A Day In The Life Of Emilia and Carina In San Jose
"I've learned to breathe, be calm, be present and roll with it because it will pass."
It's been almost a couple months since I did a family session for San Jose based family photographer Kim E, and I gotta say that this is one of my absolute favorite photo shoots! We did three hours of A Day in the Life style pictures; completely documentary without any input from me. Cookie baking, story reading and backyard play made for a lot of fun pictures!
"Working from home and being a stay-at-home mom makes it challenging to try and be present with my girls. Also having both girls at different stages in their lives is a challenge. Emilia is 4 and Carina is 8 months so they both have completely different wants/needs. While Emilia is learning to become independent, she struggles with her sister's need for dependency on me so it makes it challenging trying to give them both the attention they need. Plus the lack of sleep, oh the lack of sleep!" -Kim"
Luckily Kim is a real great person in ensuring that both the girls get the levels of attention they need, but finding time for "us" on top of the time with Kids and Work, is a real struggle." -Marijn
he hardest part of my day is... "The early evenings when one girl is literally clutching my leg trying to make dinner while the other one keeps whining/screaming/tantruming about every little thing." -Kim
The hardest part of my day is... "Not seeing the family in the morning for breakfast. Having to start early, really [puts] a strain on my ability to spend the morning hours with the kids. Hopefully i'll be able to manage this better in the future." -Marijn
What makes it all worth it is.... "Seeing the little [ones] become people. Emilia is a real person now, she's capable of telling stories, having a conversation and really engaging in activities. It's beautiful to see the future generation being developed. From a [parent's] perspective [I] can't imagine anything more impacting." -Marijn
The best moment of my day is... "putting Emilia to sleep when we lay in her bed, reading stories and talking of our day before she drifts off to sleep. I know that she should be falling asleep on her own but these quiet moments will only be for so long before she doesn't want that anymore, so I really love that time with her. With Carina, it's first thing in the morning because she wakes up so happy and full of kisses and love. Another best moment is when dad comes home because they are just so excited to see him. Emilia insists on us hiding somewhere in the house and he must find us." -Kim
"We love the age difference between the girls because Emilia remembers (she remembers me pregnant and the time in the hospital, those memories are just amazing for her to have) and loves her sister. She has been a great help at raising her sister and remembering a lot of the details and moments of this stage and we love that. Carina also has a great cheerleader who has been helping her through her milestones and encouragements, she really looks up to her sister and seeing their love for each other just makes it all worth it. Seeing our family complete just makes the lack of sleep and challenges so worth it." -Kim
"I'm a different person. The priorities in live are still similar, work and family life needs to be balanced. Some months work takes priority, other days family does. I know that in a good book, family always takes the overhand, however... An income is nice as well, as without it as a family we would struggle. I think that my time at home has become more of family time, less interrupted by work, and more really family time. When work calls, [I] tend to take it out of the house not to impact my time at home." -Marijn"He works long hours but when he comes in the door, he still has the energy and love to have fun, toss the girls and play with them. His love for the girls is endless and see that with the way he plays with them. I always thought that he was going to be the chill parent with them but he's more of the disciplinary which is good because since I'm with them the whole day/night, I'm mostly the chill parent because I pick my battles. I'm glad that he's the one that's the better one at it because I'm definitely not." -Kim
"The road isn't easy. Personalities develop, they will need encouragement, love and attention, however there is nothing nicer than the cuddles, hugs and kisses you get back in return. I can say it's a nicely gold plated road of Love, but that wouldn't be true, there will be obstacles, and sometimes it get's frustrating, however in the end it's about team work. You, Your Partner, kids and the extended family will need to be on the same page, to ensure that the road is as smooth as it can be." -Marijn
"I have a whole new level of patience. There are so many times in the day when I just roll with the tantrums and frustrations because I can't lose it constantly with the girls. So I've learned to breathe, be calm, be present and roll with it because it will pass. " -Kim
"My relationship to Kim has both gone stronger and weaker at the same time. We have less ‘us’ time, but i respect her a lot more as she has a magical way of dealing with the kids. She is such a strong and caring mother, that i really feel more in love every day, even though, we have far less time for each other." -Marijn
The best moment of my day is... "coming home from work and seeing big smiles from both girls. The giddy, goofy Hide&Seek game that Emilia makes me play every day when [I} get home. The smiles Carina gives me when [I] walk through the door and the family hugs that go around as soon as [I] get there." -Marijn"The days are long but the years are short. It seems that the days when every button is pushed, every limit has been reached and it just seems endless, it quickly fades and becomes a distant memory. Every moment, phase, struggle is fleeting as are the laughters, cuddles so cherish and savor all the good, bad, exhausting, rough moments." -Kim