At the beginning of this year I sat down and put four randomly selected dates on the calendar, designating them in advance as the days that I would do a personal Day In The Life (DITL), one per quarter. The first of those dates was February 24, and on that day, this is what life looked like at our house.
Using my remote, I was able to make a few pictures of myself getting things prepped in the kitchen before the kids came down for their breakfast. I was showered and dressed in the day's clothes from the waist UP, but still had on pajama pants because I didn't want to sneak into the room where the baby was sleeping in order to get some jeans from my noisy dresser.
Other random details I notice here, which delight my heart, even as they annoy me: the pile of dried rice and pumpkin seeds on Gus' bed (why?!), Hazel using a tiny orange container to pour water over her hair so that she can brush it out before going to school, Hazel's high-water pink snow pants that she won't stop wearing even though they are now obviously too short. And then there's Gus's belly, which is slowly shrinking from it's toddler status to that of a little boy, and he's wearing a pink cloth diaper in a few of these, because his daddy put it on him before his nap (he can't sleep without wetting himself, but he's otherwise mostly in big boy underplants now). I love the way that Walter looks up at Gus with admiration and an unfettered grin on his face in the photos taken by the window toward the end. All of Gus' grumpy faces, and the way Hazel is pulling Walter off the bed because she takes so much pride in being able to lift and carry him. The images Gus took of ME sitting/laying on my bed in the afternoon, my exhaustion so apparent. Nursing Walter in front of my computer while I watch a Creative Live class. Tim eating a mid-day smoothie, which is the story of his life. ;) And, of course, the morning visitors: my new friends with whom trust and affection levels are quickly rising.
Those are the sorts of detail that makes these photos so special, even though, to be honest with you, I don't feel like I did my best work with the photos on this particular day.
