34:52 Worth a Thousand Words

I like words.
While I would love if my pictures would speak for themselves, I often want to add some of my own words to them, to explain, whether it's necessary or not.

And actually, I do that for everything else too, give too many words.

But, back to pictures...
I'm realizing that what I want is for my pictures to tell the story, to capture emotion, and evoke feeling.
I'm not sure if I'm accomplishing that; so I just keep snapping pictures.

For me, that means lots of photos of the everyday life with my kids.

34:52 Worth a Thousand Words

Elaina gets the most serious expression on her face when she's "reading" with Aubrey.

We've started calling her our firecracker.  She's a little spitfire!  And she loves to be involved, to do whatever her siblings are doing.
We said goodbye to the high chair and sippy cup long ago, because she was going to eat where and like her big brothers and sister do.
If Donovan spreads butter on his own bread, by gosh she's going to spread her own butter too!
Her sobs at being intentionally left out are heartbreaking; it's a very big deal to her.

And speaking of her keeping up with the big kids...I'm going to give a bunch more words because I have to tell you this story.
So all summer long (and last school year) Elaina tagged along with Brant and Donovan, doing whatever they did.  They rode bikes, so did she.  They drew pictures, so did she. If they went pee, she did too - by pulling up her shirt and pushing her belly out while standing in front of the toilet.

While we were on one of our family excursions recently, Elaina came along with Aubrey and I on one of our potty breaks.  She observed us sit down and well, you know, pee.  She was absolutely befuddled!  She walked around and around the vault toilet signing and saying "where? where?".  When Aubrey and I realized she was looking for the certain male anatomy - on us - we died laughing!

Oh boy, she might be difficult to potty train!
Anyone have a girl toddler willing to come hang out for a while and show Elaina how it's done? :)
And goodness, but I now wonder how many times she's stood in front of the toilet, looked at the boys then at her own belly button, and wondered why she's built so differently from them!    

For more fun reads, continue around the circle.  Happy Friday!