I don’t know why it is, but Bean is far more of the typical toddler than Speed or Raru ever were. Maybe I was just in a perpetual half-awake state and didn’t really notice, maybe I breezed through it because it was the norm, but more likely — it’s just more a part of Bean’s personality. She gets into everything, she climbs walls and couches and jumps and screams. She tests my patience, she asserts her independence and goes through all those typical phases.

There is one phase she has been stuck in for a while now. It feels like she’s been in it since the day she turned two, and being 3-and-a-half now, that’s a long time to be in one phase. Totally typical and normal and adorable and acceptable in our house. My only worry is, I think when she grows up and looks back on this time in her life (through stories and pictures), she may wonder if I loved her like the older kids. If we had enough time for her — which is totally far from the case, but I mean I can see where she may develop that worry.

We don’t have a lot of pictures of her, but it’s certainly not because we don’t love her or find her cute (cause, baby girl is adorable), and in theory it should be easier to document her life in pictures. Back when Speed and Raru were young, we had one digital camera and it was big and not always available at a second’s notice. We do have a lot of pictures of them — from baby through toddler to even now.  Now, we have 2 iPhones with handy-at-the-moment photo snapping ability, a DLSR and an old smaller digital camera, but there is something else standing in our way now:

The N*ked Phase

Bean is always n*ked. She’s sitting beside me right now with nothing but nail polish on and will only get dressed for the amount of time we go out in public. It’s just the norm around here — we actually only take notice when she’s wearing something versus not. I love that she’s comfortable and want to let her be how she wants to be, but dang, I can’t take any pictures of her!

I have a lot of random face shots of her, but if she’s playing with Speed and Raru and they do something cute or spontaneously bust into a dance routine (you may be surprised with how often that actually happens around here) it just feels awkward to me to take out my phone or camera and capture it. & it’s been this way for the past year and a half.

I don’t know if I should just — go with it and have a million photos of her stark n*ked, or take the questions when she grows up and wonders why there are not as many pictures of her as there are of the other kids…

Toddlers are weird.