Pictures: Mommy AND the Girls

First, let me just fill you in on our morning so far.  This blog post is being started on the bathroom floor... though it will probably be finished on the kitchen counter because the bath can only distract them for so long ;o)  They were up at the ungodly hour of 6:15am this morning!  This is not normal for my 7:30/8 am risers.  But there's a good reason: MORE POTTY TRAINING.

The saga of the Potty Princess (original version) continues.  Jesse and I made an executive decision this weekend that we needed to give cold-turkey another try with Lily.  So she's going to bed sans diaper for both naps and bedtime.  I'm doing a lot of extra loads of laundry and she's getting lots of extra baths.  But we're going to give it some time cause we think she has it in her to master this.  She has access to the stool in the upstairs bathroom and she's much more independent on the potty than she was last time we tried this.  So we'll see if it works this time!  *fingers crossed*

Anyways, that's why they were both up before I'd even gotten a chance to get on the computer... instead of quietly sneaking into the bathroom to pee on her own Lily turned on their bedroom light and started talking to Sam about how she'd peed a little in her bed.  (Only a little this time instead of a lot, so that's good!)

So we're starting this Monday nice and early!  Thankfully, I was up early enough to get in a cup of coffee and prayer time.  With one more cuppa and an early nap for them, we should be able to survive the day!

Back to our regular scheduled broadcast...

My wonderful Mother-in-law posted this great article on facebook the other day and it really hit home in my heart. Because I know that, as a budding photographer, I have a much greater tendency to take pictures OF my kids but rarely get in pictures WITH them.  And I don't want that to become a habit.

So I put it into practice this week.  The above photo was taken by a stranger to document our trip to the Japanese Gardens aka "Fishy Park".  And I'm not wearing makeup.  And my hair is a bit messy after a hurried shower (at least I showered that day ha!) and the girls have grumpy faces on.  But I still love this photo.  And I know one day the girls will love it, too.

I took some with our pocket camera after a bath earlier in the week... I love bath time with them because when they get out they still want to snuggle with me.  And is there anything more cozy than a snuggly baby that smells squeaky clean?  Lily especially always says "Hold me like baby Momma" after baths.  It's a sweet little tradition.  And now I have a picture of it...

...and also of my pile of dirty yoga clothes on the window sill ;o)  It's a good picture of the reality of life right now.  I keep my workout stuff in the bathroom cause sometimes Jesse is sleeping when I need them.  So there they sit.

And then I messed around with the self-timer on the little camera so we could do a first-thing-in-the-morning photo shoot!  It was so fun!  We're all in our pajamas still and the girls smell like pee.  This is the story of my life right now... but we're still smiling!!!

This is the face I give Lily when I give her the "OKAY big girl, so you're going to stay dry this naptime, right?" pep talk...  "You're going to go pee in the potty NOT in your panties, right?  RIGHT?"

This is my favorite paragraph from that article... made me cry a little actually because I could really relate to her description of motherhood...

"Someday, I want them to see me, documented, sitting right there beside them: me, the woman who gave birth to them, whom they can thank for their ample thighs and their pretty hair; me, the woman who nursed them all for the first years of their lives, enduring porn star-sized boobs and leaking through her shirts for months on end; me, who ran around gathering snacks to be the week's parent reader or planning the class Valentine's Day party; me, who cried when I dropped them off at preschool, breathed in the smell of their post-bath hair when I read them bedtime stories, and defied speeding laws when I had to rush them to the pediatric ER in the middle of the night for fill-in-the-blank..."

And then she goes on to to vow to make sure she's "in the picture" more so that her kids actually SEE later on how Momma was there.  And I want that, too.  I want them to see us doing things together... special things AND every day things.  And I do want them to have evidence of how I looked when I was young... and how I looked at them when they were young.

So that's me.  Stepping out from behind the camera more often to say CHEESE with my girls.  And if you have small kids, you should, too!  Even if you haven't showered, yet ;o)