fun toes can be:).

And, oh, I cannot tell you how utterly happy this last one makes me.  That’s my sweet, squishy, smiley boy!

Love you, Peanut!

Sooooo happy.  Giddy, really.  Almost inexplicably so.  Just a silly, goofy grin every time I walk by my little Christmas present to myself:).

I had this image of Jack printed as a 24×36.  You can see said goofy grin in this snap my darling husband took for me:

Yes, Jack’s head in the photo is 3+ times bigger than it is in real life right now.  And yes, I was a bit nervous it might look strange or minimize his tininess at the time, but it really doesn’t.  It’s just beautiful!  For all the anxiety that printing big can sometimes cause (Do I have enough wall space?  Is it going to be overpowering?  Will I regret ordering a print that big?), I can honestly say I have never wished I had printed smaller.  If anything, I just get more excited to order more prints.  That reminds me, I have 4 or 5 more large images that are all ready to go, but never seem to get ordered in between placing client orders… :).

On another note, my husband and I first saw this little piece of genius when our first sweet girl was almost a year old.  Every time I have another baby, it comes rushing back to me and pretty much defines my life right now.

I am doing the best I can to function on super-limited sleep (let’s just say that despite his myriad wonderful qualities, Jack is NOT a sleeper), but I appreciate patience as I continue to occasionally do things like send emails and forget the attachments.  At least the majority of my wonderful clients are experiencing the same phenomenon, and most of the others remember it.  Let’s call it a bonding exercise, ‘kay?

Oh, I just realized I included two self portraits in this post;).

Happy Holidays from Jessica Washburn Photography!

I am still not quite done for the year–I have two more newborn sessions in the next two days–but I wanted to take the time to wish all my blog readers a very happy holiday season while I have a moment to breathe:).  I hope your December is filled with love and laughter.

A few more images that make my heart happy:).

Happy Holidays!

…for just so many things.  I have a job I LOVE, am married to the love of my life, and am the mother of four children I adore.  I am blessed in more ways than I can name.

I am truly humbled.

Photo by Ashley Brown, processed by me–thanks again, Ashley!

Seriously?!  It’s already been two months (okay, not really–at 1:00 a.m. tomorrow morning it will have been two months) since little Jack joined our family.  Of course, I had to try and fit in a little mini shoot.

Mini is right, as Jack was bound and determined to remind me why two months is not exactly an ideal age for portraits: wobbly head, lack of neck control that accentuates the double (I mean triple) chin, lack of eye contact, limited smiling.  Too bad for him that he’s too darn cute to let a few challenges keep me from going ahead with my attempt;).

He’s just now starting to smile, but he loves to do it with his little tongue poking out:

The girls have nicknamed him “Jack-Attack.”  Every super-hero needs a super-hero pose, right?

He made it up for a split second:).

And a little detail:

Love you, baby boy!  Love you enough to stop showing you off and to go give you snuggles… right now:).