Double the fun!

So Andy is my friend from way back, and I was really excited when he got married and I met Marlene and I LOVED her immediately. It's always such a huge relief when your friends marry someone you really like, you know? And then I got excited when I found out they were moving from Seattle to Indianapolis, even though I'm not there anymore, because Chicago isn't that far and I visit all the time. And then there was MORE excitement when they found out Marlene was pregnant, and AGAIN when they found out they were having twins! It's almost too much good stuff to handle, but I'm managing.

Their babies names are Miriam and Adelaide (so cute, I totally approve, so now Andy and Marlene can sleep at night), and they were born early. As far as I can tell, everything is fine now and at four months old, they're just now about the size of newborns, which is super tiny. I think it's weird that actual people can weigh less than a sack of potatoes, but they're proof that it's possible.

This is Miriam, and I love her pretty lips. It was a little hard to get everyone together, which you'll see, because the babies still need to eat and nap a lot (they have it MADE), and out of necessity, they're on sort of staggered schedules. So when you see a bunch of one baby all in a row, it's not because I have favorites. They are equally sweet and adorable.

This is Marlene (I am completely jealous of her hair, don't even get me started) and Miriam. Miriam is in the green flower outfit and Adelaide is in the pink strawberry outfit. I'm trying really hard to keep everyone straight, but Andy and Marlene think the girls are identical so when they get older, if they can't tell which one is which in the pics, they're just going to divide them in half and assign them to each girl anyway, so I feel pretty okay about the whole thing. :)

Here's Miriam's pretty eyes (which she totally gets from Marlene), and she was keeping it together really well for someone that had just had her pacifier ripped from her mouth. I know when you take mine away, buddy, watch out.

This one is especially for Andy. He was talking about how much he loves their eyelashes.

Adelaide makes an appearance! I love this--it just looks so documentarian.

Adelaide waking up and preparing for cute mode, and seriously, get ready because here it comes:

What?!?! I love this, and it's so hard to pick a favorite but I think this might be it. I love how she's holding her little hands. :)

And here she is again, with Daddy's finger. We were looking through pictures from when they were first born and they were kind of using their hands as scale, so hopefully this continues the tradition, along with the girls' tradition of being completely cute and precious and photogenic.

We got them together for a minute! Miriam wasn't especially thrilled with the whole thing, but she managed to squeeze in a few frames. Adelaide was totally looking at her like, "Girl, what is UP with you?" And I find that it's really fun to talk and make up captions for babies and what they're saying. I totally get why someone thought Look Who's Talking was such a good idea and why it did so well. You should try it. Also, I find that when I voiceover for them, Andy and Marlene's babies are kind of ghetto! Who knew?

Oh WOW, I love this one too and it makes the short list of favorites. I'd have to look at the color file to tell who it is, but maybe it's best left as a mystery so the girls have something to fight over when they get older. Because seriously, who WOULDN'T want this picture to be of them with their dad?

I snuck one in of just the two of them, although the babies are totally implied. One of the things I was really hoping to do for Andy and Marlene was get a picture of all of them together, but it just kind of wasn't happening. That's the awesome part about being friends with your photographer though--we'll have lots more chances. :)

Ooooh, I love this too. I picked up a basket at JoAnn Fabrics and then asked permission to put a baby in it. And let me tell you, Adelaide was totally down. I'm pretty sure she was willing to adopt it as her new bed.

A classic shot.

An equally classic shot, but in a different way.

Oh, Miriam was so not having it. And I love how adult her expression is, and how you can just tell exactly HOW irritated she is. And I totally know that look--it's the same one I get when I'm in crowded places and people stop in the middle of an aisle or walkway to like, send someone a text and there's no other way around them and I'm like, can't you make different choices? And Miriam is SO not down with the choices that we're making, and we are cramping her style.

Marlene and Adelaide, and again, I love how they're such proud parents and how you can see the love.

And I just thought this shot was so beautiful. Marlene is the prettiest mom in the world. She's going to be picking the girls up from soccer practice (if they take after Dad) and she'll be looking all cute and perfect and all the other moms will be looking all ragged and wearing sweatpants with hair falling out of their ponytails and bags under their eyes and stuff, and they'll be like, "I hate Marlene! How does she always look so gorgeous?" But that's like an okay kind of hate to be on the receiving end of, and then they'll get to know her and they'll be like, "Man, I want to hate her because she's so pretty but she's just so nice, I can't help it, I love her!" And the other moms will still be slightly jealous when Marlene makes the best cookies and brings Capri Sun to practice and the kids like her the best, but you won't even be able to tell because they'll just like her so much.

And finally, I think this is a hilarious picture to add your own caption to. Miriam is so funny--you can totally tell what's on her mind at all times because she's so expressive with her face.

Andy and Marlene brought the girls out for lunch with me and Billy once we finished taking pictures, and it was like ... a revelation for me. They said they were bringing the Baby Bjorns and I was like ... okay! But I had no idea what a Baby Bjorn actually did. So I got us a big table with room for them to sit baby ... seats? Holders? I don't know anything about babies, I admit it. Anyway, turns out Baby Bjorn is like wearing your baby as a backpack on the front, and aside from Miriam having one bottle, they slept the entire time and didn't make a single peep. It was like they weren't even there--so crazy. I didn't even know babies could chill out for that long.

Obviously I don't have a TON of experience photographing babies, but I did enjoy it so much and I was pleased with the results. I hope Andy and my Marlene love them too! And I can't wait to do it again--they're perfect little models. :)