In the Picture

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This post, oh this post. I love it so. And it seems quite a few others have loved it as well. All of them mamas, who seem to be left out of the picture.

For me, much of it has to do with – I always have the camera, video or still. It’s always me taking the pictures because I love to! It’s kinda my thing. Also my husband takes a terrible photo, always leaving too much headroom. Sorry honey, but you know it’s true.

When we were in VT this summer we went to our favorite restaurant, American Flatbread, as we always do. They have a lovely field behind the restaurant where the kids play while we wait for our table and then again after we’ve eaten. We always take a moment to get a picture of all the kids together and we take the Christmas photos for our friends.

Suddenly, I was overwhelmed with the need to have a picture of me with each of my kids. I knew I’d never get all three of them together so I would divide and conquer. I ran over to my husband and shoved the camera at him and said “I want pics of me with the kids. Stay here.” He stayed. He’s very good at following directions :-)

One by one I grabbed them and hugged them as their Dad took photos. And then they ran away to be with their friends. But I was left with these…

I don’t know what came over me, but I had to have those pics. As Allison wrote in her post,

I’m everywhere in their young lives, and yet I have very few pictures of me with them. Someday I won’t be here — and I don’t know if that someday is tomorrow or thirty or forty or fifty years from now — but I want them to have pictures of me. I want them to see the way I looked at them, see how much I loved them. I am not perfect to look at and I am not perfect to love, but I am perfectly their mother.

 

Go forth and take photos my friends and get IN the picture.