Multitasking-- Daycare /Photographer Frederick MD

Well besides being a part-time photographer, I am also a daycare provider (and a grad student, and mother of two wild boys).  Well, G, pictured above, has been coming to my daycare for over a year now.  She has really become a part of our family... she yells at my husband every morning, "You need to take out the trash!" and she and Cooper will readily say she's his BFF.

G has more energy and personality than you could imagine possible, and as you can tell she is hella photogenic.  I think that 3 year old girls are the most fun to photograph, since they can follow some directions and love the attention.

If you ask G what she would wish for, she will answer "worms".  Not sure what that is all about, but she does love worms.  She dug in the dirt forever and all she found was this tiny one, but she wanted me to take his picture.  

All day today I wanted to take the kids out to get a picture in front of these beautiful cherry blossoms...then my neighbor parked his truck and trailer in front of them:(  This was the best I could get.

www.JenniferRileyPhotogrpahy.com
www.Facebook.com/JenniferRileyPhotography

  

Food Allergies Middletown Maryland

Cass playing outside last week

My son, Cass had an anaphylactic reaction about a year ago.  He had already seen a renowned food allergist, at Hopkins since my older son had food allergies too.  Cass tested positive for egg and peanut when he was about 9 months old.  The numbers were really low, so the doctor told me to try a small amount of something with baked egg in in at home.   Right before his first birthday party, I decided to have him try a little bit of cupcake.  He only ate about 1/8 of a teaspoon of it.  He seemed fine.  I put him down for his nap, and took his baby monitor with me as I took the other kids out to play.  I heard him cough and went in to check on him.  His crib was covered in puke.  I put him in the bath and tried to get a hold of my husband.  Then I noticed his feet were blue.  I still couldn't reach my husband, but luckily my wonderful neighbor was home.  We called the doctor, because I was freaking out about giving him the Epi-pen.  By this time he was having trouble breathing and had hives.  The nurse told me to give him the shot, which I was pretty sure about, but was pretty panicked.  I gave it to him and called 9-1-1.  He was mostly better by the time they arrived.  By the time we got to the hospital, he was back to his regular happy self

Cass at around the time of the reaction

Well now we keep our house completely egg-free.  We use Veganaise instead of Mayo, I have mastered the egg-free cookie and cupcake thanks to these awesome cookbooks.

For the past year I have been vigilant about checking ingredients, cooking our own food, and when we get carryout explaining the severity of the allergy.  We only get food from certain chain places that i have deemed trustworthy.  I think we have eaten out less than 10 times with Cass in a year, partly due to the fact that dining with a 2 year old and 3 year old isn't fun regardless of food allergies.  Birthday parties freak me out.  I have had at least 5 friends have egg-free parties, which is ridiculously amazing.  I can't expect that people do that though, and we have to live our lives.  Cass is far to young to understand, and so when we go to a party with regular cupcakes I am in constant fear that he will pick up a crumb off the floor and we will have another reaction.

Well we made it a year with no reactions.  I just got his annual lab work back today, and all year I had had the feeling that he was getting better, and his number would go down.  I was wrong... It has gotten worse.  It makes me sick with worry ( and I really am not a worrier) that I will see my baby turn blue again.  Or that I will forget his Epi-pen.  Basically as I see it he has a life threatening condition.  I see eggs as poison; everyone  else just sees them as food.  You see mayo on a burger; I see poison on it.  I don't expect other people to get it.  It is so weird to be allergic to food.   Once you see your little baby struggling to breathe and turning blue you will get it.  Trust me.

I hope you don't see this as complaining.  I am lucky to be seeing Dr. Robert Wood, one of the best food allergy doctors in the world.  I have been able to help a bunch of other people, who are going through the same thing we went through.  Also reading food labels has made me way more cognizant of what I am eating , regardless of the food allergies. I am also I am quite happy with my life, and I am glad that otherwise we are all healthy.  I just think that it is good to get more awareness out there, so, in short, keep your eggs away from my baby.

Family Zoo Trip

Well It is rare that I get to take non-work photos.  I am always wishing I could, but with Cooper and Cass being super "active" children it is just to much of a challenge to navigate watching them and focusing on taking photographs.   We really don't get out much because being 14 months apart and being so young they have almost no self-control and sometimes it's just easier to stay close to home, plus we are cheap.  I am great at finding free activities, which is crucial with two kids and a tight budget.

Cooper was really into the map... It's a Dora thing.

Anyway, my mom offered to take us to the Zoo and I was so excited.  The weather was amazing and it ended up that my sister and nephew were able to come too.  With all that help I was actually able to take some pictures:)  We had a lovely picnic and I thought we would have worn the boys out, but somehow they still had energy to play outside when we got home even though Brent and I were exhausted!

Sweet Baby Cass.  He's not much for smiling in pictures though...

My sweet babies:)

The best baby chaser in town.

Newborn Photographs of Baby Barbara Jean Frederick MD

You may remember this mama-to-be that I photographed a while back.  Well, she gave birth to sweet little Barbara Jean, and I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to photographer her, at two weeks old.

This was my first on-location newborn photography session.  Barbara was a cute little peanut.  Although she wasn't a big fan of nudie shots we managed to get a few.

I am always so impressed with how relaxed these new mothers are.  I am pretty sure I looked like a disaster, and was a nervous wreck when Cooper was this young.  Barbara's mom was calm, and was totally loving mommy-hood.  Barbara couldn't keep her eyes off of her. 

Check out this video with the full collection of photos we got of Barbara Jean:)