Those Perfect Pumpkin Pictures

Now that I’m blogging again, I’ve been thinking about mom guilt. If you don’t have mom guilt, you’re either a) not a mom or b) way more evolved than I am. In either case, we are on totally different wavelengths because mom guilt and I battle it out all the time.

Sometimes, the battle is simple. For example: I know too much screen time is bad. I also know that there are few tears in my house that free reign of youtube doesn’t solve. I push the guilt aside and swear that I don’t give in too, too much. Then I pass my phone along and adjust to endless Wheels on the Bus or, worse, the Gummy Bear song. I’m proud to say I also draw the line when PDG starts watching those ridiculous videos of people unwrapping toys to show how they work. How does he keep finding  those?! Or the ones with kinder eggs?!? The internet is weird.

Anyway.

My recent battle should be straightforward too. It’s the whole insta-mom thing. Like, if I’m being honest, I’m a bad mom instagrammer. My boys do so many cute things. More cute things than any other mom’s boys because they’re my boys and that’s how motherhood works. But somehow, on Instagram and Facebook, and the other social media websites I’m too dusty to figure out yet (I hear dusty is a word the kids say these days about us old folks) other moms are totally winning. At the pumpkin patch, their kids actually sit by a pumpkin and smile while looking at the camera, showing teeth, and twinkling their eyes. Mine? Well, here’s the best I got.

Not horrible, I know, but we were there for hours. We did a billion slides. We rode a hayride (ok, in fairness, I almost lost my phone in the hay and PDG did spend the first few minutes crying in fear so pictures were low on the agenda). We got to pet animals and run free with our best friends. We picked out pumpkins for the family. I should have a whole album edited in the perfect filters, right?

Well, I think I'm failing. I feel a little guilty, and the only thing making me feel better is that hey, at least these couple pictures I did happen to capture can now be forever commemorated on this website. Because I will keep writing. I will.

You know how I know? PDG asked for “Welcome to New York” yesterday morning in the car. It was (embarrassingly enough) the music I was jamming to when I was writing my story last spring and once again got me itching to type away. So while I need a better muse than T-Swizz, I’m back in this blogging thing for the long haul. And if I can wrap my brain around it, I’m going to be ok with the few imperfect shots I do manage to take of my boys along the way.  

from a few weeks ago