Wednesday, October 17, 2012

Bad Mommy and the Mischief-Makers

Our basement consists of a closed-off laundry room, a bathroom, and a nice, big expanse of open space. However, the space had to be divided to eke out a little office for Tom, since he works from home. We've managed to demarcate an area using a large Ikea Expedit shelf, and a couple of smaller bookshelves. The Expedit is great for storage, but presents a temptation to great to master for little babies who are the perfect size to fit through the cube-shaped compartments. Abby knows better than to crawl through, though she still tries at times, so I try to distract her from this tendency by keeping colorful storage boxes in position on the lowest two shelves.

The boxes, of course, never stay where they belong for very long, despite my efforts to put them back in place throughout the day. However, as long as Abby is not taking a particular interest in making her escape from the playroom side of the basement, I often let it go.

That's not really an option now, thanks to Michael's newfound mobility. Yesterday afternoon, I managed to lose track of him for a few minutes, and it took several seconds of frantically visually sweeping the room before I discovered where he had disappeared to.

Cue my Bad Mommy Moment, where I should have set an example for Abby by removing him immediately and discouraging a repeat performance by blocking the route with a box. But he was just so cute, I had to photograph him.



Though I'm thrilled to have captured the images I did, and would go all "Bad Mommy" again in an instant to get them if I had to do it over, I am now finding myself obsessing over all of the little details that I got wrong, that I maybe could have gotten right if only I ever took the time to really figure out my camera. In all of them, the lighting is too dark, the picture grainy, the focus off.

However, to be fair to myself, in this particular situation I'm not sure how much extra knowledge would have helped me achieve a better result. As it is, these pictures were hard won. For, as soon as I noticed Michael, so, too, did Abby, and her one desire at that point was, of course, to crawl through to his side and join him. So, while I am only posting the best of the pictures that I took, you should know that over half of them were crooked and out of focus, due to the fact that they were taken in the midst of the turmoil that resulted when I tried to stave Abby of for just a few minutes more.

A couple of them ended up with extra body parts in them as a result.


These three are my favorites, and while they give me great joy, they simultaneously cause me the most frustration because, well- imagine if they'd been captured by an expert photographer (which I clearly am not)!



Check out those teeth!

Ultimately, the price of my indulgence was a total meltdown from Abby, followed by a 15-minute long tantrum. Though I did, ultimately, let her get her way and crawl to Michael, she was both offended by my attempts to initially thwart her efforts and utterly dismayed when it came time to remove both her and her brother from the office. I still feel terrible that my little bit of selfishness got her so upset, but it is my hope that the story (with pictures) will prove to be a fun recounting for her someday. Perhaps then, Bad Mommy may be redeemed, somehow.