Why I take so many pictures.

You might be wondering why, on Mother’s Day, I am making a post dealing with my obsession over taking 100s of pictures of my kids doing the same thing. It’s like really? Do you really need to take 50+ pictures of them doing this one 10 minute activity? Didn’t the first 10 or so capture it well enough? To me, Mother’s Day is the perfect time to answer this. ((Because family and friends do ask me this quite often. lol))

When you see my pictures and realize there are several shots of my children in one pose there is a reason for it.

See, what I am attempting to do is so simple and so difficult.
I’m trying to capture my children exactly the way I see them. The way I want to look back and say “This. This is exactly what I’m talking about. The sweet way he always covered one eye when sleeping.” And then I want the picture to be exactly from my perspective. The exact view that I would have when I would look down at Mason when he fell asleep while nursing and see his fist covering his eye.

Hmmm… this isn’t any easier typing out and explaining than it is to actually explain to someone verbally. I’m still sort of tripping over my words.

In all those pictures I’m trying to get that one shot. The one that perfectly sums up and shows how I see the activity as the mom. That sweet, funny, or sad moment. The one where I see the joy of going fast and high on the swing spread over Bella’s face. The one that perfectly captures her smile and laugh as she goes. Or the one that captures perfectly that moment when I’m trying to get the kids together and looking and smiling so I can take their picture and Zach realizes his hand is being squished under Bella’s foot. The one where all the kids look up and watch the plane go by at the same time. The one that captures the look Ryan gets on his face, that look that says “Come on Mom, take my picture before I fall!” when he’s doing something he really knows he shouldn’t be doing.

Or that baby smile that perfectly captures the “I love you” in his face.

All of these are the moments that I want to remember exactly. Not just the memory of an activity. The memory of how I, as their mom, saw the moment. They’re all physical moments that I can hold and say this is what motherhood is to me.