Thursday, April 2, 2009

Sticks, Mud, Rocks and Worms


Before I had kids I had a degree in education, several younger siblings, lots of years experience working with kids, and several discipline books under my belt. While important, those experiences pale in comparison to the learning I do when I sit back and watch these kids together. Motherhood has honed my skills for observation and learning and made me so much more tender toward little ones. All of the important lessons of mortality seem to be wrapped up in these little packages. How I treat these guys seems to be my life's test and I learn how to do it by letting them lead me toward kindness, patient teaching, gentle leading and communication. Noah loves to sing about "parents kind and dear" and I can only pray that, slowly, I am on my way to becoming just that (it's a rocky road).

These are scenes from one of my best training sessions. We had originally planned a trip to the aquarium in Baltimore but postponed due to Noah's tender (read:crazy and hopped up on steroids) state. So I strapped Isaac to my front, put the kids in play clothes and took the camera out to watch them. Goodness, I love these boys.









3 comments:

Michael said...

Carrie, parenting aside...these are some of the best photographs I've seen of yours. My favorite is the third picture, of Luke--really decent bokeh, and almost some natural vignetting occurring due to the pavement in the lower right and the trees in the upper left. Plus nice, deep, contrast-y colors. Terrific!

I do admire, albeit from afar, the boys you and Nat are raising.

Ashley and Caleb said...

Oh Carrie! I love the picture of them intently looking at the ground. What are they staring at? Look at those little ears. I want to nibble them!

Emily Bell said...

Beautiful, Carrie, really beautiful...