Backing Up and Moving Forward

This time of year life gets a little crazy for me.  I'm so thankful for my business and my clients and most of all for my wonderful family that supports me and my work in ALL ways.  I feel incredibly blessed to do something that fulfills me, gives me room to grow, and allows me creative freedom.  However, it does leave little time for me to "extras." Keeping up with this personal blog would be considered one of the 'extras.'   This is one of the reasons why I have to back up a little before I can move forward. 

Back in May, one of my mom friends from Montana (and the rest of her beautiful family) came to Boston for some other business, but we got to spend one morning together.  We went to the Franklin Park Zoo with our families.  I've had these photos on my computer for 6 weeks and just now filtered through them. 

Zeke, their little boy was born just a day before Eliot.  With all the jet lag of coming in from Montana, he wasn't as thrilled as Eliot to have a playmate, but he did end up warming up.  We had a nice time regardless of the unseasonal cold temperatures.  This year's weather has been crazy.  From the 80* temps in March to the 50* temps in May.  We New Englanders are really finding a lot to complain about this year.  I'm good with 60's and 70's all year round. 

Speaking of weather.  Last week, we had this year's first official heat wave-- 3 days in a row over 90*.  We took advantage and brought out the Winnie the Pooh sprinkler that Linda gave to us.  Eliot had a fun time running back and forth through it quite a few times.  Even I ran through a couple times to cool off.  We didn't stay out too long-- it was HOT!

Paws in The Park

For the short time that we had Merelle, we hired a dog trainer, Kerri.  Kerri called me a couple weeks ago and asked me if I would be willing to help her out by taking some photos of her and her booth at a charity event called "Paws in The Park" raising money for homeless dogs.  After all she did to help us, and for the cause, of course I agreed.  I took along Ted and Eliot and we went to Sudbury for a Paws in The Park adventure.  It was a weird weather day-- overcast, sunny, and rainy at the same time.  Eliot was in his glory.  He was so excited to see all the pups.  There were many booths set up with things from pet portraits to dog training to nail trimmings to dog beds, adoptions, and they even had a bouncy house for kids.  Ted took Eliot to the bouncy house while I worked. 

In between shooting for Kerri, I captured some photos of Eliot.  During my busy work season, it seems I really slack on taking photos of my own son and family so this was an easy way to sneak some photos in. 

On another note, I cannot, CANNOT!!!!! believe that Eliot is almost FOUR!! I don't know where the time went.  Three was tough to take, but FOUR I feel like I CANNOT take!! Four is OLD, definitely not a baby anymore and not even a toddler, but a child! I have a real kiddo now! That kiddo is all signed up for preschool and everything-- 3 days a week!  He will be going to the Fox Hill School in Danvers 3 mornings a week come Fall and I'm not loving that either.  I feel like all of a sudden he's going to be subjected to all sorts of kids and behaviors that he was "protected" from before.  I'm worried about what this might mean for his own behavior patterns.  He is such a sweet child.  Not to mention the illnesses... OH-THE-ILLNESSES. I might need to heavily sedate myself to be able to cope with all the illnesses that come along with preschool. 

We are very excited to first enjoy our Summer though.  Eliot and I made a "pail list" the other day (instead of a "bucket list") which is a list of 25 things we want to do this Summer.  We have included things like visit Papa's grave, plant some flowers, go to Thomas day at Edaville, visit Canobie Lake Park, and buy an ice cream from the ice cream man.  Summer is definitely my favorite time of year and I can't wait to spend some quality time with my little guy!