And that's why I take your picture.

Yesterday I took Bella to mass. I always park around the block from the church and not in the church parking lot. It's a big church, lots of cars coming in and out, and I'm not one for parking lots, there are too many people creating their own lanes and getting in and out takes forever. We were already a little late too! Because of where I park my car, we enter the church grounds from behind the church and I told Bella I wanted to go in the back entrance, really meaning the front entrance, but we were facing the back. Bella pointed that out right away. She's six and already way too smart, similar to her cousin Ashley, she has the skills of an attorney arguing and convincing you of pretty much everthing!

She said we are at the back! So I said, yes but we're facing the back so I was calling that the front and the front entrance of the church is back that way so that's why I called that the back really what I meant was that we are going in the front but I said it backwards cause we're facing backwards!

She looked at me and said, you just said the longest sentence, with no commas, lots of words and you didn't even breathe! I cracked up. She is so funny and doesn't miss anything and she absolutely understood every word I said and most of those words probably ran together as well! She's used to me, speaks my language!

I had also taken her to her basketball game earlier yesterday morning and of course brought my camera. She was saying how I was a photographer and a film maker, which in her small world I have been. She asked me why I take so many pictures. I told her that when she grew up she might want to know what she looked like as a baby, or at 3, 4, 5, etc.! I said pictures can also make you remember some wonderful times in your life that maybe you forget about and then looking at the picture, you'll be like, wow, I remember that day, or I remember always going up to Aunt Linda's and Uncle Bob's house, playing in the yard with all my cousins, how much fun you had.

I told her I was in the hospital room when she was born and took lots of pictures that day. She came out with her eyes wide open and looking around, almost like, what has been going on out here since I was inside my mommy! She loves hearing stories about herself as a baby, as most kids do. She wants to see those pictures and I told her, see, there you go Bell, you already want to see what you looked like when you were born, and you'll remember me telling you how I was there and you were so beautiful and alert. That makes you happy and that's why I take pictures of you all the time.

Then she said that she heard the doctors slap the babies behinds and is that true. I said yeah, I think they still do that. I know they always used to. I didn't tell her, but I can't remember that part from when I watched her being born, I was way too overwhelmed. But I know I heard her cry!

Bella laughed, thought it was so funny that you get a slap on the behind when you're born.

I love having our little conversations when it's just the two of us. Most times she's being way too silly, trying to get a laugh out of anyone or everyone. She's still at the age where once she gets a laugh out of something she still thinks it's funny the 20th time she says it and I can't help but encourage her by laughing all the time.

These pictures I hope will be a special memory for Bella. We we went to a book fair upstate by my sister Linda's house in September and Bella arrived with only one of her front teeth missing and by the end of the day she yanked the other loose one out. How cute are kids when their two front teeth are missing?! Everything they say is just a little cuter. It's also the beginning of the end of that baby face.

Their faces become fuller, their teeth looking too large

for their still so young faces and we know how fast those teeth will fit their faces, they will fit into their teenage and adult faces. I love watching it even as much as it makes me sad to see them growing up so fast right before my eyes.

That's why I take your picture Bella.

I'm trying to get her to learn the song "All I Want for Christmas is My Two Front Teeth", she's not having any part of it.
Maybe they've made a rap version of it?
That would get her to do it!

We had a fun family day when Bella lost her second front tooth. We went to a kids book fair hosted by the New York Public Library and Barnes and Noble. The kids met some of the authors and bought a bunch of books they love.

They played in the yard at my sister's house, which is huge. The boys had races, played football (boys also means my 40 year old brother Joey). Bella wrestled with her dad and he threw her around like she was a rag doll and she giggled that beautiful belly laugh of a child.



And by the way, I must say...whenever any of the kids lose a tooth, I am always reminded of my mom telling us when my sister Linda lost her first tooth. She was the biggest scardy cat ever, afraid of her own shadow, nothing like she is now! But she didn't want to leave her tooth under her pillow, she wasn't digging the idea of this tooth fairy coming into her room while she was sleeping, she wanted my parents to keep it under one their pillows. My godmother told her, don't worry Linda, the tooth fairy doesn't really come into your room, she has a really long, long, long arm and just reaches under your pillow to take your tooth. A LONG ARM!!!! That flipped Linda out! She didn't want the tooth fairy anywhere near our house!

I think these lyrics from the Billy Joel song "These Are Times to Remember" say it perfectly.

"These are the times to remember
Cause it will not last forever.
These are the days to hold onto
Cause we won't although we'll want to..."




And that's why I take your picture.