Christmas with Ida Valentina

It has been a challenging year for all of us.  At Moda we were very lucky to have Susie working behind the scenes to keep the wheels turning whenever we were distracted by our new project (Ida). We quietly introduced our new entity (The Wedding Assassins). Even more quietly we released our  'Cherish Photography' project.  We are proud at what we have achieved in what has indeed been a difficult year and we are excitedly looking forward to whatever comes our way for 2010.

We have a couple of special projects in the think tank. (A deep - almost bottomless - vessel full of crazy ideas, hopes, and wishes.) One involves travel, and the other is about education.  Actually they are both about education because we always want to learn new things.

... and then of course there will be Ida Valentina .... currently a two tooth ... who will add her own brand of unpredictability to our chaotic lives.

Ida Valentina ... the beginning of the joys of teething.

Anyway I just wanted to say a big 'thank you' for any part you may have played in this exciting year.

All my love

Johannes

Ida hits Lyttelton (under construction)

Ida at the Lyttelton Coffee Co

I certainly cannot get enough of this adorable girl.

The fascination is endless ... something to make up for being puked over ....

My apologies to people who thought that I would be blogging about being a photographer.

That will come soon enough.

Sorry for the lack of posts for a while.

Take care

Johannes

We now have a good reason for being late.

Washing has gone from a couple of times a week to at least five days in seven.

I never thought it would happen but we now have conversations about poohs.

I now understand and appreciate the generosity of people to those who have had a new child.

I never used to have freezer dinners ... now they are a treat.

I appreciate the hours that Jo puts into being a great mum. (I just wanted to say that)

I thought I would be able to resist talking in the tongues of babies ... just call me weak.

I am now a pram geek.

I now qualify to shop in the baby aisle at the supermarket.

I know what nursing pads are.

I can happily spend hours looking at Ida and marveling that every day she changes and grows.

Changing nappies is not a favorite pastime but the happiness of a clean nappie cannot be over-rated.

So as I said nothing has changed (that I'm aware of)

This is not a profound statement and in fact is the obvious truth.

No amount of denial will prevent the truth from overriding any misguided suggestion that everything remains the same.

I am learning so much. I am learning that Ida will let us know when she has a need. She will also let us know if she thinks we are not listening to her needs.

But she is not demanding in an unreasonable way (yet).

As one of her Life Photographers I have come to  learn an important lesson. I have had to make a distinction between the photographs I would take because I am the incredibly proud father, and those that she would want (later). I am drawn to her face and have no hesitation to record every nuance of a twitch because it is so amazingly wonderful .... to me. That is the thing ... those photographs are for me. The other day I stepped back from my fatherly besottedness and thought about what Ida Valentina aged 10 or 20yrs would want. I thought about the photographs I had from my childhood and realised that the special ones were the ones that showed the people around me and the place that I lived, because in truth I have absolutely no personal reccollection of those things, just the photographs.

I have an out of focus picture of my grandparents holding me on the doorstep of the house we lived in when I was born. I cherish this photograph because it is the only image I have of my grandparents and because it is the only photograph of the old house. All you can see of me is a bundle of blanket.

My photographic responsibility to Ida Valentina ... my long term client and potentially my greatest critic .. is to photograph her world so that, when she wants to, she can remember what it was like living as the newborn child of two crazy photographers in a small port town in New Zealand.

Hugs

Johannes

I am not lying about the 600 images ...

Now I am beginning to understand where all of the powerful emotions come from... already I am protective, proud, and besotted.

It is something that only the reality can give you any idea of what it is like. People offer you their wisdoms but not until the baby is yours does any of it make sense.

Thank you to everybody for their best wishes and gifts.

I won't be able to help myself showing you images of our beautiful Ida Valentina but will try to get back to my 'knitting' as soon as possible.

The day before Ida was born

See, I did help!

We arrived home to a Wreath from our neighbour, Ann, and a sign from our staff

... but we are really excited ... as if you couldn't tell.

She is 7lb 3oz and was born at 6:42am

Mum is good ... in fact fantastic.

Ida Valentina van Kan

Take care

Johannes (Very tired)

We're just about off to the Hospital to start the beginning of something wonderful.

Yep this is scary but exciting ...very very exciting.

I'll write more when we get back.

Thank you all for the kind wishes.

Unederlying all of this is the frequent assertions that 1 it is not a piece of cake.
2 anyone who says it is a piece of cake is not being wholly honest
3 even though it is not a piece of cake it is far more rewarding than any cake you might imagine.
4 once it comes out you cannot put it back in (that is a medical fact)
So here we are ... the bag is packed and there is petrol in the car.... and its four weeks ... more or less.