10th annual Highland Park Neighborhood Halloween Parade

I absolutely love the neighborhood I live in.  Love is not a verb I take lightly either.  It is urban living at it's best. I would bet that even our grouchiest, most goulish neighbors would even agree.  The true community feel everyone has here is infectious and most heightened, for me, around this time of year as my neighborhood absolutelly goes nuts for Halloween. We have entire streets decked out in decorations that rival any suburban Christmas light display. People from all over our city come, and are welcomed with open arms, for the many houses that totally get in the spirit. In addition to the actual holiday, we are privileged to have neighbors who are super amazing at planning and organizing.  Every year for the past decade we have invited our children and families to share in the spirit of dressing up for an annual parade and gathering in the park across the street from my house.  This year I brought my camera.   I was able to capture a tiny slice of the spirit my neighborhood exhumes, and all of the amazing families and children who make me so proud to call myself a city resident. After editing out some extra too cute for TV footage and Mr. Pumpkin getting our very good listeners to pick their noses! Really Mr. Pumpkin encouraging nose picking? This was the result...

Echo's beginnings, inspiration for a new product

Being on maternity leave has given me a lot of time to reflect and spend watching, and recording, how quickly our daughter is growing and changing in a short amount of time.  I know photographer friends who have created wonderful galleries of photos depicting the change and growth in their own children and it has moved me to begin a year long venture into Echo's first year caught on video. No it's not going to be an everyday second worth of video, even though I did consider that.  My plan is more to gather the firsts. First smiles and laughs, steps, her first fits.  I want to remember the first time she falls in love with a toy, or melts through the floor over not getting her way.  Right up until that first taste of birthday cake.  I am already loving it, her, the project, the idea I will have something solid, something that will help me to remember this first year in a way I will never be able to do with Dagan and Cyrus.  Whether I use it as blackmail when she's 16, or as birth control when Benny says, "wasn't that fun! Let's make another!".  I can't imagine a better way to share with her on her wedding day a reminder of her roots, her firsts and all the many more to come. 

 I think this is so awesome and wonderful, I want to offer it as a product for new moms or as a baby shower gift.  One year with me at, for the most part, your beck and call to come over and catch a glimpse of those first tastes, steps, and hugs your child shares with you.  So I figure this is my trial run, she's my guinea pig, a really cute, sweet, LOUD! Guinea pig.   How awesome would it be to have your baby's firsts captured in this way!  Call me I'm happy to come over and video your amazing child as they embark on this crazy journey we all call life.