Portraits: Spying on the dog at 11 months

It's time for me to accept it. Nora has turned 1! I thought my heart might break as I carried out her birthday cake, that single glowing candle reminding us that an entire year has already passed since she arrived in our lives. How can it be?

Today I'm sharing her 11-month portraits, since I'm more than a month behind on posting all the content I've been collecting lately. Over the next several weeks, I'll be posting birthday party and 1-year photos, some DIY projects and a whole lot of images and travel tips from our recent Colorado trip.

But for today, I'm basking in the pre-birthday-candle glow of Nora's last set of portraits as a zero-year-old.

She spends so much time standing at the back door watching our yellow lab, Finn, snoozing or dashing around the yard. Every time I grab the camera, Nora loses interest and crawls away. But on this day, she miraculously kept her focus. Here are the results: a few images to capture my memories of her playing by the door, admiring her buddy—smudged windows, saggy diaper and all.

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 and 10 months.

A few of Cricket's portraits: birth announcement, 1 year, 20 months, 21 months,  23 months and 2 years.

P.S. I'm excited to be participating in the Alt for Everyone online conference starting Thursday. Anyone out there joining me?