There sat tiny peaceful Aubree in her caramel colored pigtails, clad to her toes in a luscious lemon yellow sundress. Beside her scattered like a deck of cards were her heirloom volumes of Peter Rabbit books presently in their worn carrying case. The same novels which had tasted the tips of her very own Mommy’s childish young fingers. To her right was a dated lamp, not lighting the words that escaped from her pages for this wooded area was lit, bright and intensely colored. No sounds to disturb her, no friendly animals tempting her to play…
Or perhaps that’s how I would have liked to imagine it.
I meticulously took my time to paint a picture of Aubree in the woods enjoying the silence from her inherited books; however being a precocious toddler that she was there was no keeping this little one still. Our scene had long been forgotten when my newest quest was to simply capture this petite explorer. Let it be known that I had been warned, her newest and most declared exclamation was “no!” a parent’s favorite milestone in those terrible adorable twos.
She was bouncy, not responsive to my demands from behind the camera so I immediately put Mommy to work. Cassie clapped, chanted Barney songs at the top of her lungs and wobbled with enthusiasm. I seriously thought of hiring her onto our team, she was quite the show and worked the entirety of our two hour session. It was in the moments when I put down the camera for all but a few split seconds that Aubree delivered her most photogenic expressions, go figure!
With unwavering determination to capture young Aubree smiling, I learned rather quickly that sometimes it isn’t so much gathering the ideal smile but capturing who she is at this fleeting age. She was fascinated by the world, eager to discover all that was outside of her “backyard” so I went to work with new purpose as Mom continued to hop, skip and croon nearby toddlers.
As if meeting her for the first time I fell in love with the mini explorer behind those spellbinding inquisitive blue eyes. They worked eagerly absorbing the surrounding sights and sounds. I continued to snap as every so often she gazed into my direction and noticed my presence in her marvelous little world. This beautiful, playful toddler left mom and I both exhausted by sundown from playing her game of cat and mouse. Then with a purposeful kiss, cheery wave and a widespread smile which all took me by surprise she said her goodbyes and happily skipped away, no longer “curiouser and curiouser”.
{ Thus grew the tale of Wonderland:
Thus slowly, one by one,
Its quaint events were hammered out —
And now our tale is done
And home we steer, a merry crew,
Beneath the setting sun. }
Alice in Wonderland.
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