First Easter Dress

Easter seems made for little girls—pastels, duckies, frilly dresses. You're hoping for pictures like the ones we had from the Tol right? Nice, elegant shots of a beautiful, sedate little princess? Me too. That's not what's here. Oh, we had the ingredients: the frilly purple dress from Elaina's Aunt Anne, and the little princess is as beautiful as ever...but sedate? Hmmm....

Sure, you could say that Anne (who took the bulk of the pictures from the Tol) is a better photographer, or that she has a better camera, and you'd probably be right on both counts. But I'd like to respectfully suggest that she was shooting a different subject. Photographing Elaina has become a lot like wildlife photography or sports photography.

You'll notice that many of the photos here are slightly blurry. That's not the photographer's fault. That's actually how she looks these days. Since being loosed from the Corral, Elaina's gone from a tottering little walk to a confident stride and a run (a run that's as cute as you might expect when someone with legs that short moves them that fast).

People often remark how funny it is to see someone that small (she's still below the 3rd percentile for height and weight) walking around like she does. She's like a SuperBaby instead of a toddler.

So, maybe we didn't get the studio-quality pictures that we might have wanted. Many are blurry, most are of Elaina facing the wrong way, and her first bruise (even Ninjas fall sometimes) is turning colors on her little forehead. On the other hand, we've got lots and lots of photos that accurately capture Elaina as she is: a little girl with a lot to do—and no inclination to wait.