Unscripted

Dear Addie, I was folding laundry in the hallway on Saturday morning when you came walking up the stairs naked as a jaybird. You had seemingly wet yourself and decided to not just remove your pants but all of your clothing in the kitchen. Seems normal right? Or is normal when the two teenagers in the living room are relatively unphased by such a scene and just yell up calm as a cucumber to me “Ad’s heading up naked, she peed.” Just another day in the life… Well just like most days in this unscripted life, plans would change and laundry was going to take a back seat because it was time for a shower – I knew I should’ve just dried the clothes for the 3rd time rather than attempt folding what was I thinking?! Now a shower for you is something I usually have to psych myself up for because it often resembles something more like a wrestling match than that of some Calgon moment. Washing hair is in the top ten of least favorite activities for you, but the time was now so it was happening. Much to my surprise in the shower that morning there was no fussing. Like none. And this is how a special needs mom's brain works, you were in a cooperative mood so I jumped out of the shower, texted the unphased teenagers downstairs to get ready because we were going to take a Christmas card pic in 15 min – and go! Yes, that seriously happened! I wasn’t about to waste this opportunity. I know what you’re thinking — a Christmas card photo in October? You’re crazy mom! Well, that might be, but actually planning for such an event is almost impossible, so we have to jump when we can. Our life is literally a delicate balance of what we can plan and what we cannot, so I had already purchased outfits back in September, yes September in hopes that this moment would eventually happen. I’ll own the title of crazy with pride on this one baby girl. I know, why even stress about doing this, it seems more trouble than it’s worth? Well, in my crazy mama mind It’s my snapshot of memories I look forward to. A dedicated moment to see just how much everyone has grown. A moment that I can look back at and be flooded with memories of what fun things we did that year or what challenges we overcame. A moment I know is fleeting with everyone getting older and the reality that in the same amount of time I’ve been doing this, your big sister could be married and posing her own child for Christmas pictures. Or wait it’s Clara we are talking about I meant to say chickens, the girl wants to own lots of pet chickens. She will be most definitely posing her chickens, but hey that is gonna take a fair amount of planning too, I’m sure. But I digress…

With some small amount of compromising completed with our overall loving daughter, everyone was dressed, sun was out and if the past years gave us any sort of indication on how this was going to go, we had all of ten minutes to get everyone looking the same direction.

Addie these are the moments I give actual photographers all the credit in the world– this is hard stuff. We took about 500 iPhone pictures and I’m happy to report we got one! We even switched things up a bit with putting Gabe in the middle, a risky decision not having Clara and Gabe doing their best holding you in place – a setup used by a lot of families I’m sure, but today you seemed a veteran of the process, calm and cooperative – if only for ten minutes. What started as a morning folding laundry, quickly turned into successful execution of planning for the unscripted.

A memory that’s crazy to get, but something I look forward to every year. Great job Ad. Love, Mom