MattandSally.com

Sally had a gig shooting some lawyers in Milwaukee this morning, and she left just before the kids woke up. Not long after she closed the door, and while I was still in bed, Francis came into my room to see if I was awake. You know, this is one of those iconic moments of parenthood: angelic child padding into the parents’ bedroom to start the day. If I had a picture of being a daddy, it was something like this.

Francis was carrying her blanket in one hand, and she held her other hand in front of her as she walked up to me. I didn’t have my glasses on, so her fingers were two inches from my face before I noticed her finger had something on it. It’s not uncommon for Francis to show me the most recent thing that she’s fished out of her nose, so that’s what I expected. This was something different, though.

“What did you get into?” I asked as I tested the substance between my fingers. The answer was a gleeful whisper, like she was playing a joke: “it’s poo poo, daddy.” It was no joke.

Francis self portrait
Originally uploaded by ..Sally..

Francis took this picture of herself the other day. She really enjoys the feature on my phone that lets you draw on existing pictures. Often, when we get in the car, she will say, “Daddy, I want to draw on a picture,” so I get her to the right menu, and hand her the phone.

Little did I know she was also snapping pictures the whole time. I discovered them when my phone told me it was full. I’ll upload more of her pictures soon, but I wanted to share this great self-portrait immediately.