Hi.

I know it's been over a year and a half since the kids have danced for you. I'm sorry that they disappeared. But there is a story as to why, and it's taken me this long to tell it.

The kids, as you can see based on the last posts, came with me to Chicago in June of 2008. We ate at The Chicago Pizza & Oven Grinder Co. (which, you should TOTALLY go to if you find yourself in the windy city and get a Pizza Pot Pie) - and since it was a pleasant summer night - we decided to walk back to our hotel.

So we started here:



and somewhere on our way to here:



the Dancing kids: Boy jumped out of my purse.





Now, thankfully, I have a VERY patient husband - he agreed to re-trace our steps - and we got as far as the catholic church where my family likes to attend mass when they're in town before we gave up. But even as we scanned the streets for a flash of red plastic, I had a feeling he was gone for good.

I was profoundly sad. I tried not to let it ruin the rest of the trip. I kept telling myself that it wasn't my place to judge him. If he wanted to live in Chicago, that was his prerogative. Who am I to stop him?

But I felt lost without him. And Dancing Kids: Girl seemed so small and incomplete. We took a water taxi from the aquarium, and the two of us looked out over the Chicago skyline and wondered where he was, imagined what he was doing, who he was spending his days with now.


Once I was back in Los Angeles, I wondered what to do. I had another set of kids that I found a long time ago on Ebay. (They're actually called Swinging Teens, and are made by Wilton.) I figured I could take the boy from that set and use him as a replacement.

There was just one problem - he's a blonde.

But that shouldn't bother me -- right?

I took him to Boston later that summer for a trial run.



But he just didn't look right.
Look! Even the Dancing Kids: Girl seems to agree with me - see how she's turned away from him, as if she's saying "who are you? I don't know you!"

If you'd like to look at the rest of the pictures from Boston, they are here.

My dear friend Steve came to my rescue. Steve and I bought the Dancing Kids in the East Village many moons ago - each of us our own set. He graciously sent me his brown haired boy.

But I didn't photograph him.

I thought about the kids on many other trips after that, even though I didn't take them with me: Austin, Napa, Tokyo, Las Vegas, New York, Rome, Florence...

It just felt like it was time for a break. For-- I don't know how long.

I brought a souvenir back from Italy - the kind you can't show people for about 40 weeks or so. She was born on September 8th, 2009 - weighing 7lbs and measuring 19 inches. Her name is Vivienne Ripley Rutherford, and maybe when she's older, I'll show her the kids and we can photograph their adventures together.



Or maybe this was how it was supposed to end.