Most Favoritest

We have hundreds (thousands?) of photos of Elio. The ones here on the blog are such a small percentage of what resides in our computer, photos that we studiously download, smile over, return to again and again, vowing to get printed or bound in a Mac book that we have yet to find the time to design. The vast majority of these pictures stay locked in the computer, but my office at work is wallpapered with photos that I have printed out on the color laser printer, not the greatest prints but good enough to get my Elio fix during the day. The photos in my office are a greatest hits of my favorite pictures: A black and white of Elio at a little over 2 months, wearing a sunhat and looking over my shoulder, taken by our friend Laura at their place in New Jersey; me holding Elio in front of a brightly painted Mexican restaurant in Queens, while I was still home on maternity leave; Elio nibbling on his toe; Elio in front of the door at Republic, the restaurant’s name perfectly arcing over his head, just as the restaurant will forever arc into his birth story. Each of these pictures perfectly captured a moment in his babyhood, something that I can look at and get swept back to the feelings I had, the amazement (wow, he can put his toe in his mouth!), the newness, the overwhelming feeling of love, the utter scrumptiousness of babyhood.

My new most favorite photo is a little different. I feel like it’s giving me a glimpse of the little boy Elio is about to become.