Thursday, April 16th, 2009

I remember when my sister used to shadow my every move … copy everything I did, borrow my clothes, pester me with thousands of absurd questions and always seem to walk away unscathed from the most dastardly of deeds. Ok, wait a minute that might have been me?  It was hard to tell who was really the big sister.  I still call her to cry on her shoulder, beat up the bullies for me, and give me the transparent truth about my self without sugar sprinkles on it.

Like these sisters…

Sydney, who we now believe was surgically joined to her cell phone and iPod through infinite hours of texting can now text blindly in complete darkness since the keypad labels have been erased. How does she do it? (my camera is an extension of me, but I would have a hard time capturing images without light) Her cell phone is always in “on ” mode and when you listen to her grunt words into the phone every so often you realize there is actually someone participating on the other end. What are they saying? And if the conversations are hours long, every minute of the day, what is left to say? I feel an eye-roll coming from her even as I write this, ahemm. She aspires to be a marine biologist or maybe even a zoologist. This summer she is enrolled in the scuba diving program at the Dolphin Research Center in the Florida Keys, where she will be studying aquatic marine life. (Boys in wet-suits not included) Science comes really easy to her in school, and she told me if she doesn’t receive her regular A’s an B’s her mom yells at her. ( Parents…arghhh) She is a assistant cheerleading coach and a track manager at her junior high and absolutely loves to run. It’s her favorite pastime other than talking on the cell phone and listening to her tunes on her iPod. She is a fashion freak too… I love the way she likes to put outfits together. She tries to be unique and wear things so she isn’t a clone of everyone else. Yeah for being yourself! Love that. And she is the big sister of…

Baillee. You may find in the thesaurus the words drama queen, or schemer or precocious…all would show a little icon with a stick figure of Baillee and her many facial expressions but especially the smirky-smiling one. Baillee loves anything in the colour pink, dressing up in her mom’s highest heels and singing at the top of her lungs songs, that we are not sure she didn’t co-write with Beyonce (but she’s only seven!). She is a sensitive little elfin cherub, hilariously unpredictable, not lacking in the ability to express herself or show you who is in charge…until thunder and lightening strikes and then the tiny Tigger cowers. I know because we had a quick torrential downpour during our session and we couldn’t start again until the sun came out. (again it’s hard for me to shoot in the dark…but I do love rainshowers). The girls wore their “dancing” dresses for this session, quote from Baillee: “… you know, the kind that twirls with all the sparkles on them”. Yes, I do. They wanted to be sweet and beautiful for their mom to show them they could at least look like they get along even if it was only in a photo.

My nieces have my sister’s eyes. Their personalities are a mixture of her and my brother- in- law, but I think that smirky-smile thingy is definitely my sister.   That is the cautionary sign something unexpected, unpredicted, will happen… and there is no antidote.

Happy Early Mom’s Day baby sister,… here are a few of those images you picked out of the girls favorites of our afternoon together. And BTW, thanks for the free-range turkey tips… it turned out edible (amazing what turning on the oven will do).   I love you too.

I will be posting more of my recent Mom’s Day sessions soon, so hang in there this might get to be a regular this blogging thingy. (inserting smirky-smile here).

“my gift is how I see life…my art is telling your story”