Sep 3

Sep 3 PUSH THE LIMITS

"This is a picture hike...where we take lots of pictures", exclaims Cinnamon on our evening walk around the community.

The kids were both pretending to take photos alongside me, making the clicking camera sounds as they pressed the shutter button on the toy camera that came with a magazine I bought Sage at the bus station in Ireland last month.

While Sage had the toy camera, photographing the cactus...

...Cinnamon closed one eye and pretended it was the viewfinder. Shutter clicking sounds followed. I'm amazed at how much they've observed from my having taken photos over the years.

What seemed like nothing to photograph, became many interesting things when viewed from the eyes of the children. I even found a lonely piece of 2x4 a mere 15 feet from my front door - just the size I needed as a sandpaper block. Piles of limestone lined driveways of the new townhomes being built.

"What is that?", asked Sage. "A meter", I answered.

"Why are you taking a picture of the man?", he continued. I love his interpretation of the fire hydrant.

As we walked out of the parking lot and around the bend where the foundation of a house was being laid, Sage enthusiastically exclaimed (as many times before) that he wants to be a worker. I asked him why. "I love to build!", he replied and I told him how my father was a builder.

"Do the workers drink?", he continued with the questions. "Drink?", I asked confused. "Yes, they bring lunch boxes with them", I replied. "They do?!", he asked in amazement. Then he followed me to the pile of 2x4s and took a photo with his toy camera as I was taking one with my own camera. Both children were excited as I told them they'd eventually get their own real cameras. The point-and-shoot kind. They wanted to know if I'd get them while they were in school tomorrow. I told them they'd have to wait a little longer than that.