A Fully Packed Family Session In Herndon

I met Christal shortly after she moved to Northern Virginia.  She joined the mom's meetup group I am apart of and we, and our girls, immediately connected.  She had one under one and another on the way - Irish Twins!  

It was upon the birth of her youngest that she booked a family session - a family session, first year photos for her oldest, and a newborn session for her second daughter.  It was an afternoon jam packed with fun. 

If you think being a new mom is difficult, it is. If you think being a new mom of Irish twins is even more difficult, it is.  But I watched this momma, two weeks post partum, glide around the room getting one ready, feeding the other, changing this diaper, get herself ready, clean up a little, make sure everyone was consistently camera ready, ask for help from her husband when he came home from work for the session, and continue to move and go, all the while smiling, keeping her girls happy, and sincerely enjoying the afternoon.  The experience for me spoke highly to the foundational strength of a new family from momma to infant.  

There's nothing sweeter than a newborn baby.  Those little fingers and toes, the sweet smell, the perfect innocence, the wondery, the discovery; but I think my favorite is watching them grow, watching them change.

We are not here to mold and shape them into who we think they should be, but to give them every opportunity to become the perfect little people they are destined to become.

The first year goes so quickly, it's all a blur looking back.  It is filled with milestones and leaps, growth and progress - but not just for the child but for the parents too.  The first birthday isn't just a celebration for the new toddler, it's a way to celebrate the first year of parenthood for two people who did their very best all the way through, forgave themselves for the mistakes when they think they made them, made promises to do better when they imagined they needed to, lost and found themselves over and over again, learned each other as parents instead of just partners, found new forms of communication one doesn't even know could exist until one is in that sleep deprived, necessary state of survival and woke up each morning to do it all over again and again and again and again.

But at the end of every day, you lay your head on what you really hope is your pillow and you think for two moments about the events of day, and maybe two more moments about what is going on tomorrow, and maybe you're able to mutter something like a "good night" to your partner whom you think is possibly laying next to you, but that could be the dog, or even the load of laundry you didn't get to putting away earlier... and your heart is full because you know you have a complete family full of perfection, commitment, determination, chaos, laughs, smiles, cat naps, snacks, messy messes,, kiss kisses, and above all requited love.

Tell me in the comments - what is your favorite part of being apart of a family?