Fall Photo Ambitions

I recently attended a seminar by a very accomplished photographer and remember her saying that she loves taking pictures...but hates taking pictures of her own children. I thought of her today as I dressed my two sons in nice fall shirts and prepped them for thier fall photos outdoors. Ryan, my oldest doddled around the house, obviously not too excited about the upcoming event. Joshua, my two year old didn't understand, or perhaps he did and simply didn't care. We eventually got outside and I reminded Ryan about his reward (bribe) of a penny for each good smile. Well....Ryan loves pennies, he loves to put them in his bank but I think he is starting to catch on that a penny isn't a super big deal. Come on, mom...how about some folding money?!? So he flashed his fake smile while his eyes were looking somewhere else and I snapped the cheesiest pictures ever. "You get your penny when you smile and look at the camera," I repeated. I ended up with a few good ones but within minutes, his patience was up and I had two orange-shirted boys throwing a tantrum in the grass. Overtired from preschool, Ryan had had enough. The cries and tantrums coming from my yard had me guessing which neighbor was going to be the first to call the Supernanny on my children's terrible behavior. I wondered what in the world I was thinking, trying to do the boys' photos while my husband was out of town and not here to help. I ended up carrying my youngest in kicking and screaming while the other was crying and stomping. My quest for good photos became a quest to get the kids in bed and maintain my hearing in the process. While I was tending to Ryan, my youngest who is a very michevious little boy, got into some of my Burt's Bees lotions, and found the most strong-smelling stuff he could find, the Almond Milk hand creme. I smelled it from the other room and when I walked into my bedroom and saw him with shiny, spikey, goopy, and offensively smelly hair along with that naughty little grin, I knew I had arrived a few seconds too late. As I ran for a wet towel to rub some of the excess out of his hair, he had already rolled like a dog all over my new non-washable comforter. After a long day, I felt like screaming but a laugh came out. Some day soon I will think of these days and laugh, so why not start now? After all, this is just another day in paradise.

Ahhh.....refreshed.

My children are so awesome, but sometimes you don't know how awesome they are until you take a day or two away and you start to realize how sweet they are. Thanks to Grandma and Grandpa my husband and I were able to get away yesterday and within two hours we both looked at each other and said "I miss them!" But what a blessing it is to get away. I feel so refreshed and ready to face the upcoming week. When we arrived home, one of our boys ran to me with open arms and gave me the longest hug I have ever received from him. The other hardly noticed I came home. But that is ok, what is important is that absence does in fact make the heart grow fonder and my heart is sure fond of my boys! When Grandma and Grandpa left, the tantrums began and there was a lot of naptime resistance. But after two days of sipping grande mochas at Biggby, good talks, and reading the newspaper---actually more than two sentences like I normally do, I was ready to face it with new energy....caffinated energy, no less.