After receiving Kris's message and before picking up the phone to call her, I went back through my notes on our previous conversations to refresh my memory about her likes and dislikes, and I found this nice little message that I had completely forgotten about:

"Hey Irene -- Thank you for the lovely Christmas ornament with Nathan and me on it! And thanks for the card...it's so nice to hear from you. I 've had great fun following your work on Facebook, both the development work and your family/event photo sessions. It just reminds me what a great choice I made in a family photographer! (And BTW, nice session with Al P. and Evan! Reminds me of my session with Nathan. If it ever happens to comes up in some odd way, tell him he has an admirer...). Thanks again, and happy new year!"

When I did call Kris, she said she wanted to do these mother-son family portraits every five years, and guess what... it's been five years! "I just want a repeat of last time," she kept saying.  And so, 1 1/2 months later, we met up at Glenview Mansion in Rockville, Maryland, and I got to see how much Nathan had grown.  His hair had turned red, cute freckles had emerged in droves, and he was just as handsome and lovable as ever.

Five years ago, some of Kris's favorite family portraits were of her piggybacking Nathan (first portrait below).  So of course, we did a repeat of that this time (set of 3 portraits).