Portraits: My 2-year-old beach bum

Five months after I took Nora's 2-year-old portraits on the beach in the Florida, I'm finally ready to share them. Our trip was such an emotional and significant one—we knew it was our last visit with my grandma before she passed away—that I didn't have the heart to edit these photos. But I've been working on Nora's baby book lately, and it was time to open up this folder again. I'm so glad I did.

Nora's portraits are never what I plan or expect. She does her own thing, and her own thing is always so much more her than I could ever have staged. She is joyful, bounding, brave and mischievous. I love her salty, wind-whipped hair, which is now surfer-girl blond after the summer, and can practically hear her singing Frozen songs as she dances across the sand in these images. But mostly they remind me of how she and her sister made Grandma laugh for some of the last times in her life during this trip.

Here are Nora's previous portraits: arrival, birth announcement, 1 month, 2 months, 3 months, 4 months, 5 months, 6 months, 7 months, 8 months, 9 months, 10 months, 11 months, 1 year and 15 months.

For information on Fall 2014 portrait sessions, click here. To view my portrait portfolio, click here and here.