When I got an e-mail from a mom-to-be back in mid-June saying that her baby girl had been born, I was delightfully surprised. With her original due date having been early July, her baby girl made her début into this world three weeks early. If I was surprised, I'm sure that her mommy and daddy were probably even more surprised!

June and July of this year have been a bit hectic for me. It started in mid-June with my travelling to Charlotte, North Carolina, for the PinkleToes Photography workshop (posting about that really really soon), followed by one week "off" with my family (I use air quotes because it was a semi-working vacation for me). And then, a couple of weeks later, we were off again (for real!) for a week in Alaska. Between the trips, vacations, Father's Day photos at Baby on the Hip, talking to the mommies of MumNet, summer mini-sessions (part 1 and part 2), and MommyConnections in June and July, and of course, my regular sessions, I guess you could say that things were quite hectic.

When mommy contacted me about scheduling her family photo session following her baby girl's birth, my schedule wasn't looking pretty, and so I suggested a couple of dates in late July, when all of this scheduling madness was expected to be over on my end. Unfortunately, that didn't jive with her schedule, and she was very eager to have fairly fresh pictures of her baby girl following birth. As swamped as I was, I also recognized, as a fellow mom, that these early days in a baby's life are so fleeting. That freshness. That new and overwhelmingly powerful unconditional love that you have for this tiny person whom you have just met. So I offered to her in early on Saturday over the Canada Day long weekend, and the rest is history.

Though this baby girl was just about 3 weeks old when I met her, she was a teeny little thing.

MarloesNewborn_FINAL-2 But don't let her size fool you. She was a teeny package, but a HUGE bundle of joy to her mommy and daddy, who were obviously very smitten with her.

Mommy and daddy were awesome during the session. They even let me borrow their step-ladder for the photo session. With me being on the shorter side, it's often difficult to get a good shot when your subjects are taller than you are, and when standing on your tiptoes still doesn't help. I have yet to figure out how to lug a step-ladder around on my scooter, so I am grateful that they had one to lend me. Otherwise I would've had to resort to climbing on furniture (with their permission, of course).

Here are some additional photos from our session:

I'm so glad to have worked with this family, and to have squeezed in some session time for them. They were an absolute delight to be around. I can see from their easy-going nature that they will be wonderful parents. Just to put things into perspective, daddy got peed on right after that shot taken on the bottom-right of the collage above, and he was perfectly relaxed about it. How very awesome.