Her first smile. The first time she rolled over. These are cherished memories – many more are to come, I know – that I look forward to telling Sydney about when she’s older. I do wish, of course, that I had these firsts on camera.
But I do have one first – and possibly last – on camera and now in print. Her first magazine cover photo! When our art director stopped by my office to ask if I would be interested in taking pictures for the cover of The Roanoker, I was thrilled. After getting my husband on board, we settled on a date and, because Sydney’s a morning baby, an early time.
Of course, after weeks of warm weather, the one morning we chose turned out to be incredibly cold. Luckily, we had planned to dress in winter weather attire. Adorable in her pea coat and pink stocking hat, I left Sydney’s bib on until the last second. She drools a lot and I just knew she would spit up all over the coat too. Wouldn’t you know, as soon as the bib was removed, out came part of her morning meal. But not to worry; the art department sprinted into 7-11 for napkins and all was clean for the shoot.
The photo shoot was a blast! We are in no way, shape or form models, but we sure felt like it that day. People were peeking out store windows to catch a glimpse of the action.
We also were so excited for the opportunity to include our dog Billy in some of the shots. I must mention here our other baby, Kylie. She’s a feisty dachshund who would have barked her head off the entire time, so she unfortunately had to stay at home. I imagine she was much happier curled up in her blanket than she would have been in the cold weather.
For the past three months, we have kept this a secret from our family. Now that the magazine is out, we look forward to sharing it with them. And I know that one day, Sydney will get a kick out of the fact that she was on the cover of a magazine.
