eeeek!

I just got a hold of the very first picture from my commercial shoot with Ashlee Raubach. (Who is amazing, by the way...) and I LOVE it!! Man, leaving the studio on the day of the shoot, I was SO EXCITED just thinking about how much I will treasure having these photos of me and my little guy... little did I know that 2 days later he would get bit in the face by a dog and need 5 stitches to close up his top lip in the emergency room...and 5 days after that, he would cut his hair to the scalp at the neighbor's, and 14 days after that, he would lose one of his darling front teeth and officially enter his "awkward-but-cute-in-a-funny-awkward-and-terribly-mischievous-second-grade-boy-sort-of-way" stage. (and for the record, he is still really, really cute to me.) But now I am really going to treasure these photos of my perfect, unscathed (for but a fleeting moment) 6 year old boy! Isn't Ashlee amazing? I am DYING to see the rest!

Bear.

Some of Aspen Grove's fabulous new additions this year were bronze animal statues all over the main courtyard. Kortland loved climbing on them, and I loved having new points of reference by which to define his general whereabouts.

"I'll be over by the turtles!"

or

"I'll meet you by the bear!"

I must say, they have proven to be very convenient...

...except, of course, for when they try to eat him.

But all in all, I have to say: "Well done, Aspen Grove, well done indeed."