so yesterday, on one of the most beautiful days of the year so far, i packed up the kiddos and went to the zoo with a few other mommies that know. i scurried around the house prior to anyone else being up gathering up diapers, sippy cups, snacks, extra clothes for the wee one, hats, coats, sweaters, baby carriers and batteries for my flip video camera and my regular camera. got everyone fed, dressed and into the car and i only managed to be a few minutes late... due to me being behind every single slow moving dump truck along the way... needless to say, everything went swimmingly. we had to leave a bit earlier then the others since i had some family coming to visit us later that afternoon. but we managed to get through the entire animal part. then on our way out we stopped to see the polar bears.
this year, max in all of his one and 1/2 year old glory, actually knew that there were animals out there and what some of them were. IF they moved.... lol. needless to say, it was entertaining for me to watch him see the animals....
however there was a bit of a sense of disappointment. as mentioned above, i had to round up batteries for all of my life recording devices... well... you might think.... 'oh, i'll bet you got some great photos of your little ones at the zoo, it was such a beautiful day and all' well, that is a far cry from reality. i snapped 3 photos.... i didn't even get my video camera out. and did i take any photos of andy? no! i was wearing him so that made taking his photo a bit hard... but still.
this is something that i feel horrible about. i took these three photos of max, two of them include the back of his head and an animal in the background.... but overall. this is about how the overall percentage of photos of max to photos of andy is in our entire family photo collection. for max by age 2 months, i'm sure i had over 100 maybe even 200 photos of him in all sorts of mushed up positions. sleeping here there and everywhere. being held by every visitor. in the stroller for the first time, going outside for the first time, sitting next to the cats for the first time... you get the picture... this time around. nothing! i have taken i think three sessions of photos of andy. two are of him in his swing. and now i managed to take him to the zoo and didn't document that! i need to get my butt in order and bridge this photo gap and do it soon.... he's getting so big already that if i don't get on the ball soon, he'll be 1 year old and i will have 5 photos of his first year of life....
what is it about kiddo number two? why do they get slighted in terms of photography and general life documentation? is it because what was new with number one is old hat? is it because with two kiddos to take care of you don't have time to be mama happy snaps? is it because your so tired from taking care of two children that you can't remember to bring the camera out on a regular basis?
i realize this is a pretty funny predicament to be in considering that my husband is a professional photographer and all... but really... we both need to grab our cameras and get snapping. because if we don't this little baby will be gone in a flash and will then be a big toddler and we'll miss all his little wee cuteness.
5 comments:
haha...mama happy snaps! Um, I forgot my camera yesterday and I'm supposed to be a photog. I took one lame shot with my phone. Also, the first time I took Finn to the zoo I was in the same predicament - he was in the carrier and I couldn't get a shot until we were in the parking lot and I thought that would be pretty lame. I like to think that sometimes I'm just too busy enjoying life to be my own photojournalist.
I take a lot fewer pictures of Heather than I used to, although R has been taking lots of camera phone photos lately, so there is *something*.
I seem to remember on Heather's first trip to the zoo, when she was about the same age as Andy, the majority I shots I took were of her sleeping with animals behind her. So in Andy's case you didn't miss much!
I plan to take a random day off in May, so maybe we can all organize another zoo trip and we'll force you to take out the video camera. :-)
I was feeling pretty rotten about my photo session at the zoo. When Marcus went the first time I think I took a picture of him looking at every single animal and then another picture of the animal. I got a couple pictures yesterday at the zoo, but nothing that great and nothing that I feel proud to show off to Will in years to come to show him his first visit to the zoo. The second kid gets slighted in everything. When kid #1 does something new, it is new all around the house, a never before seen trick. When kid #2 does something new, it really isn't new because you have seen it all done a million times by kid #1. Totally sucks, but a cruel fact of life.
As I first child I never had to deal with the sadness of being a second child with no pictures. You should talk to my sister about that. But I feel like I am not living up to being "mama happy snaps" with my first child. I think I used up all my picture taking urges with Bella. I average about 30 pictures of EJ a month. And most of them are over three days or so and taken because I feel bad for not taking pictures. Also, I will be in none of them. K NEVER thinks to take pictures.
Thanks for the warning about the unfairness of photographs of a second child. I'm a second child... perhaps I need to have a talk with my mother! :)
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