I made a scrapbook of my daughter's first year. It was the most frustrating, labor intensive thing I have ever done. I had to sit around a table full of Other Women. You know these Other Women, the organized ones who documented every aspect of their children's lives: "Oh, and this one is where I painted her little toenails for the first time! I used my Cricut and some homemade glue to make my own little nail polish stickers!!!" "Wow! Good for you, Pollyanna! That's AMAZING!" @#*#^!
"What did you do, Tracy?" "Oh, well, I uh, I took an empty yogurt container and traced around it to make a circle out of yellow paper. In terms of a background, I think it plays nicely against the strained carrot stain on whatshername's sleeper in this picture."
The whole thing only served to remind me how disorganized I am when it comes to my family's precious archives. Let me just say, first of all, WE WERE ROBBED. Yes, robbed. I had my babies before digital cameras were in the homes of every family. See, we had to buy things such as film, and wrestle said film into the camera. We snapped the pictures on a wing and a prayer, inevitably several seconds after the precious moment had passed, and had to send the film in to Godknowswhere to get developed. When we finally got the pictures back, we were rewarded with 3 fairly good shots, 4 shots with a grainy fog hovering over the kids, and 5 shots of a linoleum floor tile. Sigh.
So, with minimal results from home photography, the popular thing to do was to go in for studio shots. Yeah, right. More swell statements by the Other Women: "Oh my goodness! I hardly had time to buy the kids their Easter outfits this year before our seasonal studio sitting!!" More swell statements from me. " "Oh Sh!t, is it almost Easter??" Seriously?? No one told me this was a mandatory part of parenting. When I left the hospital with my babies, I remember them telling me that they might want to eat every 2-3 hours. NOTHING about regular photos. Certainly nothing about Easter outfits!
We did make it in for professional shots once or twice. After arguing my kids into their "Special Outfits", and then jamming their snowsuits & winter paraphernalia on over top, I was in NO MOOD. No mood, I say, and it reflects in the pictures. But sure, why wouldn't I buy a package of 181 pictures of the same shot for $279.99??? Why wouldn't I? Now decide which one....right now.
I know I have an old Anne Geddes picture somewhere. One of the ones where they stuff the baby into a flower vase or something like that. (Real nice, Anne. What the hell?) Maybe I'll photo shop it and tell everyone it was just one of our many trips to the portrait studio with our perfect babies.
My new year's resolution this year was to take more pictures. So far, I've been doing that. With my digital camera and my cell phone cam, it's really easy. I still SUCK as a photographer but now & then I get the shot. I swear I'm gonna make it up to my kids in their teenage years. "Yes, that's your first zit!! I used a yogurt container to trace a circle on red paper....."
Jordana (centre) Jaxon (right)