What IS a picture worth?

I recently had a friend tell me that they like my commentary on my blog and that they should do this more too, instead of just using their blog to display a bunch of pictures. I have seen lots of (enviable!) blogs with pictures that need no words whatsoever. As you know, they say a picture is worth a 1000 words. If I had these sorts of pictures, I could save us all time and energy and just post pictures instead. However, I must say that most of MY pictures are not worth a 1000 words. Lots of them aren't even worth the disk space they are taking up on my computer. In fact, I think a majority of my pictures warrant, if not necessitate, an explanation (that likely comes in the form of an excuse).  I seem to be incurring this problem more and more as Adrienne gets faster and faster and my cameras gets slower and slower. Hey--there you go! An explanation and excuse!

I have never had problems with my camera and picture-taking in the past. This is not to say that I have any sort of photography skill, not at all. Its just that most of my pictures involved stationary objects, such as a mountain or a building or a sunset. I had never before attempted targets that have one speed: Fast. My favorite subject now moves at just below the speed of light, usually streaking across the room to grab the camera and see the adorable picture that I was just about to forever capture in pixels (on film sounds so much more romantic, doesn't it?).  Instead, what we end up checking out is a picture of a blurry-looking chubby arm reaching towards the camera lens followed by a curly-haired wild creature of some sort.  Not unlike the following picture:

That being said, every once in awhile you get a picture that does speak for itself. OK, lets be honest here: when I say "you" in the previous sentence, I really mean "Regis".  If it weren't for Regis and his photography skills, we would not have a single print-worthy photo of Adrienne.  But we make a good team in this because he takes the picture, then I upload it, print it, and share it with you all. This picture below is a good example of one that speaks for itself; at least to me it does. I know this look. It is her processing look, a combination of trust and fascination and innocence. The look she gives me when I do a silly new dance outside her crib, or show her something completely mundane that she has never seen before, or when I kneel down and talk to her and she is trying to take it all in. Its the look that makes me want to wrap myself around her and protect her from everything while somehow enabling all her dreams come true. Its the look that fills my heart and also breaks it a little. It is pictures like these that words do not do justice.