same difference

One of the magic things about having children is to be able to see glimpses of myself, their dad, our parents and grandparents in their faces, their mannerisms, even their way of speaking. Nick's got my eyes, his Dad's talent for drumming, his grandfather's interest in helping people through medicine. Hannah's got my hair, her Dad's ears (:)), her grandma's love of cards.

But to me, even more magical and mysterious and wonderful is to see how very THEMSELVES they are. How unlike me they are. How they come with their own look and style and set of talents and personality quirks and frustrating tendencies and creativity and intelligence.... amazing. Like the photo above, we may all be beans, but we're unique beans after all. (Human beans?)

They both love math (insert puzzled mommy-expression here). Hannah has amazing organizational skills that would put any life planner to shame, and she just DOES things so easily, without making a big fuss about it. Nick has this deeply spiritual side and a quiet curiosity about the world that always takes me by surprise. Both of them are capable and competent beyond their years -- I feel like when I was their age I was still stumbling around in geek-land, trying to figure out how I could get away with all play and not much work.

So -- today, I'm reveling in the differences. A great example is Hannah's willingness to take photos when I hand her the camera -- but in her own unique way. When I need a photo of myself, I trust her to take a good picture and delete the bad ones. On our recent road trip, I asked her to take some photos out the car window so that I wouldn't set a bad example of shooting and driving....(at least not while she was in the car.)


So she takes the pictures, and I edit them -- like a little photography team. What I LOVE is that she has a talent for taking pictures of people which I don't have at all. And she has her own unique vision that is completely different than mine -- which is, to me, what photography is all about. So today, all the photos in this post (except the last one), are ones that she took. Now I'm wondering what we'd see if we handed Nick the camera? Stay tuned.

She gets me. I love that.

Uncle Tom

Conor

Me and Fallon, with Sara and Grant in the background (shellseekers)

Claire and Livy

Holiday lights

So, to Nick and Hannah -- here's an old cliche -- thanks for being exactly who you are, similar, different, YOU.