I recently received the "extra" photos from our Cottage/Coastal Living photo shoot with photographer Ray Kachatorian. Around our house, D. is the photographer extraordinaire and as a result we never have any pictures of him. He took the picture of himself above with a remote. When I saw that Ray had taken some "behind the scenes" photos of D. with the kids the morning before the shoot, I was thrilled. They reflect what a wonderful father he is and what a close relationship he has with our children. 
Our children are at a stage right now in which we are frequently pushed to our patience-limits with whining and crying and fighting (current ages 5, 2, and 6 months) but there are many magical moments when we can sit back and watch them do amazing things and ask profound questions. With all our efforts at being good parents, once in a while we do smile and are so proud of our little ones accomplishments. Other times we simply wonder "what are we doing wrong?" I hope and pray that our kids will grow up to be "successful" socially-conscious adults. I place quotation marks around successful because I feel that there is a broad spectrum in the definition of "success". I certainly do not mean just having some money in the bank. Spirituality, culture, social development and many more dimensions are just as important. So how do we define "success" for our children? And how do we expect them to achieve?
