yesterday

not ALL stoic

At this age, Josephine charmed the case off any camera in sight.  But you try to take a photo with Clement, and he almost always looks like this:

perk up, sonny!  mommy's trying to make a memory!

You have to catch him in his element to see his real personality, which is actually QUITE vivacious.  (His "element" is most easily described as anything involving a door, fan, banana or small animal.)  Case in point:

boo!

He's really fond of these monster pajamas, by the way.  Seems to have a special relationship with each one of those faces smiling at him.

Need to get some video of this boy; his talking and trilling lately has gotten pretty amusing.  (He will have NO trouble rolling his Rs in Spanish class.  And he's been curling his tongue taco-style for months.  Just a whole bucketload of recessive genes in this kid!)  

I will work on trying to capture this and posting more regularly!

some yuletide-themed pictures

Some pics from mid-December, which I took when I still had hopes of sending out a Christmas newsletter...   oh well.  :-) 

Sure loved getting y'all's, though!

(this would have been the one we used in those not-happening newsletters)

The ones above and below are my favorites, though.  I had a polar bear on my head, which had them laughing hysterically-- hey, it's the little things, right?  

And below, I love how it's the perfect example of sibling tutelage:  Josephine takes off an ornament and "fixes"it.  Clement watches her every last move and absorbs how this whole Christmas thing works.  I love the dynamic between the two of them.  (Especially if you pretend the ceaseless antagonizing doesn't exist.)

Hope everyone had a Merry Christmas.

allow me to mislead you...

These pictures are funny to me.  I simultaneously love them and feel compelled to scream, "Our life doesn't really look like that!!"
I mean, come on.  She doesn't normally tromp around the backyard in a smocked dress and patent leather shoes.  And I just added the "antique" filter because it struck me how much the flat wooden swing and her outfit made this look like a photo from a prior generation.

On the other hand -- or the same hand, rather -- I think what I love about them is the precise knowledge that our life doesn't look like that.   They are such a poignant reminder to me that no image captures reality.
It can capture the beauty of a moment which we might overlook when we're in the throws of life.
But never, ever, ever look at the photos of someone else's life and think you are seeing their reality.  Trust me, not a single thing about the rest of our day has looked even remotely like what these images suggest to our nostalgic imaginations.

So I love them because of the timeless beauty they captured, and I love them because I can look at them and be instantly relieved of any false pretenses I've seen in other photos of other families.

And I love them because who couldn't??
What cuteness.

(And now, if she has successfully conned you into coming over to babysit, please do.  I could use a break!)

Begonia has something to say

and apparently she'd like it said a little more brightly.