Portrait Series | July

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A portrait of my family once a month in 2017

Willy: Filled the piñata with carrots causing Van to cry at his own birthday party.

Hooper: Asked me if the tooth fairy comes to the elderly when they lose their teeth. Also things ‘sea urchins’ are called ‘sea urgent’ and that ‘mohawks’ are called ‘mohogs’.

Van: Was about to eat strawberries in the fridge but brought them to me first to show me the ‘ice’ on them. It was mold.

Sonny: Pooped on the floor in the sunroom while walking around naked after coming home from the beach. And found it funny.

Me: Celebrated another year around the sun.

Jimmie: Took Willy’s spot in bed one night while Willy was away and got sucker punched for snoring, me forgetting there was a dog next to me and not a punchable human that I love so dearly. Though to be fair, I probably would’ve sucker punched him all the same.

Fifty Three

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A Portrait of my family, once a week, most weeks, in 2015

Willy: Finally emptied his suitcase from Cuba. I’d like to think it was an attempt to hold onto memories he didn’t want to forget, but it’s pretty consistent with his track record. In fact, the majority of the days of the year you’ll find a half filled suitcase next to his bedside.

Hooper: Requires a napkin with nearly every meal for even the slightest bit of yogurt or sauce that lands outside the perimeters of his mouth. Quite contrary to Van who sits across the table using his strawberry yogurt to make a red nose, “wyke roodof”.

Van: Used my belly as a pseudo ski jump for his army man. Apparently my boobs are too saggy to be considered good jumping off points.

Me: Neck pain. That’s all I can say about myself and the last week or so. As a side note, I love that the setting for our family portrait is flipped… a mirror image, if you will, offering just the hint of foreshadowing needed to end the year (we switched things around in this room to allow for a more inviting space for the new baby’s crib).

Jimmie: Seems to have transitioned from sleeping the first few hours of the night on our bed to sleeping the entire night (and most of the day, really) on our bed. In the beginning, he was quick to move with a little nudge but lately it’s like moving a boulder. My feet are extra warm and my legs, extra cramped. But look at him… always with his family… perhaps the only member that never needed a formal invitation to show up to one of these family portraits.

Weekly (errr, not really though) recap: This is my third consecutive year doing a weekly portrait of some kind. I held myself to no true commitment in terms of it being weekly or monthly and I think that helped save some sanity for all of us. I’m happy to have completed the year and to have stuck with it. We dropped the weekly resolutions that started along with this project at some point, I suspect out of fear of pulling that ever-looming “no TV for a week” written note from the jar. The moral of the story is this: sure, there are things we could improve upon… having our bed made daily, for example, would be phenomenal. But all in all, we’re happy and in the end having our bed made or not made doesn’t really have any hindrance on that. So ba humbug to resolutions.

Wishing everyone a happy and healthy New Years. And if you care to check out this series in it’s entirety, you can click on the icon below. Not sure I’ll be doing a 52 week project for 2016 as I’m prepping to lessen some loads 😉52weekproject-b