This little darling was considerate enough to wait until we got her mama’s maternity photos done before making an appearance. Welcome to the world, Reese Emery! You’re as beautiful as we knew you would be.

Katie and Derek are the kind of people who were meant to be parents. They are kind and funny and smart, and exactly the type of people you’d choose as your own parents, if you could choose.

Baby Lee didn’t get to choose, but lucky boy, someone chose them for him.

They drove all the way down to Baton Rouge to meet their son, knowing they were getting closer by the mile to parenthood. And they drove straight through, 20 hours, back to Wisconsin. They just wanted to get him home.

And here they are, a family.

I met baby Lee at my studio, where I do most of my natural-light newborn sessions.

We got some very sweet images, but really it’s hard not to get a good photo of this boy. Did you get a look at him?

Still, something wasn’t quite right. He just couldn’t get settled.

So we drove to Katie and Derek’s lovely house a few blocks away. They thought it was maybe the car ride that settled him down. I thought it was that he was finally where he wanted to be: Home.

Congratulations, Katie and Derek, on your beautiful son.

Part of the excitement of having a daughter has been sharing the things I had/did as a girl. Sure, after just seven months together we haven’t done much of that, but believe me, there’s been plenty of excitement and anticipation about the things we’ll enjoy doing together! and how she’ll look like me! and what I’ll teach her!

So when I found this patchwork sun bonnet that was mine as a baby, I was quite excited indeed to try it on her. Unfortunately, the late 70s and early 80s were not high points in American fashion history, and the bonnet reflects that.

I had a vision of recreating a photo of me compliantly sporting it as a baby, but Juniper was having none of it. Her expressions ranged from, “Woman, what are you doing to me?” to “Talk to the hand,” to “Get it off! Get it off!” to “What’s that? I can eat grass if I wear the bonnet? In that case, you have 30 seconds.”

I’ve determined that she either:

a) Has much quicker reflexes than I did at her age, or

b) Has a much more advanced sense of style.

At any rate, we’ll find plenty of other things to share in the coming years, I’m sure of it. This just won’t be the first.