While visiting family this past weekend, I took some pictures of one cousin’s daughter during her final weeks of being an 11-year-old. We did this last year, with her and one of her first cousin’s, and made it a lot of fun. I let them come up with all sorts of wacky ideas and they ran with it. This time it was just her, and the way she was sometimes holding the sleeves of her sweater reminds me of all the self-consciousness of the tween years. (Especially when under the scrutiny of a camera.) I hope she can one day look back and see what she was like as a not-quite-12-year-old: beautiful but humble, creative and funny, kind to those around her (including a certain 6-year-old we brought who did not leave her side). and go from graceful to goofy and back again with ease.
These were taken late in the day at home and in her backyard, and then again the next morning as she got ready for a matinee performance in The Nutcracker.
