My mother always told the story of how this photo happened..After I was born, that she won some sort of sitting with some fancy shmancy photographer and her bestie bought me the dress, which was inordinately expensive for baby clothes but absolutely exquisite. Given that most likely it only fit for a tiny sliver of time, also absolutely tragic, but the high-end photography makes this one of the few pics from my infant years to not be a curling snapshot on yellowed vintagey film. These there are a ton of--me crawling the green shag of our trailer chasing after our pekingese. Me lolling super blonde and diapered on a plaid blanket in the yard. Toddling between my mom and cousins at Disney World. It's hard to believe my hair was ever that light, since by the time I started school, it had darkened to what I'm guessing (outside the ever-imposing greys) the shade my hair would be now.
Baby pictures are strange, to know that that flesh was so new. And barring the theory that every cell in your body is on the regular replaces, still the same skin, the same eyes, probably that same weird whorl on top of my head if my hair were short. Of course, I don't remember this dress, my first memories happening a bit later, but over the years I think it may be one of my favorites--from that pale whispy blue to the neutral floral--totally something I would totally wear today, even in baby doll-like cut. Definitely very Laura Ashley, maybe a little Gunne Sax...
Note: I did have that owl well into my childhood, but I'm pretty sure he was falling apart and my mom threw him out.
