Last weekend I was a friend's home attending a baby shower when I noticed the coolest photo in her kitchen. I took note of this because I don't have any photo's of my kids in the kitchen, except for the snapshots on the fridge and a few tucked into the front of the cabinet doors. But last month while I was at my sister in law's new home I noticed beautiful framed pictures in her kitchen, which started me checking out everyone else's kitchen. If I have been in your kitchen in the last month odds are I have looked around for family photos. How these photos are displayed in a room notorious for not enough counter space intrigues me. So I look.
Last weekend's furtive glances around my friend's kitchen turned up a really cool photo - a black and white print of her three young boys feet. Sounds weird, I know. But it was beautiful. Just these little bare feet on grass, toes pointed skyward. I fell in love. I had to have one of my own. Now, why I chose today, of all days, to try to create this photo, I do not know.
After a peaceful morning of me and Matthew Zhao out for Mommy and Matthew time, running errands and catching up over smoothies while Alex and Daddy stayed home doing their own bonding thing I was totally unprepared for the chaos that would descend on my household in the afternoon. It all started when the two year old simply refused to take a nap. First time he has missed a nap since joining our family. After many attempts by both my husband and I, some involving food and others involving blatant bribery, we got him back up. He was the only one who had eaten lunch so he joined us for our lunch and ate again. Thinking, ah ha! He was hungry!, I tried the nap again. It did not take. Back downstairs we trudged.
The poor little guy insisted on being held by me, but only in the kitchen. If I wandered out to a more comfortable chair, say, in the living room, he would freak out. On the few occasions when I actually could put him down he went straight to his back up plan; hitting his big brother with whatever toy he could get his little hands on. Much time was spent breaking up fights.
Finally I toss both boys into the backyard. Ahhhh. But the little one doesn't quite have the hang of the backyard and so he stands at the door, calling to me, or screaming my name depending on his mood, until I finish whatever I was trying to do. I have peed way too fast sometimes just to release the neighbors from his piercing shrieks.
Since they were both in the backyard, you know, where we keep the grass, I thought, picture! I grabbed my camera and headed out. The four year old asked a string of questions before taking off his shoes, thinking, I am sure, that his mommy has simply lost her mind. The two year old, however, sat right down on the patio and took his shoes off. This will be easy, I thought! I managed to get them out to the lawn and both sitting down. This is where things really began to fall apart. When I would ask Matthew to move closer to his brother Alex would scoot away. When I would asked Matthew to sit still and have Alex move towards him he would scoot closer but push in front, which would result in Matthew pushing in front of him. Finally I got them close enough. "Show me those feet!" I said. Matthew pointed his toes towards the sky. He also pointed at his toes with the bubble wand in his hand. Alex pulled his feet to his mouth and licked his toe.
After removing the bubble wand from Matthew's hand and the toe from Alex's mouth I tried again. This time I had Matthew sitting still, toes pointing in the right direction, hands over his head so they would be out of the picture. Alex, seeing his brother put his hands over his head did the same. Only he doesn't have the balanced of a four year old so when he hands went over his head he fell over backwards and his feet shot straight up into the air. This made the four year old giggle and soon his feet were in the air as well.
This continued for some time before I came to my senses and released them. Maybe I will try again tomorrow.
No comments:
Post a Comment