Jennifer Mendoza Photography

This has been a stressful week. No major crises, just feeling overwhelmed by a bunch of little ones. T ran the girls down the street to the park for a couple of hours this afternoon just so I could get some things done that were way overdue – like making sure our home is insured and our taxes are paid – and so I could have a moment of quiet to collect myself and not be miserable for our usual “Fun Friday” activity with CM (and VC, but she doesn’t care too much about it yet). Tonight it was sushi and a movie.

So when I came across this on the blog of a photographer whose work I admire earlier today, it helped me to keep things in perspective…

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BR0utofGLF8&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&hl=en&feature=player_embedded&fs=1]

In the end, I’m sure I’ll remember how CM has been adventurous about life, including food, from the start. Eel, pickled ginger and fried tofu are among her favorites. I know I won’t forget VC’s open mouth slobbery baby kisses, or her gummy smile that lets me know she knows (and loves) exactly who I am to her. And, according to the guy in the video, I won’t recall at all how our evening ended with me mopping up pee and doing the 28th load of laundry this week after a raging, screaming temper tantrum.

I’m just back from vacation and still playing catch up. Until I get around to posting pictures from T&B’s wedding and our vacation that followed, here’s a quote from a bumper sticker I recently saw that has stuck with me.

This is why I opted NOT to stress about impending work and business decisions that are looming for our family,  and not to work while on vacation even though I was dying to edit the wedding photos.

100 years from now, it will not matter how big your house was or what kind of car you drove. But it will matter how you raised your kids.

The post-it above contains a list of the things that, over dinner, CM told us she plans to be when she when she grows up. She insisted that I write them down. Apologies to the lawyers out there. She asked me to “put lines through that one” after she found out that lawyers argue for a living. We were trying to explain that is precisely why she might be very well suited for the job, but she didn’t think it was a compliment.