Pictures

 Babies are cute.  Especially these babies...

I think we have a redhead on our hands...

...and she has cute hands (ha!).

Not to mention the cute toes.

Caden always looks like he's about ready to take off to the skies.  Or punch somebody out.

D'aw come on, just look at that face.  I'd let him punch me out.

But I've been thinking a lot lately about the photos I've been taking, and while I capture some wonderful, beautiful things, I'm not able to capture some of the MOST wonderful, beautiful things.  You can see that these guys are super adorable, sure, but how can a camera capture:

• The absolute ridiculous curliness of Caden's eyelashes.  They almost curl back over on themselves.
• The way their cheek smooshes against my shoulder when they are all tired and cuddle-y after feeding, and the limp surrender of their bodies.  And the way their little hands clutch for purchase against my arm as they are snuggled there against me.
• The way Brooklyn smiles when I appear to pick her up from her bassinet in the morning.  Her mouth gets so big it looks like she is about to swallow me whole.
• The energy and excitement of their entire bodies as they move and move and move and squirm during playtime.  Seriously, I've tried getting it on video, and it's just not the same.
• Their absolute trust as they snuggle against me, absolutely sure that they will come to no harm.
• The little contented sigh that Brooklyn has once she is finished feeding, especially at night, and settles back down for rest.
• The intensity of Caden's eyes when he is in "Caden-mode": moving his arms and legs almost non-stop for up to two hours at a time, without making a single sound.
• The back-and-forth bobble of their heads as they try to hold them up.
• Their little tongues licking my shoulder when I put them there to burp or cuddle.

These are the things I want to remember, even if, or maybe especially because, I can't get them in a picture.  And in a way that makes them all the more precious, because so many of these things are just for my eyes.  I'M the one who gets to see their smooshed up cheeks, and to feel their fingers scratching against my arm.  Brooklyn is smiling for ME every (well, almost every) morning.  I guess these are the reasons that people idolize and love being a mom.  Because seriously, no one in their right mind would otherwise want to deal with the amount of crying, poop, spit-up, being spit-up ON, lack of sleep and, oh yeah, the whole GIVING BIRTH part.  Like I said...it's a good thing they're cute.