;)
Friday
May082009
Say Click
Friday, May 8, 2009 at 3:31AM
As parents, The Donor and I try really hard to avoid cramming our own unfulfilled hopes and dreams down our children's throats, but there are just some things in life that cannot be avoided, like cramming our unfulfilled hopes and dreams down our children's throats.
For example, my husband was a really really REALLY good swimmer for a very long time.
So when our first child didn't exhibit anything that started with "deadly" when near the water, we slapped a speedo on that very cute little diapered bootylicious and crossed our fingers.
Both of my parents are freakishly talented musicians and I always wished I was more like them that way, so naturally when my children so much as bop to a song on the radio, I compulsively start leaving trails of instruments around the house.
It's exciting to see yourself in your kids, to see what weird thing they've taken from you or your spouse while you weren't looking. It's neat when one kid has blue eyes and one kid has green eyes and one kid has hazel eyes. It's fascinating how one kid can be completely literal and unimaginative while one kid can live with his head at cumulus level at all times, but at the same time neither of them are physically capable of estimation, just because that's what you've passed on. It's fun to try and figure out which of the penchants or quirks or ticks your children possess came from nature and which came from nurture. It's the question between what is taught and what is given.
I have no doubt at all that my kids like to take pictures, however, because they've lived most of their lives with a lens in their face.
My parents are just artists. They sing and paint and play and photograph. All of my siblings and I are also artistically inclined. I can't for a second argue the fact that our musical and artistic abilities are just engrained into our DNA, and I also have to acknowledge the fact that my two brothers and me, who essentially did not know each other for most of our lives and still all grew up pre-dispositioned for engineering must be sharing some genetic ability. I also know for a fact that I am never more than 10 feet away from my camera because my parents were never more than 10 feet from theirs and this is a simply a habit that I picked up from them.
And then I passed it down.
While we were in Whistler Village last week, my daughter came up to me and asked me for the camera. So I gave it to her and wept for its untimely demise. Except she didn't break it; quite to the contrary, she kind of rocked it a lot.
My three year old, it turns out, has quite the eye for photography. She took a lot of pictures of her fingers, but then she saw a bird that she HAD to photograph, so she followed it all over the square, trying to get the shot.
Now, those two shots up there were taken on my new Dingleberry, but this one, the money shot, was taken by my three year old. And it's totally unedited.
Do you see the bird? The girl's good, yo.
In fact, she's so good that she managed to take a totally crisp, perfectly centered and absolutely horrifying picture of her mother. You know how y'all are always like, "Dude, do you ever take a bad picture?" Wanna know why? Because I am the one taking the pictures, and I care enough to delete the rancid ones before anyone else can see them. But my kid doesn't.
Because she won't have her art tamed. She won't be censored by the man. And she says you're welcome.
For example, my husband was a really really REALLY good swimmer for a very long time.
So when our first child didn't exhibit anything that started with "deadly" when near the water, we slapped a speedo on that very cute little diapered bootylicious and crossed our fingers.
Both of my parents are freakishly talented musicians and I always wished I was more like them that way, so naturally when my children so much as bop to a song on the radio, I compulsively start leaving trails of instruments around the house.
When our children show pre-dispositions to our own genetic quirks, like being double-jointed or able to roll our r's, we can't help but encourage them to keep practicing to perfect those traits.
It's exciting to see yourself in your kids, to see what weird thing they've taken from you or your spouse while you weren't looking. It's neat when one kid has blue eyes and one kid has green eyes and one kid has hazel eyes. It's fascinating how one kid can be completely literal and unimaginative while one kid can live with his head at cumulus level at all times, but at the same time neither of them are physically capable of estimation, just because that's what you've passed on. It's fun to try and figure out which of the penchants or quirks or ticks your children possess came from nature and which came from nurture. It's the question between what is taught and what is given.
I have no doubt at all that my kids like to take pictures, however, because they've lived most of their lives with a lens in their face.
My parents are just artists. They sing and paint and play and photograph. All of my siblings and I are also artistically inclined. I can't for a second argue the fact that our musical and artistic abilities are just engrained into our DNA, and I also have to acknowledge the fact that my two brothers and me, who essentially did not know each other for most of our lives and still all grew up pre-dispositioned for engineering must be sharing some genetic ability. I also know for a fact that I am never more than 10 feet away from my camera because my parents were never more than 10 feet from theirs and this is a simply a habit that I picked up from them.
And then I passed it down.
While we were in Whistler Village last week, my daughter came up to me and asked me for the camera. So I gave it to her and wept for its untimely demise. Except she didn't break it; quite to the contrary, she kind of rocked it a lot.
My three year old, it turns out, has quite the eye for photography. She took a lot of pictures of her fingers, but then she saw a bird that she HAD to photograph, so she followed it all over the square, trying to get the shot.
Now, those two shots up there were taken on my new Dingleberry, but this one, the money shot, was taken by my three year old. And it's totally unedited.
Do you see the bird? The girl's good, yo.
In fact, she's so good that she managed to take a totally crisp, perfectly centered and absolutely horrifying picture of her mother. You know how y'all are always like, "Dude, do you ever take a bad picture?" Wanna know why? Because I am the one taking the pictures, and I care enough to delete the rancid ones before anyone else can see them. But my kid doesn't.
Because she won't have her art tamed. She won't be censored by the man. And she says you're welcome.
Reader Comments (41)
Cool.
My son is just like me too, he likes eating gingerbread and has taken ignorance to a whole new level.
So proud.
Great piece.
Especially love the distinct perspective in the photo of the bird...for some reason (d'oh) it didn't occur to me that photographs taken by small people would be, oh, from the level of small people. But it makes such a difference, doesn't it?
(crossing fingers here) Do you ever have the flip side of the "excitement"? I was just writing the other day that among the things I don't get (which are many) is why I sometimes yell at my kid (as if possessed, honestly) for being challenged by social interactions, not respecting authority, and arguing about everything.
And then, I remember.
Oops.
must... resist... urge... to... photoshop... last... image...
That's how I look in most pictures. Something about never being able to shut my trap or something... blah blah blah.
Oh, and you're husband's hot!
Not you're husband... your husband. YOUR husband's hot.
I just yelled at my computer when I saw that error after I already clicked Hit me, yo. Good thing there are no children around to wake up.
That's really awesome! The picture of the bird is better than 90% of the pictures I take with a nicer camera. She still has the energy to hunt, I just sit and wait for them. Not effective when you have a dog.
Hey SciFi Dad - maybe you should host a fun photoshop-Mr-Lady contest! Could be fun, and she would regret posting the pic even more! (I don't think it's a bad picture, but imagine it could be made to be that way!)
It's lucky that last picture didn't break your camera. :D
That rebellious thing is probably genetic too, no?
I'm just getting to the point that I have convinced myself to do a post of pictures that my daughter took - I just have to get up the nerve to let her hold the camera first.
I'd be interested to know what you were about to say when she snapped that last shot?!?!
Actually, you're kinda gorgeous in a very cool, non-prepped-for-it sort of way, which also makes me kinda hate you because I very very rarely look good in pictures.
And she IS good, yo.
You are beautiful in the best way.
My four year old came up to me yesterday and told me he wanted to be a writer when he grew up. Hells yeah.
So far all of my kids have shown far more genetic traits of their father(s) than mine, which puts me in strong favor of nature vs nurture. Eli cocks his head and walks just.like.his.dad, and in the last 15 years they have psent probably a total of 2 years together spread out over those 15 years. None of my kids look like me, talk like me (unless they are saying, "Are you fucking kidding me?"), nothing. the only thing they do that I do is read. It makes me feel like shit.
Einstein said, “Imagination is more important than knowledge.” The issue of art is exactly DNA and actually co-shared by the right and left brain. A fellow named Daniel Pink, former speech writer for Al Gore, wrote a book A Whole New Mind suggesting that artistic ability is the cognitive thinking skills necessary for the 21st century, so fear not or fear less. Google him for more details.
Art expresses the abstract in ways that words are sometimes unable to communicate. A picture paints a thousand words. In time, if they haven’t already, your little ones will hook up to the “cockpit,” Ipod, text message and computer and will have information pumped to them in gigabite speed. Maybe soon terabite speed. And guess what, they get it.
Arguably, Einstein was first and foremost very creative. Did you know he had a speech development issue as a child? His parents thought he was just plain dumb. Wrong guess eh? Not to worry about the figuring stuff, I know folks who can figure but cannot conceptually tell you about the underlying reasons for something owing to their lack of imagination.
And we have competition on this issue. “NESTA is the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts - a unique body with a mission to make the UK more innovative. We invest in early-stage companies, inform and shape policy, and deliver practical programmes that inspire others to solve the big challenges of the future.”
were you telling her how to hold the camera? i have a few of those pics taken.
wonderful post, as always :D
I can burp...over and over and over...My husband cannot.
My son can burp...over and over and over...
We tease my husband all the time...
We laugh when he tries...
It's like a special secret handshake my boy and I share!
Thank you. I really needed some joy today. Your post brought me some peace and an awwwww.
You know, if you slapped a duotone on that bird image, added some film grain and threw a Dio logo on there, you'd have the most badass eighties metal album cover I've ever seen.
You should start a gallery of her shots! Wait, did you do that already?
Oh, and you'd have to make the bird's eyes red.
My mom was really into photography. One day I found some of her really expensive photo paper and I colored all over it little hearts and messages of "I love you mommy". She was so pissed but couldn't get mad at me.
Your daughter is amazing.
She's good. She's really good.
And, your bad picture? Is far better than how I look in my best one.
Damn. She's got on eye. For the birthday party this year, I'm on disposable cameras for the older kids. Photo walk party followed by rad cupcakes and maybe a pinata (for the adults to beat the shit out of, after drinking champagne out of cans). We're going uber classy, this summer. Plan for it.
I love the picture of the two little ones in front of that Pepsi machine. CLASSIC picture and you should sell it to Pepsi for advertising!
Buy that girl her own camera. You will be surprise at the pictures you see on it. My daughter has always taken mine and I find SO many pictures on it. And she takes pictures of some weird-ass shit, too. Like the fish tank, cartoons on TV, pillows, herself, her fav toys and books. But some are actually pretty good! LOL
Well, she's done you a favor, I say. Now we all know you're a real human instead of superwoman. :) Also, of all the photos, I think I like the bathing suited toddlers the best. There's just something so hilarious about it. Hope you're having a good time hanging out in the closet quietly "cleaning" (with your laptop).
Great post. Great pics. :)
My four-year-old is rapidly turning into a mini-me. It's kind of neat and kind of .. scary. The two-year-old though ... he appears to be a genetic clone of my brother. And that is REALLY scary. :)
The Phi is also a talent with the camera.....www.phiseyesblogspot.com
It's like we have the same kid. You have the white one and I have the brown one.
And I was proud when Fury shot close-ups of his nostrils. Time to recalibrate my expectations.
Awesome. So far my minion- er.. daughter looks like a mini me but acts like my husband TWN did when he was little. All the stories involve him exploring something he shouldn't or messing with (i.e. destroying) things to see how they work. Geekling is already puzzling out laptop keys and remote controls, and is an ardent fan of the garage door opener.
You are being featured on Five Star Friday!
http://www.fivestarfriday.com/2009/05/five-star-friday-edition-53.html
Haha, loved that post. I'm obsessed with the weird random things my husband and i see in our kids. Like my son who squints his left eye and purses his lips into two little straight lines whenever he's thinking really hard...my husband does that.
I love it, that last one is cute, it has character ;) I love it when little kids have cameras, they come up with the best pictures and angles.
I am smiling from ear to ear :) that was a cute post...escpecially when 3of3 wanted to take photo's! good job with passin' on good dna!
But your glasses are awesome.
I needed a big smile right now. I love you guys :)
Have a great Mother's Day!
what a darling post. She does have a talent. Not blurry at all.
Some adults cant do that and I love her perspective both relative and figurative
My kids are non-existent, and I am Kaiser Sauze...
That is awesome. Her pix are great.
As I was cradling the fabulous new camera my husband bought me for Mother's Day and admiring the new camera he bought himself for Mother's Day (oh, yes, he did), I realized we have two fabulous little cameras with no homes. I'm setting those aside for the wee ones, because I think my eldest is almost ready to move on from his Fisher-Price camera, and he's going to be the next (male) Annie Liebowitz. Mainly because he takes pictures of me that look JUST LIKE THAT ONE. Dang kids.
I always say my son has my devistating good looks and his father's autism.......
* evil grin*
LOVE the picture of the raven!!
We got Chipmunk a little camera and he's been taking tons of pictures with it. I find it endlessly thrilling.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/threefeettall
Kid has an eye for it. She's good. My kiddo took one of the best photos of me ever when a professional photog with a camera that cost more than my last car handed his camera over to my, then 9 year old son. I was terrified, but the shot was great.