Picture obsessed?

We are, as a society, obsessed with documenting every single part of our, mostly, boring lives by taking thousands and thousands of pictures that no one will probably ever look at.

I fall into the this category, especially because I have children. In fact, if you meet adults and they say that have no baby pictures, we feel bad for them, or sometimes we can't believe it. What kind of bad parent doesn't document their child's development from birth to adulthood? What kind of parent doesn't record birthdays, holidays, and other special occasions for their children?

I used to say these types of things. When I met Kevin, he told me he had never seen a picture of himself as a baby. In fact, when I had Ethan, I really wanted to see if he looked like Kevin as a baby, so I asked his mom if she had any pictures of him. Her answer? Maybe. Somewhere. Probably not, though.

I instantly judged her as a terrible mother, and I felt cheated that I would never be able to see which of our kids resembled their dad as babies.

But now, I understand. Taking snapshots of family events means two things: I don't get to participate and I am never in the pictures. I do get the camera out, but I am more likely to catch random everyday events on my iPhone camera, then I am special events on my fancy digital camera. I forget to get the camera out. I forget to charge the batter in advance; I end up taking pictures of random things that never turn out well. I don't appear in the pictures, so there are plenty of the children and Kevin, but you would think I was absent as a parent.

Don't get me wrong, I go and get the kids pictures done professionally at least once a year - I have thought about stopping that, but my guilt gets to me every time.

But this post is about the dreaded family picture. One more way we are supposed to immortalize our family history. Plus, it is part of the American Dream to have a beautiful framed picture hanging over the mantle. At least a family picture every couple of years, right?

When we only had one child, it was fairly simple. Go to your local Sears, plop the kid on your lap, and smile. The photographer was usually good enough to get the kid's attention and get a decent picture. Granted, you had to wait about a month until your pictures were ready, but that was fine. Then, I discovered the Picture People, available in every mall. They were child ''friendly," had cool props, and were supposedly experts. The upside was you walked away that day with pictures in hand. The downside was they were expensive, usually costing us a little over $100 for the picture package we wanted.

Now, we decided that we would take the kids each year (near their birthday) to get their pics done - the school-age kids got pics done at school, so this means we are just down to getting Ellis' pictures done each year. Each year, we also try to get a picture of the three boys together done - let's be honest, these are the pictures are extended family wants, really. Of course, we also try to get a whole family pic done. That means Kevin and I plus three rowdy boys.

I am not so ambitious to attempt some grand theme (like some over-achievers) or even really to color coordinate. I just want a picture of all of us looking at the camera without picking noses, bending over, or looking over their shoulder. This is much harder then you think.

We did get a family pic done at Ellis' second birthday photo shoot. It was exhausting. In fact, it was so bad Kevin took the boys back two more times (mother's day and before my birthday) to try to get the boys to behave for five minutes to get a picture of them together - he gave up.

Ellis refused to stay on the set, then screamed his head off at every attempt we tried to entertain him. We tried to get the three boys to pose together, but Emmett kept picking his nose, and Ethan kept looking at his feet or at Ellis. It was a nightmare. Don't ask me how (maybe we exhausted them), but we managed to get two decent pictures of the family. It is an awkward pose -- me leaning forward, Ellis clapping his hands --cute, and good enough. 

My favorite family picture from that shoot isn't that one though. It is the one that reflects our true family: me smiling and completely unaware the rest are ruining it, Kevin awkwardly bending forward with an annoyed look on his face, Ellis playing with his hair, Ethan looking confused, and Emmett making, well, an Emmett face.

This is a picture I will treasure.