“And now," cried Max, "let the wild rumpus start!”

-m. sendak

Meaghan and Myles are a couple I photographed several years ago during their first pregnancy with their son, Rhett. I remembered them being playful and utterly, unapologetically themselves. When Meaghan asked me to do family photos for their now family of 4, I wondered what, if anything, would be different about their dynamic with two children now in their home.

What I found was not a diminishing or neglect of the love I witnessed several years ago, but an ecstatic, warm expansion of it expressed in each face, reflective of a deep love they had made even more their own.

I entered their home, and heavy metal music was blaring. It made me smile.

Rhett and Elliot were charmingly dressed in outfits inspired by the illustrations from Maurice Sendak’s classic childhood work, Where the Wild Things Are.

They were perfect.

As I photographed, laughed, and chased children with them, I felt my own joy kindled by the wildness of the love each of them embodied.

May you witness, as I did, the many sparks of love and tenderness and playfulness that comprise the bonfire of this family’s exuberant existence.

“But the wild things cried,

“Oh please don't go-

We'll eat you up-

We love you so!” -m. sendak