Anatomy of Photograph

This will end up being one of my all time favorite pictures of Liam.
Why? Because it's not really very good. It's out of focus a bit. The color is off. I didn't get the background lined up. It's slightly crooked.

BUT if you look at it through a Mama's eyes, you start to see a different picture. You see a little chubby toddler standing there. You can clearly see the delicious wrist and arm chub that is so distinctive at this age. You can see his little tummy sticking out a bit, pushing against his t-shirt just so. You can see chubby cheeks all red and kissable. Those sweet pursed lips. And you start to realize that it's not so bad of a picture after all. This quick snapshot in the dinosaur room of the Museum of Natural History has captured exactly where Liam is right now. He is a kissable, chubby little boy who has sidled his way into this mother's heart.

If you look at this picture as his mother and with the memories and sounds that went along with that shutter click? Well, it becomes a world class photo. We were there with a group (more on that later) and for these few little minutes it was just me and Liam in there, alone together, looking at the bones of giant beasts. And he's a boy, so he immediately loved them. I can remember how those cheeks got so red, it was all of the dashing about and finding things to yell about. He would bend over slightly at the waist and point and YELL, "AH! Mom!! MOM!!" and dash off to the next thing. I know that his slightly worried look here is because I took his beloved bag with a plastic bug and rock candy and placed it on the floor so I could take this picture and he really just wanted that bag. His bag. And he wanted to see more things and tell me about them. And Aunt Mickey had gotten too far away.

Six months ago I did not know this boy. He was still a hungry little fella in the middle of an orphanage in China. He had no family to surround him in his days. He had no Mama to run to excitedly when he saw something new and interesting. I had no son.
So yeah, this is a great photo.
My son's first trip to see the dinosaurs. Where he ran himself absolutely ragged and somehow managed to get completely spoiled by Aunt Mickey at the same time.