A portrait a week of my children, once a week, every week, in 2014'
Grandma and Opa were in town over the weekend and we got to crash the Hotel swimming pool. Soren and I decided to put our GoPro to the test! We had a blast - I had to snag some of these pics for this week. It was a tough pic - but Soren has been so proud of being able to go under water I had to include these!
A portrait a week of my children, once a week, every week, in 2014'
These portraits are from Soren's 'pop up' session we did with a friend and AMAZING photographer Stephanie Frantz (I'm All Smiles Photography). She is holding another pop up session Saturday August 16th. You can book a 30 minute session and her turn around on proofs is super quick. I love these!
Soren's Overhauls are made by Spriggs-Perzel. Link coming soon! They are constructed from an old pair of Rick's jeans. The Fossil tag is even in the back and there is an inscription in the front flap 'constructed from retired super-hero and awesome Dad, Rick Andress for Super Soren'. The cape is a one of a kind made from scrap fabric at home and the kerchief, a family heirloom from Grandma.
Oh, we moms. You must admit - we can be SO judgmental (and Dad's too).
photo courtesy of http://singlemindedwomen.com
But what do our passing judgements really mean?
I'm no saint, trust me and it took a certain person calling me out for me to realize exactly what my commentary meant. And wow! has it provided me with some greatly needed - appreciated change in perspective.
We all do it - pass judgment on other parents and their parenting methods, but what I started doing was turning the mirror back on myself. Why do I feel the necessity to judge? What is it about my own insecurity that is causing me to feel the need to point out these differences?
As soon I started doing that, wow did my perspective change. Now I am not talking about passing judgments on the obvious things like, child neglect - abuse and those situations. Those are obviously horrific and flat out impossible to imagine. I am talking about the differences in choices like - formula feeding vs breastfeeding, making baby food, cloth diapering, attached parenting. Those sorts of things.
It's not my place to tell these parents whats right for them, their community and how to read their children. It's not my place to judge their decision based off a situation I am not even entirely educated on. And more importantly - what is going on in my life to cause me to pass those judgements? Have you ever thought of it that way?
I see a lot of passing judgement blogs about 'don't judge because your different' or 'we all parent differently' or 'all kids are different'. Well yeah - duh. That's a bit obvious. Dive deeper than that. You will judge, because we are all so different. Don't kid yourself. I encourage that when we do pass judgement or the urge comes about - detect it, and turn it about face quickly.
Do an evaluation. Because our judgements are 99.9% of the time about us.
A portrait a week of my children, once a week, every week, in 2014'
This is from our visit to Otto-Armleder Park - more about that to come. I love this pic. I don't know what it is about Soren's profile, but I can still see the babe in him when he turns to the side just right. The profile and when he sleeps. He still cranes his head back just like he did as an infant with his hands held tightly together. In this time, when it seems like he is growing exponentially and his little mind is discovering and maturing so much daily - I hold on to the profile and celebrate the growth. Love you little man.
Another Great Park of Hamilton County!
On a very high recommendation we hit up Sharon Woods last week. Wow, really Wow! We had such a blast. They have SO MUCH to do!!!
We started simple on the Paddle Boats, then Soren hit up the playground - of which there are several. Then the trails - which are great! They are really easy to find and navigate AND are home to all sorts of fossils, shells, creeks, ants, Daddy-Long Legs, Orb-Weaving spiders and even Snakes!
Soren found himself a dozen shells, went fishing with his hands and a Prairie KingSnake. See for yourself!