One thing that I can say about my children, is that they like to have fun. Lots of it. Often times, when I am taking photos for a blog post, they want me to pause and capture them making funny faces, or being silly in general. At first, this used to test my patience. I can admit it. I wanted to get my work done, and get back into the house to deal with “life,” when amazingly, life was happening right there in front of me. Now, I tend to take my camera out when we are out and about, and snag some shots while they are being the free spirits that they were meant to be. During my spare time (since I have loads of it lately – I mean, we all do, right) I went through my photos and smiled at some of the crazy photos that I have gotten. I am leaning towards doing that a lot more. Smiling, at photos. Smiling at antics. Smiling at the fact that the ladybug made me promise to let her go bubble blowing, and then followed up with a very serious “Don’t disappoint me mommy,” all while staring out of the window. She’s serious about her promises. While I don’t have a photo of her blowing bubbles that I want to share at the moment, I do have ones of the kids in various states of “them.” Sir Twizzler is such a determined little guy. He wants to master everything that he sees, and we need to make sure to keep a supportive eye on him, as he will try anything once. Here below, he is attempting to blow bubbles as big as Mr. Houseful. He kept going until he conquered.
Here are the girls downtown for the Raise Your Hand Chicagoland event. It was hot. Super hot, but they were in good spirits despite the way that Lil Miss looks. She wanted to use a microphone as well, and didn’t take full ownership of the imaginary one that the Ladybug had.
This picture pretty much sums up the working relationship between Nathaniel and I. He’s 14, and knows everything. I know nothing. The good thing about it is, for the most part, he keeps his attitude in check. There are a couple of tune ups that need to be had, but I mean, what teenager doesn’t need them? Nathaniel is the first piece of proof that I really had of knowing that God doesn’t make mistakes. WE may make them, WE may choose roads that make our journey difficult, but wherever we end up is NOT a mistake. Ever.
Also, that’s my knee.
I’m not sure if all of this reflecting is right on par with what a 34 year old woman should be experiencing, but it is what it is. I’m experiencing it, and I’m mostly grateful. I’d like to think that I am pretty hardcore, but I’m learning to embrace the softer side of life. Crying out of happiness and being reduced to all of the emotions because my children do something so heartwarming that I just can’t deal.
I want all of them to stay my babies forever, but I also want them to hurry up and grow into the awesome adults that I know that they will be, because I’m totally going to stay with each and every one of them, and not wash dishes, or clean up after myself, but I’ll always be available for hugs.
This is so beautiful, Natasha. I love it and it kind of made me weepy. In a good way. I love your relationships with your kids. They are too cute – even the older “not supposed to be called cute anymore” kiddo. 😉
As much as you do for them, I’m sure that you’ll deserve to stay with each and every one of them rent and chore free. Those are some great shots of the kids, but then, you have some awesome kids, so I’m sure it wasn’t hard to catch. It does look like Nate is getting close to that “no photos” phase, though maybe that’s because you keep trying to steal his dreads.