I used to have one driving obsession when it came to my girls.

Get the perfect picture.

PERFECT.

Glamorous pose, princess smiles, everyone looking right at the lens, sitting up nice and tall, no wrinkled noses, and no scrunchy eyes.

Obviously my expectations of small children were beyond delusional.

Over the last couple of years though, my desires have shifted. For the better.  For the sanity of my entire family, I have let go of those crazy ideas, and accepted, even embraced the truth.

The best picture is one that captures them right now.  As they are, at this moment in their lives.  That is what I really want to hold onto.  In twenty years if all I have is photo after photo of pasted on fake smiles and statue children, they might be pretty, but they will not hold any real memories.

For me, part of embracing right now and enjoying it to the fullest has become documenting the lives of my children.  The real them.  This focus is helping me enjoy today a lot more (as opposed to having a nervous breakdown every time someone refuses to look at the camera).  And I think in a few years when they’re old enough that all they want is picture perfect snapshots of themselves, I’ll be so thrilled to have all of these little reminders of the carefree and unaware little girls they once were.