Our fourth child is due in a few weeks.
Along with this approaching eviction notice has come some reflection on my part.
Things I've done well as a mom. Things I have really bombed on.
Things to repeat and things to never do again. (Take 3 boys to the USS Yorktown in mid July wearing flip flops and a dress and having no other hands to help me while crawling through narrow passageways on a warship and telling the kids several times that if they didn't tighten up, then I would put them on a similar ship one day and send them out to sea.)
One item that made the list of "Things to Work On" was taking more pictures.
I have a very nice camera. One that we splurged on when we probably shouldn't have.
And it sits on a shelf in our laundry room.
I carry a phone with me at. all. times.
Because you never know when the school is going to call, right?
Or you forget how many weeks pregnant you are, and your phone updates you on Fridays.
I have 5 camera apps.
And still very little photo taking takes place.
Why is this???
This question led me to look in our photo albums stored on our computer, and I quickly found the answer to my question.
I don't take a lot photos of my kiddos because, on the whole, they don't know how to smile correctly.
Exhibit A: Jack's Disney 2012 Smile
Lips parted.
Top and bottom teeth showing.
Sometimes a flair of excitement.
A little dreamy.
A lot goofy.
(Leading middle brother astray here, too.)
Foreal. Almost every picture of Jack from this vacation features that smile.
If that's what you want to call it.
At the time we blamed it on the magic of Disney and whatever the high is that you get from the rainbow and lollipop concoction that they pump through the air vents and feed to you one street parade at a time.
But then we got back to Bluffton and the smells of pluff mud and realized that no, Jack was in a downward spiral of facial unawareness.
Exhibit B: Finn's Creeper Face
Squinty Eyes.
Slight grin.
Serial killer?
or Lady Killer?
It really could go either way.
Exhibit C: Charlie Has No Eyes
This is perhaps the longest streak of goofy kid smile we have had.
I went back at least a year and found that most of Charlie's pictures look like this.
And to this little bean: Practice some natural smiling while you're in there, because if you're anything like your brothers, you'll be a goober, too.
Not gonna lie.
Can't wait.
On the list of things we have done right: Having professional pictures taken!
Am I alone in this? Has your child ever gone through a period of time where their brain sends conflicting signals to their face? Pray tell.
