Pictures from My Son.

For Adam's birthday, he got a camera. He asks to use mine all the time and many of my Instagrams are encouraged (re: demanded) by him. He has been asking for his own camera for a while now, and so we bought him one of those super-durable Fisher Price kid cameras. We didn't have very high expectations, since the camera isn't really made to take high quality pictures and because he is four and because the majority of the pictures he seems to take are of his feet, but some of his pictures are just beautiful. It almost makes me want to cry. There are so many details of his life that he painstakingly tries to capture and it's so interesting to see what makes the cut. I started to go through and caption them, but then I realized most don't need one. They are mostly simple pictures, but they touch my heart deeply.

I see our life together through my own field of vision and to me, a toy on the floor is really just an annoyance and a leaf on the ground is not really anything new, so it's so poignant to see some things from Adam's perspective. I would probably never take time to notice the sun shining through the trees that I see every day and I would never think dishes in the dishwasher are be beautiful. But these things are not just normal to him- they are precious and I want to just plead to Heavenly Father, or to anyone who is listening, that some of that pure, unadulterated goodness could just seep into the rest of the world. There is so much we can learn from children and I don't mean that with any condescension- Ah, from the mouth of babes- I truly think that there is something right in them that eventually gets lost.

I don't know what Adam's story will be. I pray that he will someday grow up and be a happy and productive member of society. But is it wrong that my heart just bleeds when I think of the day that he will stop thinking that a blade of grass is a perfect mystery of the universe? How much longer till he realizes that dust particles in the air are not a big deal (and not little snowflakes) and how much longer till the world is something other than "beautiful!" or "amazing?"

If future Adam ever happens upon this blog, I want him to understand one true thing. The world is still  beautiful and amazing to your father and me, even though we have grown up and even though we no longer feel a sense of awe when the wind blows strongly.

It is still beautiful and it is still awe-inspiring and it is still amazing and that is because of you.

This is our doormat in Reston. We had orginially wrote, "Happy Birthday, Daddy," for Jeff's birthday, and then the night before Adam's birthday (3 days later), Jeff snuck out and changed it to "Happy Birthday, Adam." He loved it.

I can't be sure, but I think this is the tree in our front yard in Reston.

There are several pictures of me taking pictures of him, or on my phone in general and it just makes me cringe, though I suspect Adam realized how clever it is to take a picture of me taking a picture.

Stars on Avery's shirt.

Jeff and I holding hand in the car. (I hope! That's awkward if we just put our arms that close together for no reason.)

There are many picture of his mouth and I love them all so much. 

Skyping Grandpa Carr.

Ducky pops up several times, of course.

So many of his feet.

He took pictures of several plants in the front of our house in Reston. As it got closer to the time that we moved, more and more of his pictures are an homage to our house there.

Baby chick.

House numbers.

Getting ready to go somewhere. 

Avery watching TV.

There are about 30 pictures of Jeff's buddy Zach, who came and visited and obviously made an impression.

Isn't that cool?