When Amelia was first born, I always cringed when Lilah gave her a hug. I know that my spirited two year old was trying SO hard to be gentle, but she was just so darn excited about having a baby sister. When Jessica and I talked about her daughter’s six month session, Jessica’s one hope was that she could walk away with just one nice photo of her son and daughter together.

Jessica’s son is A LOT like Lilah when Millie was a baby. He is so full of life and energy – as any three year old should be. It is evident how much he loves his baby sister. So much, in fact, that like Lilah, he tends to get a little over excited and hugs and kisses his baby sister SO tightly. Maybe a little too tightly, but during the session, Miss P. didn’t shed a tear, and as Jessica and I watched her two children cuddling  in front of my camera, both our hearts melted.

Leave it to a three year old to love so intensely that the outward expression of that love is just as enthusiastic.

At four, Lilah is still just as spirited when she hugs her little sister, but now, Amelia is able to hug her back – just as tightly. Sometimes there are shouts and tears, hair pulled and bumped foreheads in the process, but more often than not, my girls end up entwined on the floor in a fit of giggles.

In these moments my heart swells.

I want nothing more than for my girls to love each other so fiercely that it overflows into a physical expression of this love. I want them to whisper secrets as they cuddle under makeshift blanket forts in the living room, and to hold hands as they lay in the backyard grass watching cloud shapes overhead. I want them to tickle one another until they can barely breathe through the laughter, but most of all, I want them to embrace.

I want them to hug in moments of joy and in moments of sorrow. In moments of accomplishment and in moments of failure. I want them to hug for no other reason than just because. My fervent wish for my children is that they always have each other to lean on when no one else will do.

I know that Jessica wants the same for her children, and I feel blessed that she chose me to document the initial blossoming of the relationship between her daughter and son. This was Miss P.’s six month session, so we mostly focused on photos of her, but I am so glad that I was able to capture on film a few small, unbidden moments of physical love between these two siblings.