Due to distance and unexpected travel plans, Calvin was already one month old when I got to meet him. He was worth the wait.

Amanda has been one of my dearest friends since before we were teenagers, and she was my maid of honor when Danny and I got married. When I first started dabbling in photography, she and her dog Shep were two of my first (and favorite) test subjects. When she and Brad got engaged, we captured their engagement, and then their wedding, and then this past spring on a misty morning, their maternity portraits. Be warned, world: there will probably be many, many more photographs of Calvin on this blog for years to come! I am so excited to see this little dude grow into what is sure to be a big personality.

As Amanda rocked Calvin while he slept, she told me what she is most excited about. She said that, in the days surrounding his birth, she re-read all the cards and notes she’d been given at Calvin’s baby shower, and she cannot wait for Calvin to begin to understand just how much he was loved even before he was born.