The process to do these little 10 on 10 posts is actually the most time-consuming of all the posts I do in a month (easily)–
Basically, I have to go through and open 30+ different folders (one for each day of the last month), select all the possibilities, export them, edit them, and then whittle it down from there.
In months past, about 20 pictures make the initial cut and then I’ve usually managed to edit it down to 15-16 pictures for the post (since I gave up on that quaint idea of actually using only 10 photos a long time ago). Well, in this month’s post, I started out with 35 pictures (and that’s even with me not touching some of the images from some of the folders because I’m planning on using them in posts of their own).
So, rather than spend 45 precious nap-time minutes to attempt to decide which ones to cut, I’m just going to give you all of them…in two different posts.
Yeah, that makes sense.
(Really, I should label this 30 on 30 and then we’d be getting somewhere.)
But anyway, here goes the first group of ten from the first part of the last month:
1 // Avocado toast is her favorite meal. Avocado toast is not her mom’s favorite meal to serve her.
I’ll give you one guess as to why.
2// I used to be afraid of accidentally falling asleep on the couch while Raven was in the same room playing. We have long since put that fear to rest, as she is deeply mistrustful of anyone having their eyes closed for extended periods of time around her. (Luckily, her dad’s a good sport about it since he’s the one who actually starts to succumb to the napping urge.)
Note: this mistrust of hers makes family prayer time rather a noisy affair…
3// One of the greatest things about having a kid this age is that every four minutes or so, there is cause for celebration—we’re talking hands-in-the-air, high-pitched squealing, loud belly laughs, and some-good-ol-fashioned-applause celebrating.
If I remember correctly, this particular celebration came from knocking down the 12-block (or so) tower that Mom had just built…
For the 19th time that day.
4// With the flouncy skirt and the slightly pouty lips and the raised pointer finger, you’d think she was giving me sass or something.
But you’d be wrong—
This is the moment I’m trying to catch her excitedly pointing at something and then she gets confused as to why that big black camera thing is out again…
And then she’ll probably come over and investigate that instead.
5// Father’s Day with Dad and Grandpa. Yes, these were the two best pictures I got.
6// Waking up is hard to do. It really is.
7// I call this one “Baby in Boots.”
8// Sometimes when I’m trying to finish up a blog post or something else on the computer, I’ll stick her in a bin of clothes right next to the computer. She thinks it’s fun…for about two minutes. Then she stands up and bounces up and down and yells nonsense words at me that sound suspiciously like, “The bin, Mom? REALLY?! You thought I’d fall for this bin thing again?” Or something like that.
If my daughter has issues later in life with doing laundry, we’ll all know why.
9// Half of my picture-taking time is spent chasing after her while she runs away. Truth.
10// One day, maybe when I’ve had about five billion daughters, I’ll be able to do the two pigtails so that they’re even. For now, we’ll keep doing them lopsided and count on my daughter’s cuteness to compensate.
And, as per usual, a bonus pic to prove that sometimes I’m in the pictures, too:
AAAAAND, we can’t forget a few videos (and yes, you actually get bonus pics AND videos in part two of this 10 on 10 business—I must have more time on my hands now or something weird like that)…
Raven thinks that explosions are hilarious…
Raven plays with her new toy…
