Saturday, December 30, 2006

Emblematic

My mother is not a sentimental person. I've never doubted that she loves me or is proud of my accomplishments, but she's not given to poignant pronouncements or romantic gestures.

So I was deeply touched and surprised when, at my bridal shower, she gave me two huge, elegant photo albums she had compiled, holding three generations of family photos. If you come to visit me, I will eventually find some reason to make you leaf through these large books, because I think they are amazing.

Page 1 of 4 The final pages of volume two are labeled "Reprise." They contain pictures of me from throughout my life. In each one, my nose is buried in a book. The theme emerged as my mom pored through the hundreds of photos she chose from to create the books. When my brother married two years ago, his book ended with pictures of him building and creating with blocks, Legos, and other materials (he's now a sculptor).

I sometimes wonder what pictures will end up best representing my kids' childhoods. As of today, I know what I'd choose for each of them.

Pass the markers
The artist at work

Homemade gnocchi

"I cooo-keeng!"

What picture will you choose for your child?

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

I can hardly believe that I've never seen those albums. How can that possibly be? I know what I'll be doing next summer when the eight of us rendezvous once more.

As to your question, I think it would make an interesting exercise - year by year, capturing what each child was most likely to be found doing...reading a book, building with blocks, drawing and painting, acting as sous-chef.

I have a picture of CJ scaling the back of the sofa - that would be her activity of choice for the past year. And Tacy - well, I'd need a tape recorder or a transcript.

Lady M said...

You soooo know what I'm going to say.

Anonymous said...

Well, I would have one from this year of Claudia throwing a temper tantrum because she wanted to eat more goldfish...

Suzanne said...

Right now it would be driving cars and trains around -- I don't quite see either of them being racecar drivers or train conductors, but you never know!

Kate said...

I love that idea of an album. My mom gave me an album of my life in pics a few years back and it was great.

For my oldest son, he often makes a goofy face in pics, so his theme would prpbably be his silly behavior.

Karianna said...

Wow, what a wonderful gift.

I like MGM's year-by-year, since no one activity defines who my kids are yet. At age 3, the Cat was always playing with trains. But now he is always drawing or playing math games.

Splig is easy: throwing a ball!

(Lady M: does it have to do with brooms?)

Scribbit said...

I love looking through scrapbooks--I need to get busy updating ours. First of the year and all that.

Anonymous said...

I wonder a lot with digital photos what photos will even last!

When cds can get scratched, when new computers mean hardrives are lost, when new formats are coming for DVDs, where will the tangible photos be???

tallulah said...

Izzy-Creating mayhem of any kind
Leroy-Playing with action figures and inventing wonderful adventures.
Christian-Sleeping
Tori-Nose in a book
Ice-J- Also creating mayhem of any kind.
Got to have two in a bunch that are alike...luckily Ice-J has left the nest so there is only one in the house at a time!

Anonymous said...

Your mom is a genius...truly.

I guess for Hailey it would be of the crazy over-the-top smiles she gives when she sees the camera.

I never really print those pictures because they seem so fake but they always make me laugh and now that I'm thinking about it, it's a special little thing that reminds me so much of her.

Thank you, my friend, for reminding me of that.