*This post is part of a collaborative project - a year of stories shared by a group of 15 photographers every Tuesday in 2016. Please visit my fellow Virginian TESS RUNION after you read this post to continue the circle.*
I wake my little Lady every school morning around 7am. I place her in the shower, 'wash' her hair with conditioner (hello curly girl method), and then we return to her room for our normal routine. I squeeze the extra water out of her hair, rub in leave in conditioner (that works WONDERS on preventing all the tangling and hair loss), and douse the ends in some argan oil, all the while she's giggling and wiggling at Hugo licking the water off her legs. Sometimes I exit at this point, leaving her to get dressed by herself. Other times she needs my help with whatever she's chosen to wear that day.
As we have drawn closer and closer to springtime, the sun rises earlier each day. Recently, by the time we make it back into her room after the shower, the walls are aglow with glorious sunshine. It hit me last week that I should photograph this - to document it, to remember this phase of life with her. It needed to include ME, because I'm half of this story and because she needs to have visual proof I was there, too.
If I wanted to do that, I needed to get it done before the time change when the sunshine wouldn't be like this at 715am. I did a practice run on Tuesday and had the final go on Wednesday.
Of course I couldn't leave out her little buddy, Hugo.
*This post is part of a collaborative project - a year of stories shared by a group of 15 photographers every Tuesday in 2016. Please visit my fellow Virginian TESS RUNION after you read this post to continue the circle.*