Fewer Pictures, More Text

We apologize to grandparents and other relatives for doing what we are about to do, but we need to take fewer pictures of Lola. We will still write about her daily adventures on the blog, but pictures will appear only every couple of weeks. The reason for the slow-down is that an hour or so after we took the ballet pictures below, Lola fell off a picnic bench and cut her lip. Luckily, the wound was minor, but she was pretty frightened. On the way home, in the car, she said, "Take picture? Fall down?" Although she may not have meant what she seemed to mean, we don't want to take any chances on her growing up to interpret all of her experiences from outside herself, as if she needed a camera to tell her what had happened to her. We want Lola to grow up valuing her thoughts and feelings and those of other people. Our culture is so skewed in favor of the image already--the last thing we should be telling our daughter is that identity comes from the (admittedly cute) outside rather than from the (more precious) inside. She has recovered from the fall, by the way, and is eating and drinking without discomfort.--K