After I finally gave up trying to blend the chopped sections and shaved her head, she stuffily informed me, "IT LOOKED BETTER WHEN I DID IT, MOM."
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| Her Royal Highness |
When was our last official photo, you ask?
Let me just tell you this: every printed picture in my home predates/features a newborn kid #3.
He's two and a half.
So an updated family portrait? Kind of a big deal.
And now, JUST IN TIME for it, everyone has matching buzzy cuts!
Including .... ME!
Except I kept my bangs. Because Franken-zits. And forehead wrinkles.
I chopped it all off in my bathroom. Partly to allay mom guilt, partly to feel spontaneous again, and partly because HOLY COW IT'S FREAKING HOT THIS SUMMER.
As I sliced and diced, I contemplated rescheduling our photo session. And staring down at a sink full of hair, I had an epiphany.
Okay, maybe it doesn't deserve that label. But I've been functioning on 5 non-consecutive hours of sleep a night for five years, so for me, IT WAS TOTALLY AN EPIPHANY.
Ready for this truth bomb? This nugget of wisdom? This Proverb from a Ma-verb?
... "okayyyyy, stop it now" whispers a weak and thready voice of rationality ...
Here we go:
WHO. THE HELL. CARES?
It's not exactly what I imagined our family photo would feature, but it's US.
My God. It is soooo us.
It made me think about all the other times I haven't taken a photo because the setting wasn't perfect. The floor was littered with baby toys and Cheerios. I looked like I had been steamrolled seventeen times (as opposed to the usual twelve to fourteen.) Someone's face was covered with cookie. People weren't wearing pants.
... let's be realistic, though. There are FOUR of them and ONE of me and they are basically wild animals. Pants and clean floors and applying concealer and wiping faces every 10 seconds are all somewhere below "KEEP THEM ALL ALIVE" on the priority list. Way, wayyyyyyyyyy below ...
My challenge to myself, and to you if you'd like, is to just TAKE THE DAMN PICTURE.
The family portrait ... in a dressing room.
The "Art" projects.
This (mostly pants-less) disaster-in-progress.
Record the moments and the memories of your loved ones in all their weird glory. Take pictures WITH your kids, not just of them (extra hard if you, like me, feel you resemble a deformed Muppet.) Your results might be out of focus or overexposed or grainy or terribly proportioned or a million other things.
TAKE THE PICTURE ANYWAY.
We are hoping for happy kids and PANTS - PLEASEFORTHELOVEOFGODPANTS - this weekend. The buzz cuts are just part of our messy, beautiful (... but yeah, mostly messy) story. <3
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