Passing the Time

It was a beautiful afternoon today; cool and sunny outside. So, once the kids started to glaze over from too much TV after school, I hustled us out of the house for a walk.

Sometimes to make things more interesting, I'll give them my phone to take pictures with as we walk. Now that Nate has his beloved Nintendo DS, he uses that for a camera. (Remember when he deferred helping the less fortunate cause he wanted to save up for a DS? Well, his grandparents gave him one for his birthday, so the philanthropy can flow freely now. Phew.)

Anyway, I was walking in front of the kids along the sidewalk, and I heard Nate snickering behind me. I instantly knew what he was doing, cause he's done it before.

Last summer, we went on a little holiday down the coast to Wollongong. One afternoon we drove to this beautiful stretch of road on a cliff overlooking the ocean. There's a big pedestrian walkway there, so we parked and walked along the cliffside. We'd given Nate the camera; he said he wanted to take photos. Well, when we got back into the car, he dissolved in hysterical laughter, brandishing the camera at me. "What is it?" I asked.

Turns out, pretty much the only photos he'd taken as we'd walked along were of my backside. Yup, there were like two dozen pictures of my butt, from Nate's-eye level. He'd taken them in quick succession, so that if one was so inclined, one might make a flip book of them. One was not inclined. In Nate's mind, the fact that he'd done this undetected was the absolute funniest thing that had ever happened in all the world. He laughed so hard and so long, that we were all laughing; even Grace, who had no clue what was up.

So today when I heard that little devious laugh, I knew. "You're taking pictures of my bottom, aren't you?" And, well, being a girl, I had to look at them--today and last summer when it happened the first time. I mean, aren't we always wondering if our butt looks okay? Lots of stores have those "butt-cams", where they'll show you, definitively and once and for all, if your rear end does look big in those jeans.

But those cameras don't laugh at you in the process. So, see? Bonus for me!