Photographs

Apparently I take an obscene amount of pictures. At least this is what Elizabeth tells me on a regular basis. Every time that I reach for the camera to capture a moment, she rolls her eyes and I get the typical "Moooooooooooom! Do you HAVE to DO THAT?" Sometimes she tries to hide from me and sometimes she will make a face in an attempt to "ruin" the picture. However, like all teens, she has sorely underestimated the complete lack of coolness that her mother possesses and has yet to realize that protests such as these only serve to strengthen my resolve to capture the moment. Hence, the picture taking continues and I continue to obsessively (in her world, that is) document every waking moment of their lives. Her friends actually commented on it too. Just this last weekend, it started to hail outside. Like pretty good sized hail, enough of it that it would cover the grass and was bouncing around on the ground like little Mexican jumping beans. I, naturally, reached for the camera to take a picture of it. Her one friend said, in amazement, "I guess your mom really does take pictures of everything!" It baffles me. I truly did not think that I was bad about this. I guess I am known for being the one who pulls the camera out at family gatherings to take pictures of us pretending like we are a functional unit for short distinct periods of time. I also document the times when the facade falls and we show our true colors. Like the one time when my brother in law was dressed as a keg for Halloween and we took a picture of my then 8 year old daughter doing a keg stand (pretend, of course...she has enough time to get her technique down when she is in college. Parents shouldn't teach their children EVERYTHING, ya know...) I take pictures of my kids playing. I take pictures of us dyeing eggs for Easter, unwrapping presents at Christmas, having a fire in the yard during the summer, jumping in leaves in the fall. I do know this though...that in the future, there will be plenty of photos for my girls to go back and to look at. Even if it is only to talk about how insane their mother was with that damn camera.