Bennett | RUSTON LA CAKESMASH PHOTOGRAPHER

Oh how it is always so bittersweet when one of my newborns turns one. I have been photographing Bennett’s first year journey with his newborn, 3 month, 6 month, 9 month, and one year moments. That’s my typical session schedule when I book a my “Bud to Bloom PKG”. It would seem we didn’t forsee the future and the pandemic that swept our nation. We had to skip Bennett’s 9 month session as that was the very beginnings of all the COVID closures. There were just way too many unknowns to schedule an in studio session. Me and mom had talked about doing an outdoor session for that 9 month set but we decided to exchange that session for an 18 month session instead. I don’t have any 18 month pictures included in my packages but it was a good exchange seeing as we were working with hands tied behind out back. I can’t say I’m hating it as I get to see Bennett’s growth past one year. Makes for the one year session a little easier to swallow and not so sad.

But even so, I’m gonna grab your hand and take you down memory lane of Bennett’s life. He hasn’t change much in looks from his newborn session. Have ya’ll noticed that about some babies? Some, look as if they haven’t changed at all from their newborn to one year pictures. Others look like entirely different kids from newborn to one year. Those are the phenomenons that puzzle me. My own girl looks completely different from her newborn pictures to now. Now she’s currently 7 years old so she’s had a lot of time to change in looks. As a toddler she really looked the same from her newborn pictures but now I can’t believe she’s the same kid as the baby in the albums. It could be the same for Bennett, who knows. As of now he hasn’t changed a bit in looks.

So even though we skipped Bennett’s 9 month session, Momma still wanted to do an outdoor session for his cakesmash. Sounded like a plan to me so I obliged! It had been a pretty mild summer until this day when we decided to shoot this. I was pouring sweat and I’m not an easy sweater. Oh how I hate summer. I know there are people who love summer and I can’t for the life of me figure out if you live in Louisiana why you would. My mother is one of those. But dern it, it’s HOT people! I also hate a bright sun. I love to be outdoors but I just can’t from June to mid September. Although there are a few things I really love in summer.

1. pool days
2. later morning wakeup times
3. fireflies
4. grilling
5. vacation
6. late evenings laying in my hammock
7. cicada sounds

There are probably a few others I could list if I took the time to think more on it.

But Bennett didn’t seem to notice the heat despite the beads of sweat he could see dripping off my forehead. He doesn’t know any different since he was born in this southern state. His parents on the other hand moved here from Illinois and they had said it gets hot there too but without all the humidity. I had never known what people meant by that till I took a trip to South Dakota. It’s exactly that, hot but no humidity which makes the summers so much more bearable. Honestly if I lived in a northern state, I probably would love summer like my mother too, but I don’t and that has caused me to loathe summer.

So while we all sweat together a puddle the size of Lake Claiborne, Bennett hammed it up for my camera. He’s always been this way and smiles without much prompting. He has the biggest grin a baby could have and it’s contagious! Smiles galore for his normal outfit pictures and when we brought out the cake, complete seriousness to get the job done. Well, serious for a short time before he smiled with excitement at his new toy in front of him. I only say toy because while he did eat some, he loved pounding and playing with it mostly. This is actually a fairly common reaction to smashcakes. in front of babies. I would guess a fair amount of babies don’t have that much food set in front of them to eat and it can be an overwhelming idea for them to actually eat something of that size all by themselves. But I care not whether they stuff their face in the cake or nibble with dainty bites because all of it is the cutest.

Then the bittersweet moment when he was finished and momma changed him into his outfit to go home. It’s like a chapter of a book closing and that’s always a hard analogy to use. But thankfully because of our switch-a-roo I am able to only put a dog tag in the book and pick up on the next page when his 18 month pictures come along. At least I can hang onto the epilogue at the end of this book series and hopefully he’s return to me with a sequel that will keep those smiles contagious. Until then Bennett, happy birthday and I’ll see your cute face a little older later!

If you’re interested in a cakesmash session for your own baby, you can contact me at [email protected] or message me on Facebook, just click HERE to be redirected to our FB page.