the punch line is "a baby in a microwave"

"I don't need no one to tell me about heaven I look at my daughter, and I believe. " (from song Heaven by the band Live)

I have three beautiful daughters to whom this lyric easily applies, but last night it was all about Mary. In nineteen days, my Mary will have a different last name than the one I gave her 22+ years ago. "HerMajesty" and "Her Harlequin" looked through the boxes of family pictures - particularly focusing on those that documented the life and times of "the Princess". Newborn polaroids, baby 35mm, toddler instamatics, all the way through digital images of the bridal shower -- the ever-evolving child is documented through the ever-evolving photo-technology. Through it all one can see the big blue eyes taking it all in, the cheerful, inquisitive, and fun-loving expressions - the unmistakable love of life. Most of the photos were taken by HerMajesty - who always has a knack for capturing an emotion or a "look" in even the most ordinary (seemingly) shots. During our journey through the past, Mary came in and got caught up in the process. It was such a pleasure watching the expressions on her face as she looked at herself; the excited recognition as some long forgotten moment returned, smiles for a childhood toy, sympathy for a foster sibling long since moved on, or amusement over a picture she had never seen before.

One day when Mary was 6 weeks old, HM was out for the afternoon and it was just me and Mary home having quality time together. I decided I should take some pictures of her and wanted just the right settings. I propped her up with my guitar across her lap, I tucked her into her little baby seat with my headphones on - all very cute and humerous. But then I thought about Nannie. Being a premie baby nurse, she had a silly sick love of "Baby" jokes (what's red & white and hangs from telephone wires? a baby run over by a lawn mower). Why she thought these were funny is any psychologist's guess, but her favorite one was "what's brown and knocks on a window?"

So I just had to take THAT picture! Well Mary had apparently never seen that particular picture. The look on her face when she realized that baby was indeed her, and that she was indeed inside a microwave (oh stop it - the door was wide open). Such a fun moment. The good news/bad news is that sometime (probably soon) we will go through them all again / but have to decide which ones to give to her and which ones we can keep. Thankfully we did lots of double-prints developing.

It's going to be real hard giving away my little girl - both in person and in photographs.