Portraits: Capping off one year of monthly photo sessions

A year ago, I set a goal to take monthly portraits of Nora's first year of life. Somehow, amidst the chaos of those early months with two little ones, I surprised myself and actually made it happen. This set of photos caps off an amazing year. (You can view Nora's previous portraits here: arrival, birth announcement, 1 month, 2 months, 3 months, 4 months, 5 months, 6 months, 7 months, 8 months, 9 months, 10 months and 11 months.)

Each month I tried to capture a new developmental milestone, expression or activity she was particularly fond of. Sometimes I planned the location in advance; other times we came upon an interesting setting or she started doing something I wanted to document, and I ran for the camera.

For these 1-year portraits, we strolled down to a little park by my sister's house. Nora wasn't walking by her birthday but had been pulling up and cruising for months, so I wanted to find a bench where she could show off these abilities. Along the way we happened upon this flower-filled meadow. I knew Nora would love to sit for a few minutes and smell the flowers—a skill of which she is quite proud—and she did not disappoint. It was already late morning and the sun was high, so I positioned her in the shade to avoid harsh light on her face.

Eventually we continued on to the playground area and found a good bench for pulling up.

She made me so happy when she gave her goofy crooked smile. (But I realized as I was editing the photo that this expression hasn't made an appearance in weeks; it must already be a thing of this past. Sigh.)

Thanks to my brother-in-law, Christo, for taking this photo of Nora and me. I'm trying to be in more photos with the girls, but my instinct to hide behind the camera is strong. Very strong.

And with that, our year-long project is complete, though I'll never stop taking regular photos of my girls.

You can check out a few of Cricket's portraits here: birth announcement, 1 year, 20 months, 21 months,  23 months, 2 years and 2.5 years.