Operation: Family Tradition

On Holy Saturday, Adam and I needed an outing. Even my facebook status proclaimed: "going somewhere - don't really know where yet, but we will figure it out!" The weather was finally warm enough to think about being outside with him and we were (I was) bored. It's difficult when the baby is small and funds are tight. Add to it a holiday weekend when most friends already have plans, and the remaining options are slim. We (again I) decided that going to the beautiful grounds of the Art Museum would be a new adventure and provide a nice setting to take his six month pictures.

When we arrived, my normally super-happy bambino turned into an uncooperative little tot. He would not smile, or even look amused for the camera. He behaved instead as if we never have taken him out in the sun before. I snapped pictures while he scowled. I snapped pictures while he teetered and fell over in the grass. I snapped pictures in the sun and in the shade. In fact, I snapped pictures until he and the camera batteries totally gave up. I left, dejected, wanting some super awesome pictures and feeling like I had nothing to work with. I admit that I am jealous of the studio pictures my friends have of their children. I desperately want something as creative and beautiful as they have.

When I began to work with these on the computer, I found some that were actually quite good. My favorite is the one where he is touching the grass for the first time in his life. There was something in his curiousity and cautious approach to something I take for granted that is fascinating to me. I had been tempted to just delete the pictures and try again another day. I'm so glad that I didn't. We have so many pictures of him, happy and squealing, but none where he is truly exploring the world around him in a new way. I look forward to more of these moments.

I come from a family that has very few family traditions and have a sense that I need to create some for my son. I think that on his future birthdays and half birthdays we will return to the museum, to the same wooden bench, and take a new picture to mark the growth and wonder of the previous six months. It's not a grand tradition, but it's ours.