Have you ever tried to wrangle a two year old for a photo? There’s a good chance that many of you have and are fully prepared to mock me for any misery I may have experienced along the way. But the reality is I’m still pretty new at all this. And as ridiculous as it seems, even at 2 years old, I’m still only just realizing my daughter has a lot of firsts ahead of her.
This winter seems to be one of those firsts – the first winter we’ll really get to enjoy together. As it turns out, she may have just inherited my love of the cold.
Lennon and I had a lot of time together this weekend. Say what you will about 2020, its ability to deliver lazy Saturdays and Sundays remains unimpeachable. And this weekend, the clouds broke just enough to let us catch just a hint of some great time outside, enjoying the crisp late autumn air of central Ohio.
With the recent snow melted away, sidewalks clear and our heavier clothes donned, we stepped out into the relative wild of suburbia. And let’s face it, any time we’re leaving the four walls of our home seems so much more…adventurous…these days. Even if that adventure is less than a mile down the road to the local playground.
My little daredevil lives for these moments at the park (imagine her hollering that word, a barely audible “puh”, drawing out the long arrrr, and ending with a cutting “k” at the end), the times she can push her boundaries and try new things. I’m seeing the natural explorer break through in her personality as she tries to keep up with the physical abilities of some other children more than twice her age.
And in moments where she’s chasing, yelping and clamoring after those other brave cold weather warriors, I’m realizing more and more how much she’s missing out during the course of COVID. It’s tough to watch all of these children try to develop socially in a forced, less natural time.
But in almost the same breath, I’m seeing that she is resilient, she is curious, she is undaunted.
And thanks to the beauty of iPhone portrait mode, I’m finally capable of capturing enough of that to share with you today.
None of these photos are that “perfect shot” I was looking to capture. (Here’s where the wrangling comes in right?) I never did get that shot. But as I laid on the mulch with her at the park, trying to get that unforgettable angle I realized I was already getting it. The angle was right there in front of me as it so often is.
That perfect angle was found in capturing her just as she was in that moment, not in capturing a fabricated moment of what could have been. Social media is rampant with those fabrications. Instead, I was able to have real moments with this little girl who is never going to be just as she is today ever again.
I mean, how many more imperfect moments like this am I going to have with her? Moments of bed head and morning cartoon time. Moments of tears after taking a tumble on a walk. Moments of her cherishing the little gifts we’ve been able to give her along the way…
Or this moment of her taking on her world…
Thank God I’ve not yet figured out how to catch or wrangle this adventurer. And I’m not sure I ever will; she’ll be too busy conquering.
Part of the Possible 