It has always been really important for me to capture photos of my kids’ first everything. Aside from wanting to be able to look back on these “firsts” photos in the future, there is also a faint but persistent voice in the back of my head that whispers things like “if you don’t take a picture documenting this milestone, your kids will think you are a horrible mother,” or “you took a picture of Lily’s first ___, if you don’t take a picture of Eva’s first time doing it then Eva will think you love Lily more and will hate you when she grows up.” Which I know isn’t true…but maybe it could be?

On the Tuesday night before Thanksgiving, I realized that I hadn’t done anything to prepare for Adrian’s first Thanksgiving. Oh no! David was working the next day so I couldn’t go to the store to buy anything (no way was I taking all three kids anywhere), and there wasn’t enough time to get anything sent from Amazon. So I decided to crochet Adrian a little turkey hat and use the letterboard sign I got for Lily’s first day of school to make a “my first thanksgiving” picture. Whew, problem solved.

It didn’t quite work out as planned. I made the hat base on Tuesday night and made all the extra bits on Wednesday night. I planned to assemble the hat on Thursday morning before we went to my in-laws’ house for thanksgiving lunch. But David didn’t get home until after 9 am because of a fire (he’s usually home by 7:30), so there was no time for me to finish the hat. Okay, no big deal, I could finish it up after we got home and snap a pic then.

Which of course didn’t happen, because LIFE. And KIDS. And TIRED.

I spent a few days mad at myself for not “memorializing” Adrian’s first Thanksgiving. Then I realized that I was being silly. I take tons of pictures of my kids. In fact, I even took tons of pictures of Adrian ON Thanksgiving. Does it really make me a bad mom because I didn’t caption one of those photos “my first thanksgiving”? No, of course not.

So I finished up the hat and redid the letterboard and on Monday, four days after the actual day, I took a picture for Adrian’s first Thanksgiving. And the world didn’t end because I took the picture late.