July 2004 Pictures

These pictures mean a lot to me for several reasons.

First of all, they are pictures of me and the kids that were taken without a huge emotional melt down. In previous family photo shoots, Stacy had always made sure the kids were dressed in their best clothes and had their hair done up perfectly. She would yell at the kids for not smiling or posing correctly or getting their nice outfits that she spent hours ironing dirty. The kids would yell back, cry and whine. By the time the last picture was taken I would be totally exhausted from trying to make the kids behave and placate Stacy. I would always wonder why I even agreed to participate this ordeal year after year. Kids of course would be in a foul mood and would have been threatened with various assortments of punishments to be implemented once they got home for their misbehavior at the photo studio.

These pictures were taken because Takako noticed the Spider man background as we passed the photo shop in Walmart. She said ". Look there is Spidey! Hey, let's have some pictures taken with him!" The kids casually said "OK!" and we filed into the photo shop just in what we had on right then. Mirrissa quickly spotted the frilly umbrella and declared that she wanted a picture holding it. There were other silly props and we giggled as each of us tried them on. As the photo lady directed us, we took turns standing in front of the camera and did our poses. The photo lady said that she and "mom" had the same nice smile, implying that Takako was the mom and they were somehow genetically related. While Takako embarrassed, stuttered and tried to correct the lady, Mirrissa giggled without reservation. It was all laughs even when Zach knocked over the Spider Man picture board behind him. "oops Spidey just fell!"

Kids are naturals when it comes to posing for photos and I found myself straining to look better, scrambling to comb my unruly hair and regretting that I hadn't bothered to iron the shirt I had on. As I fumbled with my collar, Takako assured me I looked great and she wasn't embarrassed to have her picture taken with me. All in all, it was a fun experience all around.

Another aspect that really made this an important event for me happened a little later. Mirrissa got a little wallet for Christmas and when she came over asked to put our family pictures in them. She already had a picture of Stacy, her uncle Billy and her cousins. She wanted the pictures we took back in summer to add to her wallet. I dug out the wallet size pictures and gave her the one with all four of us on it. I reiterated to her that it is OK to have two families in her wallet and it is a GOOD thing to have two families that love you. With that I suggested to her that it would really be nice if mommy and Allen and Dakota (Allen's daughter) and you guys could go and get nice family pictures to put here too. Upon hearing that Mirrissa's big blue eyes lit up and sparkled. She gave me one of her big smiles and said "oh gooddy! I am so lucky!"

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