cherry trees

i’ll just go ahead and begin this (long) post with a disclaimer: if this post were being judged by american idol standards by simon cowell, i’m pretty sure he would go ahead and call it “a little self indulgent” right off the bat. but i would just go head and ‘fess up to him, i just love my babies. i think they are the two most beautiful babies that have ever been. i love everything about them (except for elijah’s current whining phase, but let’s focus strictly on the superficial and the positive): i love elijah’s blue blue eyes, i love his round head, i love eero’s perfect little chin, i love both their wrist “bracelets”, i love eero’s long skinny feet and elijah’s pudgy padded feet, i love eero’s big tummy and both their fat cheeks. i love eerie’s tiny little eyelashes, elijah’s gracefully long ones; i love elijah’s spacious teeth and toothy smile, eero’s toothless grin. i lov ehow eero’s eyes crinkle when he smiles, how elijah’s whole body crinkles when he smiles. i love both their full luscious perfect baby lips. i could go on. and on. and on. in fact i have, in both their respective journals i’ve been keeping for them. i’m sure it will one day make them blush, and their wives smile. but this will be it for now with the words of praise, now on with the pictures of praise.

these are from a little photo shoot we had last week when the cherry trees were on full ethereal bloom. theres a little road that runs through a park near our house, aptly named cherry road, that is lined with these trees and when they are in peak bloom it is like being in another world. they are so beautiful. so as much as i knew it would be a somewhat frustrating situation and we’d never get the perfect shot, i dressed my lambs in their sunday finest and we headed over to make an attempt. none of these are the idea shot i’m afraid but they are really lovely and wonderful to me.

the cherry trees have kind of this great platform where the branches all shoot out from the base. i put elijah there to start out with. then stepped back. i think he was shocked.

all of this resulted in a very funny series of shots. i think here he's yelling for me to please come back and save him. yeah right kid. i'm getting my good cherry tree pics. now just don't dive out of that tree.

me and boys. cherry trees make great recently-post-baby pics because of the low hanging branches to hide less than picturesque mid-sections.

after he was so good in the tree shots, he was rewarded with some running around time. right away he found a favorite stick, which he proceeded to run around brandishing it after sitting birds, much like indiana jones's dad did on that beach to scare all the seagulls away so they'd crash into that plane. yea. like that.

and then it was time to make an attempt at realizing my dream of having my two beautiful and beautifully dressed sons serenely poised under my favorite fully blooming cherry tree. did this ever happen? well, not really. but all the attempts were pretty funny. in the first few i would set elijah down in his rocker then run and jrew would get maybe one shot before elijah bolted. this is one such shot.

then jrew decided it would be sufficient if he could get a few shots of elijah just "playing around" eero. of course, there was always the fear elijah would beam eero with this beloved stick...

then there were the sit-elijah-on-the-dirt-and-run shots. these didn't work out so well either.

variation on the theme, and of course now eero isn't looking.

after all this, elijah really needed a break.

sweet eerie bird.

elijah decided he'd like to tote around their diaper bag. ok.

if jrew and i ever build our dream house, these beauties will line the drive, and i'll invite everyone over for a picnic in late march when they're in full bloom. there is no tree or plant more beautiful to me than these cherry trees.

wrangling elijah for another round.

and finally, we get a few framable ones. nevermind the belt around elijah's waist, strapping him to the chair...

trying to escape...

my beautiful beautiful boys!

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