Lennon Belle! eating, playing, and being generally adorable.

My little friend Lennon (or "Lemon" as her Grandma likes to call her!) is now, what, like 1.5 years old?! I have had the big honor of getting to photograph and hang out with her about every six months, and was so happy to to do again last week. She's already walking, talking, signing, and doing lots of things independently. I miss her already!

For this shoot, I wanted to get some cute baby-eating stock photos, but also just wanted an excuse to hang out with Jessie and LB. And my devious plan worked!

How many babies do you know that will eat a (even sweet) pepper?



One of the dogs was really trying hard to get into Lennon's lunch. She is at that age where she's more than happy to toss stuff over the edge to the doggies, laugh hysterically, and then make a quick concerned face to show that she agrees with you that throwing things on the floor is bad news... and then it all starts over a few seconds later. Who can be mad when she's got such an adorable little laugh?!







Lennon was trying hard to kind of squish open the pepper, instead of just biting the end of it. Now, I've looked at these shots probably 10 times already, and still, every time I see the second one, I burst out laughing. She's trying so hard to do... something (crunch it? open it? crumple it?) that she's kinda shaking with effort:





Lennon + lemon!



This one of the "where did my lunch go?" faces:





What Lennon really, really wanted was to take my camera. Since it weighs almost as much as she does, I only let her use it when sitting on my lap. She did, however, press the button, and did a pretty good job with a few shots of her pretty mama:



I quite like this artsy one:







Playtime! One of the (many) things that fascinates me about babies and young children is the development process. When Lennon got our her "Barrel of Monkeys", I hung a few on a handle, and she slowly tried to imitate it. It never would have occurred to me to think about the point where you learn to hang a little delicate thing like that, so it was neat to see her figure it out a bit! She totally did it on her own after watching me :)











Next we played catch, which she's still working on a bit - but she has more fun than anyone I know even when she misses the catch!











Another shot I helped LB with:



Her lovely little mobile (I want one!):



And a photo of me and Lennon that Jessie took. You can see she's pointing going, "I want the camera back!". Can't wait to see what she grows up to create!



Now, I saved this for the final photo, even though it was the first shot of the day. I know that it will be humiliating for her someday, but, really, is there anything cuter than teensy baby buns? Nice plumber crack, Lennon!

Jessie and baby Lennon, Petaluma

I love visiting with Jessie and her little Lennon Belle - that little girl is just one of the cutest things I've ever seen! They're so photogenic that I decided we needed to hang out expressly for a stock/ portrait photo session. It also gave me an excuse to visit with them and get lots of little hugs from Lennon.



Look at this sweet little face!





Lennon had just started walking three days before our shoot... and she was already unstoppable, cruising around like a tiny drunk with sealegs. She was very proud, and very very cute.



Jessie and Lennon have a wonderful relationship. Jessie's such a great mom!



We did this shoot at my parents' house, celebrating the last of the beautiful summer flowers. Those sunflowers go a little nuts, getting bigger every year.



Somebody likes to laugh!





Pretty Jessie by herself:



I think they were taking in a birdie or something:



Oh, baby! She likes me : )







Giving Jessie a good arm workout:





I'm telling you, this girl has got to MOVE!







Thanks to both beautiful girls for being such great models (and bringing me homemade ice cream sandwiches... mm!). Hope to see you soon for more teeny baby hugs.

baby Lennon!, Harris-Smith party part 1, Petaluma, California

A few weeks ago, we had another get together with some family friends I grew up with. I was determined to see them all again, partly because they're great, and partly because they have a new addition - baby Lennon! She has got to be one of the most beautiful girls I've ever seen, and so sweet tempered that I could've carried her around all day. In fact, I kind of tried to, and my arm was sore the next day.



I mean, just look at this little face! Can you stand it? I guess she can be shy with new people sometimes, but she must've known me somehow because when I walked in, she looked at me and gave me her heart-melting grin and let me hold her right away. Love it!



She is about 7 or 8 months, and kept doing that awesome arm-flapping and leg-kicking thing that they do around that age... adorable little birdy! Plus, her g-ma sings her a song that makes her break into a HUGE smile every single time, I could not get enough of it.











Too much mashed yam...





Lennon was so well behaved and sweet, even with no nap, I could not believe it. She wasn't bothered by anything, and seems so intrigued by the world, which is something I love about spending time with little ones. Now, if only we could get her to let her poor mama sleep more than 3 hours a night!



More photos of the family day coming soon - but I felt the baby photos deserved their own post, cause, awwwwww.