Little Moments

Well, I haven't posted anything in a few days, but I have been clicking that shutter button.

I have made a deal with myself to shoot at least something, anything, every day. I want to learn how to take pictures that tell a story. It goes hand in hand with my resolution to savor every sweet moment with my children and freezing some of those moments in time.

Charlie's been especially cheerful the past few days. I've been happy to see Charlie playing with more toys.

Today he played several games with his "invisible friend, Yummy." This is my first experience with an imaginary friend, but he seems like a nice enough guy.

Don't let these pictures fool you. Charlie has not been tamed.

Taylor has been entertaining lately. I mean that literally. Almost nightly she informs us that there will be a show after dinner. Some nights it's a puppet show. Some nights it's a musical performance. The most recent show featured her signature ballet moves.

The boys even got in on the action.

Last Sunday, the big kids each spent the night with their cousin. Taylor spent the night at Grace's house while Charlie had fun at his much anticipated boy sleepover at grandma's house.

This left us with Morgan as our 'only child'. She's been really into playing with our new tops. Mommy spins them for her and she tentatively touches them until they stop revolving.

Then we repeat the process. I've used this opportunity to teach Morgan the sign for 'again'. She looked so cute repeating it enthusiastically until she got the results she wanted- another spin.

When she's not containing spinning tops, Morgan continues to entertain herself with the treasures in our pantry.

She's developed an amusing defense tactic when I tell her that it's time to change her diaper. She lays down wherever she is and hopes I'll go away.

It's so cute it almost works.

For the past few days, it's looked a bit like this:

Winter has finally arrived. It is cold. But I've always believed that if it's gonna be cold, there might as well be snow. A little eye candy to sooth our frostbitten toes. Luckily the kids have not asked to play in it yet. Obviously there's not much of it and the wind on Friday was brutal.

Taylor stayed home from school on Wednesday and Thursday with a fever and ear infection. She finally made it back for the last day of the week and came home with these two cards:

And to think I was worried that she wouldn't make friends. I must point out that Taylor's short stature was not overlooked by Georgia as evidenced by her drawing. (Dude, she's shorter than the flower!) That cracked me up.

Anyway, it's been good to see Taylor feeling better again.

Our Saturday was pretty lazy. It started out with me trying to perfect this shot.

I just love holding Morgan. She is so cuddly and her little body just forms to my side so perfectly. What's more, I can actually feel her contentment radiating from her. Like everything is right with the world because her mama's got her. The creme de la creme is when she puts her little head down on my shoulder (thumb in her mouth, of course) and nuzzles in. Ahhh... does it get any better? Wait, it does! I forgot about her new little gesture where she gently pats my arm or my back with her hand. Charlie used to do that (still does actually) and it's the sweetest thing.

Well, I figured if I wanted to capture her sweet little moments in my arms, I better make friends with the mirror. It would be a whole lot easier if someone else in my family was interested in taking pictures. Maybe there's hope for that yet:

We had a nice impromptu visit with cousin Jacob today.

Jessica was picking something up on the way to the store and had Jacob in tow. I invited him to stay and play with Charlie while his mommy shopped and he agreed. The boys had fun playing Uno Moo, and then superheros. I love it when they use their imaginations. I worry so much about Charlie because he's basically addicted to electronics.

So it didn't surprise me when the boys flocked to Mark's ipad after discovering him hiding out in our room. (It's like bugs to a light.)

After Jacob left I suggested we try out my new Family Game Night on the wii. Hey, if you can't beat them, join them.

A New Look

The title of this post has a double meaning. One is fairly obvious and easy to explain. The other is deeper and requires a confession. One that was hard to admit. Buckle your seat belts. This ride might be bumpy. But I promise we'll end smoothly and with a lot of smiles.

First, there's the obvious reference to 'a new look'. Well, obvious if you are viewing this post as it's meant to be seen. Online. At http://taylorcharlie.blogspot.com I've made quite a few changes. I've been tinkering with the layout, learning how to post larger photos and I even added a header. If you can see that, you'll see that I changed the title to my blog as well. You are now reading On The Sunny Side With The Williams Family. This brings me to the next meaning of this new look. Or should I say, new outlook.

I try to be a positive person. I want to be a positive person. I want to embrace all the special little moments that add up to something big. I want to be happy with what I have and waste not a nanosecond worrying about what I don't have. But here's the thing that donned on me today. -I am not a positive person. At least I have not been for a while. I've been consumed with thoughts of how hard, how unappreciated, how draining my job as a stay-at-home mom is. Even writing that makes me feel horrible, because I know how blessed I am to be able to stay home with my babies and be the one who raises them.

I truly am grateful. And not just for that. I know that I have so many blessings. My children get to grow up having close interactions with all of their grandparents. I have a sister mere minutes away with whom I get to share my child-raising journey. I have friends who've known me for a lifetime already. I am healthy. My children are healthy. I have so much to be grateful for.

And honestly, I do not take any of it for granted. But that doesn't mean I'm content. It doesn't mean that I'm happy. [Big breath] No, for quite some time now I've felt stressed, overwhelmed and generally tired. I can't tell you how many times I've thought about how unfair it is that Mark gets a weekend from his job and I don't. My job is 24 hours a day, seven days a week. My job is emotionally, physically, and intellectually draining. My job requires every ounce of my energy. My job is never ending. As long as we are eating and getting dressed everyday, there are dishes and laundry beckoning me. My assistance is needed for every aspect of Morgan's day.

My job is hard. And yet, my job is a privilege.

So that's it. My big confession. I am not who I want to be. I want to be the one who is content sitting at the table with my son during lunchtime and not annoyed that he's taking so long to finish and begin his rest time. I want to be the person who smiles at Morgan's attempts to put on her own shoes and not get flustered at the thought of being late. I want to live purposefully. I want to live in the moment and enjoy playing with my children without letting my thoughts linger on all the tasks that need to be done. I want to let go of my notions of what is fair in regards to a mother's versus a father's roles and responsibilities. I want to be content with my life exactly the way it is. Because it is beautiful.

So my first step towards living on the sunny side is this: instead of getting upset or saddened by this realization that I am not the optimist I want to be, I am invigorated. I know that it's only by acknowledging and accepting who I am that I will be able to make steps towards evolving into the person I want to be. The person I believe I once was.

I believe this blog will help me take the steps towards a sunnier existence. Because it is a choice. Everyday we can choose how we perceive our circumstances. We choose how we let things affect us. We choose what we invest our energy into. And I choose this:

And this:

And this:

So that's what I will write about. That's what I will photograph. That's what I will focus on. And that's how I will change.

One more thing. After all that rambling about letting people 'opt out' from my emails, I'm doing it for you. I just feel so strange writing such personal things and then dropping them off in your inboxes. I'd rather let you check the blog when you want to, when you feel like checking in on this crazy family. I did take the password protection off the site so it's super easy to view. Just bookmark The Sunny Side with The Williams Family and check it whenever you are in the mood. I'll be here posting at least once a week. Julie, I will keep you on the email list since you can't access this website where you are in Chile. Everyone else, you are on your own. Please do check back though. We're gonna have fun. And now here are those smiles I promised you.

Family Moments

I've decided to put into practice something that I've known for a while. In order to get better at photography, I have to keep taking pictures. Every day. I know this and yet I don't. I let myself get frustrated by my mediocre results and hang the camera up for another time. Or I give myself excuses that there's nothing 'picture worthy' going on so I should just wait until some big event comes along. Of course that's not true. My kids create beautiful moments constantly. So dag gone it, I'm going to capture them. (This goes along with another resolution to focus on those tiny moments that are so beautiful and pure and not get hung up on the frustrating things that seem so big.) So today's post is all about those little family moments that I treasure.

My family has been hanging around the house a lot lately. Literally.

Daddy's been reading more with the kids. I must admit that it is pretty exciting to hear them reading stories with more and more ease.

Taylor can be rather luke warm when it comes to Mark. So when she sat on the couch with him to peruse her new Squinkies Activity book, I ran for the camera.

This evolved into Taylor reading to Mark, and soon Charlie made his way to the couch for Taylor's story. It's so sweet when he feigns interest in Barbie and her adventures.

It melts my heart when I see my family sitting together sweetly.

Of course, with two boys in the mix, it's not long before it turns into this.

At least Mark tried to show Charlie how to put him in a headlock.

Nothing more to see here.

I did sneak the camera back out when I found us all in the loft together for the Bengals playoff game. It started out so promising with this touchdown.

Mark's face looked like this.

Of course we all know that before the end of the night it would look like this.

So I turned my camera on the other events in the room. The big kids were playing with Grandmama's ipad.

And Morgan was snuggling with Grandmama.

Lately I've been finding myself really appreciating the moments when we are all in the same room together. I guess it's because I know that the day is coming when it will be like pulling teeth to get all my kids to stay in the house on a Saturday afternoon, much less in the same room!

Then I'd miss moments like these.

Fast forward to Monday night. We decided to play a quick game of Uno after dinner.

Yes, I put my tripod up in the middle of the kitchen for this one. My family is doing a great job of tolerating my increased shutter clicks. It's a good thing, because my camera's not going away anytime soon!

We were so proud of both the kids. There was no crying or whining when they got skipped, or had to draw two. It was actually fun!

There were many times when someone was down to one or two cards only to have to draw a new handful to match the color (side note, Mark came up with the idea to say our numbers and colors in Spanish which lasted the whole game).

Our quick game of Uno ended up lasting about 45 minutes! And somehow, this boy who had so many cards for most of the game (he puts them on the table because his little hands can't hold them all), ended up winning!

Meanwhile, our sweet little Morgan entertained herself in the kitchen.

Eventually she tried to blend in to her surroundings!

It was a fun night and a reminder of the fun awaiting us as our children grow into bigger little people.