I have a boy. And today is his birthday. And he just keeps getting older, while I miraculously keep getting younger. (C’mon…humor me.)
And as this little boy grows up, I fear that the snuggling time will decrease.
And that just can’t happen.
So, in my attempt to keep the snuggling time alive and well in my household, I have figured out a covert operation that allows me my snuggle time without the boy even knowing it’s happening. Wanna know my secret?
We wrestle.
It’s like WWF all up in here. Sort of. In between throw downs, atomic knee drops, and death blows, we laugh and smile and say “I love you.” I love it. Some day he might key into the fact that this is my tricky way to smother him with love, but for now, he thinks we are having a knock down, full out, BATTLE.
To shoot these as self portraits, I knew I would have to channel my inner MacGyver. I used two backdrop stands, a tic tac toe type design with some curtain rods I had lying around, and random things around my house to hold my camera directly overhead. And yes, this did include duct tape and string. I then fired the shutter with my remote, which you will notice is in my hand in many of the shots. I’m pretty happy with these pictures. I now have pictures of my kids and me doing something that ALWAYS fills my heart.
And the fact that these are self portraits just tickles me pink. :)
And so without further ado, I present to you The Story of Love and Wrestling.
The wrestling match always begins with someone standing on the bed, assuming the Battle Pose.
But no one stays on their feet long.
Battling now commences.
As you can tell, I am very, VERY fierce.
You can clearly see that this battling business is not fun at all. Battling is hard work. And it’s dangerous. But someone has to do it.
I really take a punishing.
He’s ruthless. You can clearly see that I can hardly stand it.
As the battling winds down, it becomes a little bit more obvious what all this battling is really about. Hugs.
But someone else wants in on this game. My girl. My mini me.
And she brought her cats.
It started out innocent enough.
But soon….
But it always ends in happy sighs and snuggles. I seriously just love it.
If you are now just tuning in to my blog and are wondering what this Life Story is all about, let me tell you.
Cuz it’s awesome.
And very very fun.
I teamed up with a group of amazing photographers and each month we are taking the time to document our own lives. This is a challenge for us to capture our every day worlds and hopefully make us and everyone aware that our “ordinary” is actually “extraordinary.” We’re calling the series “The Story of ________” and we’ll each be filling in our own blanks. At the end of this post is a link to another photographer who participated, and she’ll be linking to someone else. It’s a whole big circle of stories in pictures. Click through and enjoy!
To follow this story, click right HERE.
If you’ve missed my other Life Stories, don’t despair! Here they are: Pumpkin Patch, Best Friends, and Christmas Tree.
And I love new fans! You can follow me on Facebook.
Tags: Bay Area Child Photographer, Bay Area Kids photographer, California Child Photographer, Hayward Child Photographer, San Francisco Bay Area Family Photographer
These are so wonderful Laura! I love your little secret way of getting extra hugs and snuggles. Cool shots. I love that last one!
Love love love love
Beautiful, Laura. Keep snuggling those babies of yours. They never get too old for that! Happy birthday to your sweet boy.
You. Rock.
No only is the images so much fun, what an AMAZING keepsake you have as they get older- OMG- just…. love love love love love…..
You are a great mom
ignore my bad grammar.. IS fun? Seriously I obviously need to go back to bed
These are so freaking awesome! I love love love your work!
ok, so I kept looking through these and saying, Oh! That’s my favorite! No, wait, THAT’S my favorite! No, it’s that one…Oh I give up. I love them all. But your hair in that one is hilarious.
Every month I anxiously await your life story posts – this month was well worth the wait – what a wonderful memory to document, and now I have some ideas to get hugs – um I mean wrestling- from my own kiddos!
This just may be one of my favorite blog sets from anyone ever! You can feel so much through them. Amazing work!
LOVE that last shot the mostest!! You are a beautiful and amazing mother and the love shown here in inspirational!! You’re just plain awesome.
Laura, these are just wonderful! So creative. I would love to see your pull-back of this set-up!
Sigh, just love this. Your children will always cherish these images.
I love it! So much love. You are such a great mom!
Ahhh i love this. You are such a lovely Mum. Happy birthday!!
Laura, these are AMAZING. Not only are you quite possibly the most fun mom ever, but you’re so creative too. I LOVE them all, but I love that you got one of all of you happily cuddling together. Priceless. Happy Birthday to your little guy!
IN. LOVE. WITH. ALL. OF. THEM.
Laura – your photos always make me smile. And laugh. And feel happy. These are awesome and I love them! xoxo
So, so fun! I do the same w/ my little guy. He’s 14, bigger than me and still loves to wrestle. Sometimes mama ends up hurt but, I figure I don’t have much longer to wrestle with him so I grin & bear it (the owies, that is).
Laura I love all of these. You’re so creative, these are fantastic! I may have to remember this trick when my little one gets too big for snuggles.
Love these Laura! So playful!
Words escape me right now Laura. I don’t know how to express how much I love these. LOVE!
I am in love with these images – totally.in.love. Gah – I feel all warm and fuzzy and mushy for having looked at them and now I want to go hug my own kids!
*weeeeeep* Why do your images make me crrrrryyyyyyy, Laura??? Didn’t I start bawling in your last post??? And I mean cry in a good way . . . these are amazing, these truly, truly are priceless.
Oh my, those are amazing – love them!