Do you remember the very first time your baby saw the ocean? Felt sand between his toes? Had her first little tumble when a wave knocked her over? Do you remember the absolute joy in his eyes and the unstoppable race to the water?

When I met up with this lovely family, I knew I wanted to give them more than the traditional maternity photos - standing, holding the belly, gazing lovingly at each other, wrapped in the anticipation of new life…

Why?

Because they had a toddler. And toddlers don’t stay still.

Toddlers don’t care if you want a certain pose, or if you’re trying to catch the light just right. Nope. What a toddler wants is to RUN.

Into the water

without stopping.

So I set aside my hopes of getting this beautiful mama to be off on her own, and I set about taking the photos that I love most… photos that tell the story.

And do you know what happened?

That’s just what we got.

When this new baby is born, there will be a time or two when his mother will think back to when she only had one baby, when it was just the three of them, and how different life felt. She’s going to remember those last few weeks of feeling SO BIG and being ready to be done, but also not quite ready to give up the life they knew right now.

And she’s going to remember this one beautiful sunny day where they all went down to Spanish Point and their toddler boy discovered the pure joy that is the ocean on a sunny day.