Powell Ears

I started following a mama blog recently by a mama who is a photographer.  She does a fun little thing every Thursday called “You Capture,” where she gives out a topic and encourages people to go out, take pictures for the next week, and then share their pictures the following Thursday.  I’ve been taking a lot of the same pictures (Nora sitting, Nora in her stroller, Nora in the grass, Nora standing up, Nora feeding Pip, Nora with Mr. V) over and over, so a challenge that makes me shoot some variety can’t hurt.  Since I’m stuck with only a cell phone camera, I realized they won’t be fabulous pictures, but it’ll be fun none-the-less.

And then this week’s assignment was black and white.  Darn.  All I had to do is shoot my same old stuff and edit it on the computer and I’d met the requirements.  Not very challenging.  Until I decided it was time to talk about Powell ears.

You see, ears are one of Nora’s features that can be exactly pinpointed to their source.  Where her eyes and hair came from, we aren’t so sure.  Her face is a good mix of both Chris’ and my features.  But her ears, they are 100% Powell.  They’re kind of big.  They’re kind of (err, really) sticky-outie.

Especially if you put a hat on the girl.

Or if you put her next to another baby the same age — the Powell ears are really obvious, then.  And they’re really gosh-darn cute.

Someday, I’m sure, she’ll be blaming me for her ears.  Because I have them too (although not quite as bad as my brothers, especially poor Chad).  I hated them in those awkward years when you hate most things about yourself, so I wouldn’t be surprised if at some point she does too.  But no matter how she might feel about them as a teenager, I think her ears are one of the most delicious things about her, which is why I wanted to share them with you.

Which, is how You Capture turned out to be a challenge this week after all.  It’s hard to get a ten month old to sit still for a close up cell phone picture of her ears.  The phone’s just not the fastest draw in the west; I got a lot of blurry pictures.

Or maybe it wasn’t the phone.  Maybe she just didn’t want me to talk about her ears.

Don’t worry Nora, you won’t be bald forever.  It’s the baldness that accentuates the ears.

Someday, she’ll be able to cover them up with hair just like me.  But until then, I’m going to take lots of pictures of her Powell Ears.

Because I love them.