The photo above was sweet Sydney last year, when she was just a year old. As a one-year-old, Sydney just sat and smiled with her big blue-green eyes at the rapidly spinning world around her and at anyone who happened to pass by.

And one year later… this is the same big-eyed girl, as a two year old…

This year, when I had the camera out, the only photos I could get without her hiding her face behind her hands, were when she was looking through her mom’s purse, or sneering at me for interrupting her.

Even swinging her around, until she was laughing uncontrollably and too dizzy to walk, she still held her newly shy hand up to her mouth.

But finally, with quick and sneaky persistence… I eventually got the photo of the big-eyed girl I was looking for.