Tradition

I want to be a traditionalist so bad.  Maybe I don't know what that word means.  What I mean by traditionalist is that I want to create unique traditions in my household that my family will cherish forever.  Kind of like me and my fond childhood memories of Christmas gambling.  So that's what I mean by traditionalist.  Just let me have it, okay.

My friend Stephanie has inspired many with her dedicated mothering and professional blogging, and she has been taking a picture of her four kids on the fourth of every month.  Awesome, right?  So many of her followers have decided to start this tradition this year.  Including my extremely talented-with-the-camera friend, neighbor and blogger, Donya.  She happens to snap a picture of my own child like this:

photo by Donya

Where I manage to get a picture of her looking like this:

Okay, so the dress is super cute and so is that precocious little tongue, but look at what a crappy photographer I am.  That background sucks (and yes, this is what my living room always looks like...sigh)

 So I tried my own third of the month.  It's pathetic.  Ready?  Look:

My 3 on the 3rd of January, 2012

"Wolfie?"  I ask.  "What are you doing to your eye?" 
"It's itchy," he says.

Sigh.

I do like this picture.  A lot.  Oh, by the way, one of our traditions is that everyone wears a silly hat to dinner on New Year's Eve.

I might just fib a little and claim that I snapped this picture on January 3rd, 2012 and that my children are such free spirits and have such terrific imaginations (which they do, honestly) that they just happened to be wearing silly hats to dinner.  But then everyone who knows what a traditionalist I am will say, "Hey, that picture doesn't count because you took it on December 31st - not January 3rd!  You always wear silly hats to dinner on New Year's Eve."