at 18

when i first met jon, he was small. he was maybe 9? years old and as small as a june bug. i remember him with braces and glasses though he may have been older than that when those occurred. either way, in my mind's eye i still picture him that way. not like the strapping young man you see before you. suddenly he is taller than me, more handsome than me and can text my fingers into oblivion.

 how did this happen? i don't remember getting older, when did they? (enter fiddler on the roof serenade). plus his sunglasses are way cooler than mine. basically, he has me beat on all fronts. fetch. 

jon is lynnie's son and if you know lynnie, you have somewhere along the lines had your ear talked off and played several games. you have probably also told her your life story, been severely entertained and walked away with a great friend. she's a riot. she's the life of the party and is not afraid to speak her mind. so when she emailed me and asked if she should come to the photo shoot with her little boy, i politely told her that maybe she should send one of his friends:). i can say this to her because she's lynnie and she's my husband's aunt, and she's hilarious and she knows that she would go through his bag before he left and try to chose his clothes and tell him to fix his hair the whole shoot. she knows this. which is one of the things i love about her.

what she didn't know however, was how much she would love the pictures (her words not mine). how much she would love the clothes he chose. the style, the feel, the sunglasses. and that by allowing him to decide without her, she would always be able to look back and see jonny how he really was.

at 18. 

before he left for college. before he started dressing in suits. 

before he fully became a man. 

so to lynnie. thank you for letting jon come without you-though i know you were dying to be there. thank you for raising such a nice young gentleman. 

and thank you for letting me capture your little boy. 

p.s. frank, you're all right too :). thanks for taking this ding-a-ling to buy a new battery mid shoot. whoops!

p.s.s. ladies if you want his digits, let me know.....