Family of Four, Documented

A few weeks ago, when it was still a billion degrees and a thousand percent humidity in Houston, we met our friends Felice and Andrew downtown at Discovery Green to snap a few photos. Andrew is a photographer and he kindly offered (well, maybe Felice volunteered him!) to document our family of four. Since becoming a family of four, we only had the photos our friend Debs took the night Michael and Maya met Noah after returning from Ireland when he was a week old, and one that Michael snapped with his iPhone timer of us, exhausted, sitting on our couch. Needless to say, I just wanted a few photos of all four of us together, maybe with me sporting a little makeup and Maya not wearing pajamas.

What I didn’t realize when we made the plan was that Discovery Green was going to be bananas on a Saturday night. Maybe it is every Saturday night, but I hadn’t thought to check what would be going on in the park before we headed down there. There was a festival going on with a million people running around and a bouncy house and music. Maya just lost her mind with excitement. It made taking photos of all four of us together really tricky, if not impossible.

So, Andrew is a magician for capturing some really sweet moments – and you can’t even see how sweaty we were since it was still in the 90s and a billion percent humidity! Double success!

My friend Felice is practically a walking encyclopedia of cultural information about Houston, despite the fact that she’s only been here just about as long as we have. She also works at the Contemporary Art Musem of Houston, so she knows her artworks. She suggested we head over to this Jean Dubuffet sculpture. I was a little worried because Maya was really starting to crash, but it’s where we got some of the best photos. Maya loved peeking through all the nooks and crannies.  We photobombed our boys, ha!  This is one of my favorite photos of Michael, perhaps of all time. He looks happy. And Noah looks like he’s about to jump ship! 

Huge thanks to our friends Andrew and Felice for making these happen despite the utter chaos that ensued with Maya too close to bedtime! There are more photos of Maya (I think Andrew really understood our girl and her little spark) to share when I finally put together a few thoughts about her second birthday. You know, one of these days when I have a little extra energy that’s not being sucked up by a tiny toddler tornado and her infant sidekick!