Just me

I was "blog-hopping" one day after having read a comment on Clover Lane that I particularly liked. I ended up at Views from My Kitchen Sink, where I found a great post about having a picture of yourself that you really like, with no husband or children in the photo. I thought about how the majority of my photos are of the kids, or M with the kids, or just M, or me with M and/or the kids. I'm usually the one behind the lens these days. And the photos that are just of me have been rather hideous of late.

But then I came across THIS photo:

I love it! I was pregnant with H and pushing C in a stroller along the bumpiest, cobbliest, cobblestone street in Montreal last summer. We had just gotten our new camera and M was dying to really "take it for a spin." Every few feet he'd call out my name to take another photo of me and C... this must have been the 100th that evening. I can see in the slightly tired eyes that the long walk, uphill on cobblestones while 5+ months pregnant, while pushing a stroller and lugging a diaper bag, was beginning to take its toll. But, when I see this picture I smile because I see how completely happy I was. This picture reminds me of who I am on days when I'm dragging or frustrated or cranky. I love how the cars and street are blurred behind me-- it's as if, for just one moment, the bustle of daily life stopped, and there I was.

It's just me, who I am. Maybe not the me in the mirror at exactly this or that frustrated moment, but the me I see when I close my eyes. The me my husband saw on our wedding day and every morning when we wake up.