Will Smile for Snacks

Oh my word! Adele Cabanillas has done it again with her magical, bright and creative photography – capturing my tiny family in our little brick house in the most delightful way. My heart can hardly stand it.

Funny (but mostly humbling and horribly embarrassing) story… while I was feverishly cleaning our home like a madwoman to make it look like two mess-prone toddlers don’t actually live there for this fall “lifestyle shoot,” Piper opened the back door and Nash escaped (er, tumbled) down five steps. I heard him crying OUTSIDE from INSIDE my (for once) spotlessly clean bathroom. In the .3 seconds it took my husband and I to retrieve him from his scuffle with the brick steps, he managed to get a nice shiner on his noggin. It’s pictured. So, my friends, we can certainly shove 1.2M toys under beds, don heels to fake-read books in bed, wear pants to convey “fall” for our Christmas card even though it’s 90 degrees outside, and bribe our kids with snacks for smiles, but the honest, candid “lifestyle” is veritably written on Nash’s banged-up face.

Thanks for the reality check, little buddy. And hey, chicks dig scars, or they will one day, when you’re 30 and we let you meet girls.

PS: I also managed to scorch (um, melt) an iron-shaped smear into Piper’s dress that I’d planned on her wearing, to my dismay. Gotta check those iron settings, folks. My mom recently mailed us an ironing board after she learned I generally just re-wash and re-dry clothes that sit so long in the dryer, they develop irredeemable wrinkles. Who has time to iron!? That destitute dress is in a crumpled ball in the top of Pipe’s closet. For shame’s sake, I’m not ready to part with it yet. It’s an ode to my occasional domestic incompetence. But her sweet Lil’ Lemons velvet dress made for a charming backup.