What happens when you fall asleep and your 3-year-old takes 1,300 iPhone pictures? This!

Kimberly has been the subject of two Restless Project series stories already, but I promise the third one is charming. I wrote about her last year, when her family was in dire straights after she lost her job. They were going to be $700 in the red each month, mostly because of her husband’s $770 student loan payments. Last week, we revisited Kimberly, to help share the good news that she will soon start a new gig that replaces all the family’s lost income.

But she hasn’t started yet, and the mother of a 3 and 5 year old was home taking care of the little one when her restlessness finally got the better of her. She was watching a movie with the girl when she dozed off.

That’s when the ingenious 3 year old began her budding career as a photographer. When Kimberly (who has asked that I keep her last name secret) awoke a little later, she found 1,300 photos had been taken with her smartphone.

What happened next provides a little insight into what a 3 year might be thinking while mom is asleep.

“Apparently I passed out this morning while Eleanor watched a movie. When I woke, there were 1300 new photos on my phone. About two hundred were toddler selfies, and the remaining eleven hundred were pictures of me sleeping,” Kimberly said.

Using a little forensics, she found out the pictures were taken during a 15-minute “photo session.”

“If you hold the button down, the phone snaps consecutive rapid fire. I’m guessing that’s what she did,” she said.

Of course, it’s less than perfect to fall asleep when young children are awake and can get into trouble. But parents are usually less than perfect people. As is Kimberly, who joked that the incident wouldn’t win her any mother of the year awards. And we’re all glad the girl is safe. But the sleep was “desperately needed…(I’ve) been averaging 3-ish hours of legit sleep at night for months,” Kimberly told me.

Here’s to hoping that her new job will restore some sanity to the family’s situation, and they can all be a little less restless.

Have you ever fallen asleep while watching the kids? Have they ever hijacked your smartphone? Comment below or write to me directly at Bob at BobSullivan dot net. Below, you’ll see what Kimberly’s now crowded camera roll looks like. And a few of the pictures her daughter took.