Cole & Mason & Freezing In Michigan

I'm learning pretty quickly that new babies don't really care that much about being photographed.

I mean they don't care that much about all the faces of relatives and friends peering down at them, being hoisted up from a warm cozy rocker up onto a cold boney shoulder and having a plastic bottle end shoved into their mouths when they just wanna go to sleep - so why would they get excited about some idiot leering down at them with a camera attached to his face ?

I suspect this is what Cole was trying to convey with this look he gave me yesterday. Nice one, son.

He's now a couple of months old but this was my first visit to see him.

He still wasn't impressed.

Deanna was kind enough to let me hold him and it made me think back to the last time I held a baby.

And I couldn't remember. No idea. Not something I do very often.

And it shows. I'm not really comfortable holding a baby.

But Cole helped me out by taking my finger in his little hand as if to say "here ya go big guy. I'll hold on tight and you concentrate on smiling for the camera. Wake me up when you're done"

Thanks buddy.

As well as not being interested in the goings on around them, babies like to sleep. They like it a lot. But everyone wants photos of eyes. Ohhhhh his eyes are so big. Ohhhhh his eyes are so blue. Ohhhh he was looking right at you there.

And so on. Eyes are important in baby photos.

Sadly Cole and his new cousin, Mason, could care less about eyes right now apart from liking them closed tight. They do that a lot.

Chances are, if you move a baby around enough times, the eyes will open.

And having seen the photos where this happens, I have to agree that they do 'make' a much more lasting impression.

Here Cole is being held by his great great aunt Therese who did seem to have got the knack of baby holding down to a fine art.

We watched in awe.

Yesterday it was 22F in Lansing (Michigan) so nothing like as cold as it has been here over the last few weeks.

But compared to the temps in sunny Buttonwood Bay, it was freakin' freezing here. Clothes wise we'd come as prepared as we could. In my case I didn't have much in the way of warm clothing as I didn't plan on being anywhere other than in Florida all winter.

So thankfully I did have a fleece and a heavy Detroit Lions football jacket and I've got them both here but it's STILL so cold.

The one good thing weatherwise is that's it's been clear blue skies since we got here and that does help a lot. As we drive around outside of the built up areas, the fields and buildings are all covered with a seasonal blanket of crisp virgin snow, unspoiled by the footprints of man or beast.

It all looks very pretty in a sort of Christmas Card sort of way and as long as the car is toasty warm on the inside, it's very pleasant to drive along and watch this sort of scenery flash by.

Once you stop and get out, it's a different story altogether !! The biting wind can take your breath away and memories of Buttonwood Bay seem almost as distant as the place itself.

Back with Cole, Debby was in her element holding her first grandchild.

She was sitting by a large window and so I was able to use existing natural light to highlight her face and pick out the baby's head.

This is where the zoom lens helps a lot as photos can be taken from a distance and yet still remain intimate.

After our time with Cole at her other grandma's home, we left and went to see Mason as he'd just been released from the hospital and was settling in at his home with dad Brian and mom Tara.

It was only about 15 miles away and we wanted to give them all time to get used to being at home so we went shopping first. We got to them about 6pm and the temp had dropped a few more degrees. Lovely.

Here is Brian doing his feeding thing as Mason isn't nursing quite yet.

It was a momentous occasion as feeding him at the hospital had been a struggle for everyone as he just wasn't that interested.

Last night, either because he was more settled at home or because daddy had developed a better technique, he scoffed the lot right down and we all cheered.

Hurrah. We live by such small successes.

Then he was placed in his cradle in the living room and he went right to sleep and not only that, he provided a 'Kodak Moment' in doing so.

Who needs open eyes when you can do a Mexican wave in your sleep ???

We left around 8pm so that the 3 of them could relax for their first night together at home as a family.

I just can't imagine how that must've felt.

We've been in touch already this morning and of course Brian and Tara hardly got a wink of sleep.

The joys of parenthood.

I took over 200 photos yesterday and that's the joy of digital photography. An instant result and the opportunity for instant retries if it didn't work out.

I'm my own biggest critic and rarely like the photos I've taken. But one I took yesterday did please me enormously and I'd be quite proud to have it in a frame somewhere.

I hope you like it too.