I'm not a slave to a god that doesn't exist. I'm not a slave to a world that doesn't give a shit.

Saturday at the arboretum, we had great light, so I tried to get a few nice pictures of L. We haven't done professional photos for years. I don't particularly like the studio-type posed portraits, so we decided not to go that route. We have been planning to get new family photos done, but the photographer that we like (the one who did Dej's senior pics) doesn't do nights and weekends. I think when Dej is done with school, we will be able to schedule something. Anyway, in the meantime, I was going to make up for the years of lost photos by taking some nice ones of L. to give to the grandmas at least.

The pictures turned out great. Sort of. On the days that I work (M, T, W), I get up first and wake her up to go to my mom's. On the days that I don't work, she gets up before I do. By the time I get up, she has her face fully decorated with makeup. She often applies her makeup in unique and very non-traditional ways. Since the vegan dinner at the arboretum took place on a Saturday, she had herself tarted up and was feeling quite pretty. I didn't really know how to tell her at that point that the makeup was...well...at least she didn't have her eyebrows colored in with dark pencil, giving her a "Baby Jane" look that day. I just hoped that the heavy blue eye shadow (heavier on one eye than the other) wouldn't show in the photos.

It showed. The pictures are lovely and show my little girl in her normal state. She felt beautiful and was happy to sit and pose for me. They may not end up in the grandmas wallets, but they will make me smile for years to come. That's my girl, and she's always perfect to me!