Darla’s First Birthday

When you get older, years begin to blend into each other – one after the next and you can quickly find yourself amazed at how quickly time flew by.  I think 2011 was no exception.  It seems like just yesterday I was taking pictures of a newborn and tiny baby named Darla just a few days as her parents took her home from the hospital.  That was last March and just this last weekend I had a chance to attend her first birthday party.  It really felt like I had just gone through a time warp from 2011 and ended up in 2012 suddenly.  It was an amazing day and one thing is for certain – the last year has been a lifetime for Darla while it was only a blink for me.

Darla is an amazing and very different baby.  You know it the instant you walk into the room and see her.  She is always smiling and laughing and watching everything around her and always eating, grabbing for or thinking about food of some kind.  The Doctors say she is in the 85th percentile for babies her age and Darla seems motivated to reach that 99th percentile.  Besides making a quite entertaining baby eating machine, Darla is always trying to hug everyone or share her food with them.  It is the cutest thing to watch a baby that is so social and friendly to everyone around her.  When I step back and look at the photos I take of Darla I am struck by the sense that she has already discovered that the most important thing in life is the close people in your life.  She seems to have learned that at such a young age and it took me close to 40 years to discover what she has already found in less than 1. Needless to say she is the focal point of every family event.

Darla’s birthday was up in Los Angeles at Elizabeth’s (my sister) and Greg (her husbands) home.  One of the most unusual things about the party is that there were probably about 10 other babies that had just turned 1 or soon would there.  It was a one year old baby birthday bash.  Darla provided the main attraction of the day eating a BabyCakes cupcake in the messiest and cutest fashion that you could ever ask for.   Take a look at the pictures and be amazed at all the cuteness.

http://www.frankiefoto.com/Portraits/Darlas-First-Birthday/21834559_nPBp8w