I loved when this family showed up I saw their red and blue outfits. It reminded me of first days of school, shiny red apple cutouts decorating bulletin boards, students names written neatly in elementary teacher’s perfect handwriting. I know, I know. . . that’s a little strange. Tell me that you can kind of see it?? 🙂
I was prepared ahead of time for a bit of a challenge. I was told that Brooklyn (the little girl below, who is five) doesn’t warm up easily to people sometimes. We were doing a mini-session (though they booked double slot, since there were so many in the group), so I knew that I was on a time constraint. Normally I would take some time to chill for a couple of minutes and hang out without my camera, so kids can get the sense that I am just a normal, fun person. So I did everything that I could think to do in about three minutes time. Blew some bubbles, smiled a lot, let her help me carry some props.
Then I got a great smile 🙂
Brooklyn’s grandma told me a little family history before our session and she told me it would be okay to share on my blog. Here is an excerpt from a note that Brooklyn’s mom wrote back in February for some friends:
A year ago today we had to rush Brooklyn to the hospital in the middle of the night. I had JUST gotten her to sleep after hours of her screaming that her hands and feet hurt. In the days leading up to that we had already had several different doctor appointments and been to.. an emergencey room to figure out what was wrong. It stumped everyone. One doctor even told me that Brooklyn was playing me! On this particular night we had some lab work done late in the evening. When the results came in it was late at night. We learned that the calcium levels in her body were dangerously low. We spent the next 3 days watching our daughter being poked by needles, and hooked up to IV’s to get calcium pumped in her body. The doctors at the emergency room were all baffled- they kept commenting that they had never, EVER, seen a patient with such low calcium levels. Not comforting to hear when your 3 year old daughter is crying out in pain and it’s the middle of the night!!! Early the next morning we met with an endocrinologist who informed us that Brooklyn had hypocalcemia and hypoparathyroidism. We just looked at the doctor like ‘HUH?!’ In the weeks that followed we learned that all of this was caused by a rare genetic disease called autoimmune polyglandular syndrome type 1. It causes the most bizarre symptoms. Her calcium levels have to be controlled with medicine and constantly monitored with blood tests every few weeks. She has chronic thrush in her mouth, and skin hives that come and go. ( and are very itchy!). Brooklyn has very dry eyes and light sensitivity. She has to eat a low-phosphorus diet…and you would not believe all of the foods that are high in phosphorus!!! She is at risk for this autoimmune disorder to attack other glands in her body as she gets older.
Brooklyn was a little sweetheart and I enjoyed getting to know her a little bit and meeting all of her family members. Her little sister, Bella, had the most adorable blond spirals in the back of her head and
her curiosity reminding me a bit of Carter.
newborn, child and family photographer
rochester new york