Picture on the fridge serves as a reminder | THE MOM STOP

On the front of my refrigerator, there’s a collection of paintings and drawings pinned up with magnets, largely done by our 8-year-old daughter.

Alongside the artwork, there’s a collection of birthday invitations and notices from school, an old photo of my grandparents holding our first child as a newborn, as well as my favorite school photos. One photo is of my oldest daughter, now 14, from when she was in fifth  grade. She looks different now, much more grown up, but I can’t bear to take the photo down, either. It wasn’t all that long ago, and yet it’s a reminder of how fast kids grow up.

And then there is last year’s school photo of our 8-year-old daughter, in which she wears a neon green rain jacket, zipped up to her neck. Her hair is askew, off to the side, her glasses sit on her face a little crooked, and she glares straight at the camera in a death stare, with not even a smidge of a smile on her face.

There was one reason for my youngest child’s look that day: Mom forgot it was picture day. And my daughter was not happy about it.

My youngest child is my funniest child — maybe not in a classic youngest sibling, comedian sort of way, but more in an “80-year-old with a dry sense of humor but in an 8-year-old body” sort of way. There are things that come out of her mouth that make me laugh, but also wonder where she has learned her vocabulary. As her teacher told us last week, she’s “smart as a whip” and I’m pretty sure she knows it.

We’ve had some all-time bad school photos, and often I don’t order the prints, since I feel that I take so many photos of my children already. But then, last year’s “raincoat photo” made me question if I should be ordering them anyway. That photo is a snapshot of time, and a glimpse an our little girl’s quirky personality — that I don’t want to forget. But also, it serves as a reminder, every time I see it on the fridge, not to forget picture day again.

For the record, I called the school today to ask — I’ve got two more weeks until picture day 2023 happens, and will (fingers crossed) make sure to remember to brush my daughter’s hair and that she is wearing something cute and not in her raincoat.

Luckily, after receiving last year’s raincoat photo as a “proof” I immediately emailed our daughter’s second grade teacher to frantically ask if there were a “makeup” picture day. Thankfully, there was. Our girl’s new school picture, which we were prepared for this time and where she had brushed hair and a huge smile on her face, appeared in the yearbook, alongside the rest of her classmates.

But each time I open our fridge at home and take a look at her grimace, it makes me chuckle. But also, it’s secretly my all-time favorite school photo. Because it shows a side of her not many people see, and it’s a reminder of my life as her parent — not always perfect, often busy, but also a lot of laughs along the way. For that, I am grateful, and will likely keep that photo on the fridge at least until she’s in college.

Lydia Seabol Avant writes The Mom Stop for The Tuscaloosa News. Reach her at momstopcolumn@gmail.com.

This article originally appeared on The Tuscaloosa News: Picture on the fridge serves as a reminder | THE MOM STOP