A life worth photographing.

It’s easy as a stay-at-home/work-at-home mama to take for granted all of the precious, wonderful moments I spend with my baby girl. Especially when we’re in the throes of the terrible 2′s, and sometimes those wonderful moments seem so fleeting when buried between toddler tantrums and the testing of boundaries. As part of my job, I spend hours watching families interact and parents struggle to get babies and kids into perfectly pressed outfits with every single hair in place while trying to keep a smile (or at least a grimace) on everyone’s face. It’s a challenge I understand all too well, and one that I was just reminded of while having our own family portraits taken a few weeks ago. At one point during our family portrait session, our photographer’s assistant turned to me after watching Audrey run and play, and sweetly said “I bet you take so many photos of her at home, she is so adorable!”

I’m embarassed to admit that no, I really don’t take enough photos of my sweet, spirited and mischievous little toddler. Because while I find her incredibly beautiful and terribly amusing, I get caught up in the tiny details – the parts of our daily life that today seem flawed, but that I must realize will one day be worth remembering because they are what make our life so perfectly real. Her socks don’t match, her hair hasn’t been brushed, her bathing suit is faded, there’s chocolate on her nose, there are toys scattered across the room. These are the perfectly imperfect moments that are truly worth photographing. Worth remembering.

And so I pledge to stop waiting for that perfect moment on that perfect day when my house is immaculate and my Mini is impeccably dressed. To stop making excuses for not getting in front of the camera every now and then, no matter how my hair looks or how many Oreos I “accidentally” ate last week. To not hesitate to press the shutter button because I didn’t have time to perfectly compose a shot in a perfectly lit room. I pledge to live a life full of love and laughter and perfectly imperfect moments that are worth remembering – a life worth photographing.