I am sooooo behind!  A few weeks after Kate’s birthday, I bring you still – birthday stuff.  I wouldn’t post it if it wasn’t adorable though! 

A lot of things have changed through the years, even in photography.  My Father In Law used to photograph weddings with totally manual cameras that used film and developed the negatives in special labs.  He only shot the photos he thought people would buy.  It was called “shooting the reprints”.  Back then weddings were also much different than they are now.  I challenge you to find one person who would wear their hair in the style their grandma did.  Anyway, I know it’s a stretch but very similar to that progression is first birthday photos.  I’m not even sure people did photos other than what was captured at the party but these days, the days of digital, we photographer ev-er-y-thing!  One of the current trends is to capture your nearly one year old’s reaction to their first cake.  We’ve done this for a few clients and if nothing else, it’s great for some laughs.  Some children want nothing to do with it and others are mildly interested.  If you know anything about Kate, you know that she likes to eat.  I never thought though, that she could demolish an entire cake.  So here’s Kate’s first smash cake – in photos…

The pretty, poor, unsuspecting cake.

Hello, Cake.

I am going to eat you.

And rub you on my body.

And squish you in my toes.  And my nose.

Don’t tell anyone it was me.

How could they not know it was me?

Guess we should just finish it off then.

The poor cake.  A total body experience.

Dear Kate,
Happy first birthday sweetheart! I can’t believe you’re one already! What a bittersweet day for me and what a hell of a year it has been for you. I want you to know that I love you and I want you to know (for later) what a special person you are and what you mean to me.

This year has been a little crazy for us. A year ago today you were born by the jaws of life c-section late in the afternoon and you have made our world better every day since.  You are a very happy baby.  You’re constantly smiling, laughing, making friends, charming strangers.  You are the friendliest person I know and you love everyone.  Some day you may judge people before getting to know them and that may make you more guarded but right now you give everyone the benefit of the doubt and you are very generous with your love.  In your heart everyone is good and that is a good way to be.  Your Apoe (grandmother) says you need to be careful of strangers, that you would let a monster hold you, and while both of those are true you are young and it’s good to be kind. 

You are a very determined little girl.  You know what you want and you are going to work hard until you get it.  This is a good life lesson but can be frustrating when what you want is the batteries from the back of the remote.  You don’t talk yet, you only say “da da” and “uh oh”, and I don’t know if you know what either of those mean but you’re a fierce pointer.  You love to point out what you want and grunt at it.  You’re so funny.  Your grunts includes “Eh!” (my favorite), “Wha?”, “Meh!” and “Ugh!”

You’re a climber.  You learned to climb steps and Grammy’s house and you haven’t stopped trying to get on top of everything since.  You like to conquer your toys, any footstool you can get your hands on, and any mole hill you can find.

People tell you that you’re gross.  Well, you are, but I’m hoping it’s a phase.  As a baby you spit up horribly.  You stained everything, it was gross.  You snored, you tooted, you were just a beast.  Now that you’re older you’ve gotten a little better.  You just do different gross things.  Now when you spit up you think you’ve invented finger paint and you’re determined to decorate the floor.  You get mad when we wipe it up.  You eat like an animal!  Food is everywhere.  The floor, your shirt (you have started ripping off bibs), in your diaper, down your back, in your hair… eating is a contact sport for you.  It’s a good thing you’re so damn cute.  I hope one day we can just say you’re messy and not gross.

You are gorgeous!  Not because I’m your mother – you really are gorgeous.  Everyone tells us.  We say you’re “universally cute”.  I wonder how you’ll look in a few years, though I’m rushing nothing.  Will your hair be black or brown?  Will you always have those killer round eyes and one sweet little dimple (your brother has the other one)?  Will your curls continue to curl or will they be a distant memory after your first haircut?  Time will only tell but you have got to be one of the cutest one year olds I’ve ever known!

You love music.  Man, do you love music!  You dance to any beat you can find, you clap your hands and grin big when you hear a kid’s song but you’ll rock back and forth to my music too.  Music really does make you very happy.  We’re starting Kindermusik on Thursday, I’m sure you’ll love it.

You’re an explorer.  You need to check everything out.  You want to be held at home because you know every nook and cranny but in public or at a new place you can’t wait to get down.  You’ll crawl through dirt, it doesn’t matter, you need to SEE! 

You’re allergic to dairy.  I really hope you outgrow this.  It will be really sad if you can’t have ice cream.

You can’t walk yet.  You’re cruising around furniture and you’ll hold our hands to practice but you haven’t stepped out on your own quite yet.  All in your own time.

You love your brother.  I hope that never changes.  You look at him like he’s a celebrity.  You love to watch him, you love to play with him, and you’re sad when he gets rough.  He’s a boy though, so he’s rough often.  You didn’t care when he broke your arm and you chase after him like it’s a price well worth paying.  Please be sure to always remind him that he broke your arm when you were a baby – especially at his wedding.  Be kind to him, love him like mad, always.  Family is very important and even if he is annoying sometimes he is your brother and you need to look out for each other.

You are my sunshine.  I love you and your brother very much but you can’t talk back yet or tell me no.  You wake up every morning with a smile on your face, just dying to snuggle in and let us hug you.  You always make me laugh and remind me that life is good.  You are an easy baby, even if changing your diaper right now is like trying to nail jello to the wall, you’re very easy going and flexible with your schedule and needs.  I would like to think I know you the best and have known you the longest.  Even when you were bouncing around inside my belly and hiccuping like it was your job I knew you were special.  You have always been very special to me for so many reasons.

You have never been a cuddler.  You never enjoyed being rocked to sleep, you never wanted to be coddled.  If that ever changes I’m here, I’m the one underneath your very cuddly brother.  There’s plenty of room on this lap for two.

Kate, you’ve given me the opportunity to experience everything exactly opposite from your brother (from pregnancy, to birth, to nursing, to temperament, and so much more).  You have made  so many of my wishes and dreams come true.  I wanted you for so long and now that you’re here  I want nothing but the best for you.  I have so many hopes and ideas of what I would like you to become (nothing specific - just independent, successful, self assured, deliriously happy….) and I would do anything for you to make your dreams come true as you did mine.  I would like to believe we’ll always be close, that you’ll always need me, and that you’ll always want me around.  Looking back on my relationship with your Grammy though I am sure there will be times that you don’t feel all of those things at once and you don’t believe me.  But know, my dear daughter, that it is true, and it always will be, the absolute unwavering certainty that I LOVE YOU.  Please know how truly special you are to me now, and always. 

All my love,
Mom

P.S.  I cried on the exam table the moment we found out you were a girl in my 12th week of pregnancy.  I will likely bawl like a total baby at your wedding.  Please invite me anyway!

Happy Birthday Mushy!

Hello Internet Friends.  Why do I always feel like I’m apologizing for being absent?  My computer died – hard.  And as soon as it went and was replaced my monitor followed suit.  So now I am writing to you from a gorgeous new computer setup and I’m able to upload photos FAST! 

Unfortunately I’m behind in my updates, and boy have we been busy, but hopefully I can catch up and post more often.

In August Walter turned the big 4-0.  Two days after that I turned 31 (I’m officially “in my 30′s” and feeling old).  To celebrate we took the family to Disney.  For support we brought my mom.  We had no idea how the kids would handle the heat of Disney in August.  I wasn’t sure I was up to the challenge, but we had a blast, and mom got to squeeze in some relaxing while we checked out the parks.

Thanks to our great friend, Lauren, we got to stay at the Swan Hotel.  It was so great being a short boat ride to Epcot!

At the hotel they had a dreamy restaurant.  It was outdoors (ick) but it was so beautiful and the food was amazing!

The comfy seating got two thumbs up from Noah!

And the rest of the property was equally as entertaining…

And beautiful…

During our stay we only made it to Epcot and the Magic Kingdom.  Both were incredibly hot!

Noah, who used to love giant characters, was pretty lukewarm about the whole thing this trip.  We even did a character breakfast and as far as he’s concerned, the highlight was the bacon.  He seemed to love the Under the Seas and Spaceship Earth (the big Epcot ball ride) the most at Epcot.

We were at Epcot on Walter’s actual birthday.  For his birthday I gave him smiles.  Lots and lots of smiles, and patience.  If you know me and you know how I feel about heat you know this was an amazing gift and very difficult to deliver.  It came naturally to Kate though.

And I also bought him dinner.  We left Kate with my mom at the hotel and went with Noah to Coral Reef, the restaurant at the Living Seas in Epcot.  The view was incredible, the drinks were delish, and the food was amazing!  It was a great dinner!

Afterwards we watched the Epcot fireworks then went down to the boardwalk for ice cream and people watching.  It really was a magical day!

Magic Kingdom was a little more fun for the kids since its pretty much geared toward them.  We didn’t have a lot of time but we enjoyed the time we had!

Noah got a water bottle/fan/squirty thing that he is obsessed with.  He sprayed everything, and I mean everything, but at least it kept us cool!

We rode Winnie The Pooh…

And then Noah and Walter went on the Barnstormer, Noah’s first roller coaster!

He loved it!

And of course we went to see Mickey and Minnie.  Again Noah really wasn’t interested but Kate was in love.  She was so excited, I thought she was going to take her first step into Minnie’s arms.  She was also a huge fan of her giant ears!

And of course we had to hit up the gift shop so Kate could get ears!

And since we were so close we took a little detour to go see my Aunt Love and Uncle Kenneth.  They just finished renovating their new home and it’s amazing!  It was quite a project for them but I can’t imagine it turning out any better.  They really put a lot of work into this house that they decided to buy as soon as they saw the view from the front door!

Noah says they have good taste in furniture too!

We also took the opportunity of being with family to use the facilities!  Noah had a flood accident the first night in the hotel.  His poor monkey got soaked and was in desperate need of a bath!  Luckily we were able to make that happen.  Noah insisted on supervising the whole ordeal though!

Here’s that view from the front door (looking in).  Let’s pray the hurricanes stay away!

The kids made themselves at home.  Unfortunately the home wasn’t made for them.  I’m still so sorry about that figurine that Kate wanted to play with!

What’s up and where have we been?  I’m going to answer it for you all right now.  Yes, we’re still alive.  Yes, we remember your phone number (or have it somewhere).  No, we haven’t fallen off the face of the Earth.  No we’re not mad at you.  Things have been busy.  Crazy busy.  I have been neglecting everyone.  I am very, very sorry.

I have been working tirelessly at launching a new business.  With the two kids always within earshot it has become very hard to plan weddings for clients who expect my full attention (and deserve it).  So until piss and vinegar, I mean Noah and Kate, are both out of the house for a chunk of time every day I’m trying to use my talents for other things.  I just opened “Oh My Bride” (www.ohmybride.com).  It is an opportunity for me to still make money and play in the wedding business without having to be on call 24/7 or at the beck and call of a bridezilla with a cell phone.  Sure, I still have “office hours” and plan to interact when I need to but at least the majority of my dealings will now be online and through email to keep me from having to screen calls and dance around nap schedules.  I am still doing weddings, at least until this new venture gains momentum, and I’m looking forward to a packed dance card this winter with events.

As I mentioned before, my sister and her children were in town for 10 days and we took every opportunity to enjoy their company.  We also did my niece, Natalie’s, senior photos while they were here.  With so many interests though it turned into a bit of a marathon and we are still editing.  Here are a few to enjoy for now.

This is Natalie in her Junior Prom dress.  It was my sister’s (her mother’s) Senior Prom dress but has been reinvented.  Talk about vintage!  We also took some photos of her in her Senior Prom dress but you’ll have to ask her for those.  Wouldn’t want to give too much away before the big event!

Yes, that is a real train.  It was FLYING by.  I’ll spare you the photo with the look on her face that says “You want me to do what!?”.  We have so many beautiful ones to choose from, this is hard!

This isn’t even a sampling of all the shoots.  Like I said, we’ve been busy!

And in the spirit of photos we have (finally) started to embrace our love for the craft and share it with others.  We used to do photoshoots back when film was in and we were still a little (ok, a lot) unsure about the whole portrait thing.  Then it was only for us, then we included friends and family since we’ve learned not everyone can take a photo without chopping heads off.  Fast forward 10 years and hundreds of practice shoots later and we find ourselves getting inquiries left and right.  Family and friends always pushed us to do this and we have seen the light.  To mainstream things a bit and have one central location for our favorite photos we’ve created Yap Originals (www.yaporiginals.com).  Our friend Lauren actually branded us and always bragged about how many “Yap Originals” she had hanging in her home.  Thanks Lauren!

Here are some photos from our most recent newborn shot.  Isabelle is a doll and she has an amazing family.  What a love!  We have so many other recent shoots that I wish we could share.  Oh, what I could do with free time!

Isabelle’s dad is a firefighter… and she has her own boots!

We were also MIA because we were off getting older.  Walter and I (who are 2 days apart) took the kids to Disney for our birthdays.  It was soooooo hot but also a lot of fun.  We have a million photos to share and will, soon.

The one thing keeping us sane and us as with it as we are (which isn’t very “with” as it turns out) is Kate’s new BFF, Falan.  Falan is the newest addition to the scenery around here.  I hate to call her a nanny, because that sounds so snobby, but she’s so much more than a babysitter.  I don’t know what we’d do without her.  We originally hired her to help until I got Oh My Bride off and running but I’m not sure how we could ever part with her.  Hopefully things start running smoothly and prosperity finds its way to our door so we won’t have to worry about that.  In addition to being amazing with the kids she is ridiculously beautiful.  How lucky was I to talk her into modeling a few hair accessories for Oh My Bride?

So we’re here.  I appreciate all of you who have reached out to us.  We are grateful for your love and friendship.  Hopefully things will slow down here just a bit so we may have the opportunity to get back into the social scene.

Love you all!

There are so many great songs for the soundtrack to Kate’s life and this is just another to add to her playlist.  Noah broke Kate’s arm.  Ok, that’s dramatic.  Noah tried to jump over Kate and he accidentally fractured her humerus bone at the top near her shoulder… but what a crazy few days that brought us.

If you’re on Facebook you already know all the crazy details but for those of you living under a rock (as Facebook is the new black, I mean blog) I wanted to share some of her pitiful photos from the adventure.  Rest assured, she is fine.  She won’t need a cast and has already started crawling again, although she has a slight limp.  She’s also taken this opportunity to work on her will to walk.  I have a feeling that’s right around the corner (God, help us!).

Most of these photos were taken with my phone so please excuse the yuck of them.

Here the kids are at my mom’s that afternoon like nothing too crazy laid ahead -

The accident happened after dinner and right before bedtime.  Neither Walter or I witnessed it but Noah says he tried to jump over her.  We just saw her planted face first into the wood floor, crying hysterically.  At first we thought she was just scared but it took longer than usual to calm her down.  She was super sensitive but it was also bedtime.  So we gave her a bath and took her to the ER just to be safe.  When we got there she was all smiles and giggles so we didn’t go in.  We went home and put her to bed.  The pediatrician said to keep an eye on her and wake her in two hours to make sure she was ok and didn’t have a concussion.  An hour and 59 minutes later there was hysterical crying from her room.  There was something wrong.  I took her to the ER again. 

We didn’t have to wait long and the pediatric side was pretty empty.  The one set of people who were there absolutely fascinated Kate though.  They didn’t speak English and she was enthralled.  She wouldn’t stop staring so they waved every now and again.  I couldn’t wait to be called in, kids really have a way of embarrassing you!

The xrayed her and found nothing.  They pushed and pulled and she cried. 

If you look close you can see the xray of her arm on the computer in the photo on the left and the xray of her shoulder in the photo on the right.

It was the middle of the night, she cried when they touched anything.  They couldn’t figure out if there was anything wrong so they gave her Motrin, sent her home and said to follow up with the pediatrician. 

The next morning our pediatrician thought she had a strain or a sprain in her wrist and we would know in two days if it was going to get better without treatment or if she needed more xrays.  She hates xrays!  He said if there was anything broken it would have shown on the xrays the night before but that infants are difficult to scan and sometimes things don’t show up right away.

As soon as I got home from the doctor the hospital was calling.  Can you imagine my reaction to “We’re very sorry but we just realized your daughter has a fracture in her arm that we didn’t notice last night.  We recommend seeing a pediatric orthopedist.  Have a nice day!”?  And then the whirlwind began.  I cancelled all of my business appointments and became Super Mom.  I found myself making appointments with anyone who would see us and flying down to Pembroke Pines faster than the police would have appreciated.

The pediatric orthopaedist was amazing!  She recommended we splint Kate’s arm and come back in two weeks for a follow up xray (in Boca thankfully).  Apparently infants’ bones grow so quickly that casting her arm would have slowed down the healing process.  They expect her to be good as new before her next appointment and she’s already on the mend.  A little fussier but she also cut her top two fang teeth the day after the accident.  I think she’s in pretty good shape for the shape she’s in.

We went to the beach on Friday and just to show you she has done more than cry this week, here she is…

… having her first taste of sand.  I’m so thankful the drama is over and that she won’t remember any of this.  I have a feeling no one else will forget though and in thirty years I’ll still be able to play the remember-when-you-broke-your-sister’s-arm card. 

More on the beach and my sister’s vacation here soon.  I’m hoping to get better at blogging, you know, in my spare time.

This 4th of July holiday weekend we took off for a mini vacation.  We headed south to my very favorite hotel, the Westin Diplomat in Hollywood.  It was everything we hoped it would be and more!  The weather was perfect, the pools were fun, the beds were super comfy, the kids were even well behaved!  We were lucky enough to have a lot of friends with the same plans and because of that we enjoyed many laughs and large meals.

Here are a few photos from our relaxing weekend, there are many more to come -

First, let me show you why I love this place so much…

Yes, really.  And yes, really, these are photos from this weekend.  The pool and beach didn’t look like this for long but they were still very beautiful and very relaxing when other people showed up.  This is one of four pools at the hotel so you never noticed that the resort was bustling; there’s so much room to spread out!

And this is how excited we all felt when the plans were made and we were on our way.  A family vacation was so overdue!

The one photo we got of the kids together this weekend…

She may owe that pole dinner.

At the pool…

Our friends Bettina and Dan and their daughter Helena happened to be staying the weekend at the resort as well.  The kids loved swimming together!

Rachel, Robby, and Ayla were also at the resort as were thier friends Nicole and Chris and their children Nicholas and Carsen.  You haven’t lived until you’ve looked for a dinner reservation for 11 people 30 minutes before you’re hoping to eat!

Nicholas is such a cool kid!  A lover boy with a little Dennis the Menace mixed in for good measure.  We had a blast, he has such personality!  At one point I was holding Helena (above) and Nicholas (below) was playing with us.  Someone joked about how easily I could pass them off as my own kids.  I’ll just have to borrow all the redheaded children and wish their parents luck with the stubborness and sass that comes with the color! 

Chris and Carsen                                                                     Little Miss

For the fourth we were unknowingly misinformed and decided to take our chances watching fireworks from Rachel and Robby’s room.  Little did we know we would have been much better off on the beach, where we originally planned to go, but then we would have missed this amazing view of the city and the light show.

The city after a few cocktails…

The monkeys…

And a certain little someone learned a new trick while on vacation… she now STANDS!  Where does the time go!?  Buh-bye baby Kate, hello toddler land!

And just for fun we relived a few moments.  I told you this place was my favorite!

(Noah at 4 months)

(Kate at 9 months, who doesn’t know how not to smile)

(Noah at 7 months)

(Kate at 9 months who apparently heard she was going to be late for lunch)

Still think they look exactly alike?!

Unfortunately when we got home reality smacked us in the face!  Monday was right around the corner, grocery shopping needed to get done and the laundry fairy never showed up this weekend.  Oh, and there was a leak in our roof that was flooding our laundry room because of all the rain.  Fun times!  At least we’re tan!

This weekend we went to the new Monkey Joe’s.  It was pretty nice but a little deja vu of any other indoor play place.  Bounce houses, slides, parents who don’t supervise their kids, you know – the norm.  I was a little taken aback that they wanted $5 for Kate (or any kid under 1 for that matter) who can’t really enjoy the facilities as nothing is age appropriate but whatever.  So we went and Noah had a blast (of course) and he played hard!

Here Kate is waiting to leave.  This is what Walter and the kids do while they wait for me to get it all together.

At Monkey Joe’s Kate got an ID bracelet so they knew who she belonged to.  She was fascinated!  Please excuse the bad hair day!

I know the face says “special” but she was beyond excited!

And Noah loved climbing and sliding!

Do you remember the last time you felt joy like this!?

Afterwards we went to visit our friends, Katie, Bill and Liam, in Coral Springs.  It’s been about ten months since we’ve been able to meet up and I think Liam was Kate’s size back then.  Now he’s a walking, talking fool who is still just as heartbreakingly adorable.  When we were headed in Noah asked if Liam had turned into a boy (awwww…) and indeed he did.  It was a lot of fun catching up and both of our kids were passed out before we left the neighborhood.  I guess a good time was had by all!

This is Liam the last time we saw him -

And now -

Airplane!

Stubborn…                                                                                and sweet…

Ok, so for those of you who love physical comedy (me), this is priceless.  Katie was sending Liam down the slide and Bill was catching him.  He hasn’t gotten the whole slide thing down pat yet.  Well Bill was playing with Kate and Katie launched Liam.  Walter is too polite to photograph how it turned out but from the second photo I’m pretty sure you can figure it out.  He was still going full speed ahead at that point…

But as boys do, he brushed off, and moved on.

And Daddy was on slide duty for the balance of park time.  Thank you for everything Bill and Katie, and for giving me a laugh at your son’s expense.  I know, I’m horrible.

Then on Sunday we went to the waterpark with Rachel, Robby and Ayla and had a blast!  We didn’t get any photos unfortunately, besides, I’m not sure you would consider me swimsuit model material anyway.  But the kids loved it and Kate was crazy in love with splashing.  She couldn’t even sit still on the lazy river, she wanted in!  And to top it off Rachel and I went down one of the big slides.  We were the required 42″s tall but I was still a little apprehensive.  It was a big slide with several flights of stairs to get to and some high walls to coast back and forth on.  Once we were up we felt a little better about reliving our teens since we weren’t the only non-kids at the top… until the lifeguard turned to me and said “You can go now, M’am”.  I guess this thirty year old is fooling NO ONE! 

Happy Monday all!

We’re STILL waiting for Comcast to fix our internet.  It is so frustrating!  In the meantime we signed up for DSL which isn’t as good but it’s something.  I’m so over our connection issues!

I wanted to share some sweet pictures with you.  We went to my mom’s for Memorial Day and Kate got all dressed up for the party.  She even wore her Cole Haan shoes!  Keep in mind I don’t have anything from this designer but I couldn’t resist these hot pink patent leather penny loafers.  She seems to be pretty fond of them too.

We also took the opportunity for Noah to get an updated photo with his Grammy.  We wanted to do this at his birthday party but she wasn’t feeling well.  A few days late but well worth the wait.  The last time we did this (on his first birthday) she was bald as a baby from chemo.  Now she’s the picture of health and we’re so fortunate for this very happy ending!

Poor Grammy, Noah hates photos.  I wonder why!

And here’s the third attempt at Kate’s 6 month photos -

Can you say heiney?

I love her back wrinkles!

Porcelain doll anyone?  The hair accessories are again courtesy of Dainty Diva Designs.  These photos are for their portfolio as well as our blog.

 Looking over the hundreds of photos again makes me realize that we got more good ones than I realized which means there was some unnecessary torture.  Oh well, I’m certain it won’t be the last time we overdo it with the pictures!

And because we always try to sneak in a photo or two of Noah, here’s what we bribed him into -

First, his beloved monkey had to have a photo shoot.  We’re seriously considering framing this and putting it in his room.  Poor monkey is looking ROUGH but is no less loved.

Here’s Noah in need of a haircut…

I would love to tell you that this next photo was completely unstaged, unbribed… but I know you’re smarter than that.

Feeling like we didn’t get enough photos of Kate looking like her usual, happy self I took her outside one morning to torture her some more.  These were slightly more successful but doing the photos at feeding time was risky.  Doing them after would have shown you more than you wanted to see of what was in her bottle so it’s a double edged sword.  Any way, here’s Kate in the backyard striking a pose -

Kate can flip from her back to her belly so fast that it was hard to keep her still.  She’s still perfecting her sitting technique though but she’s getting good!

Kate was so interested in the grass.  She tried so hard to scoot over to it but eventually decided it would be easier just to pull the blanket toward her.  Once she finally got hold of it she totally freaked out.  I guess it’s not the texture she was expecting.

This is one of my favorites!

This is how Kate looks 99% of the time.  She is the happiest baby I know!

And in case you’re wondering why I shot her on a drab gray blanket it is for comparison.  Here is Noah at his six month shot.  What do you think?  I get so many different opinions about how much or little they look like each other.

That was so much fun, I can’t help myself… here are a few more.  They grow up so fast!

And no, it doesn’t matter how much they resemble each other or how quickly they hit their milestones in comparison to each other.  It’s just fun watching them both grow and seeing them become little people.  They are so different from each other and so perfect.