Watching Our Children Grow

Happy Summer everyone! Gosh we are in the thick of it, yea?! Why is it that summer always feels like it takes FOREVER to get here and yet in the blink of an eye we are already in July?! I mean honestly, where do the days even go?!

I can tell you where my days are: IN THE CAR! We’ve entered the stage of taxi driver in our house. Are you there yet friend?! We’ve transitioned from the days of trying to “fill time increments” ( Ok, this activity will take up 30 minutes, this one will take up maybe an hour, then snack etc) to “OH MY GOSH, what time do we need to be there?! Get in the car!” activity to activity and sport to sport to special friend date and barely any time to rest!~

That’s how it goes though right? As parents watching, experiencing and getting to participate in all the fun different stages that our children move through! I remember I couldn’t WAIT to get out of that baby stage and move on to the walking, running, talking phase!

BUT MAN… Now here we are so fast! Sometimes I blink and I look at Linc and I wonder where that tiny little running man with his arms behind him screaming “OUTSIDE” went! How is he replaced with this big kid?! That one that is flipping all over the place and giving me some “sassitude!”

Then of course, there are other days that are hard. Days where I find myself wishing he was a little bit older or more mature. And then I kick myself! I have to remind myself that just because we have hard moments (and we do over here friend) I truly don’t want to wish my time away with him because it’s already happening way too fast.

One thing I appreciate though is being able to SEE that growth through the photos I take!

As moms we don’t always see our children change and grow. We see them all the time, so sometimes we don’t always see the tiny ways in which they change from day to day! It’s not until we see an image from a month ago or a year ago that we get that return ticket for a moment that says hold on, take a breath… savor this moment because time keeps moving forward!

This is why each year I started doing a little mini photoshoot with Linc on his birthday (which is coming up next week!). I let him pick a theme or sometimes I pick a theme based on his interests and we just go play around a little bit. It doesn’t have to be anything fancy, it just has to be FUN!

It’s just a way for me and him to spend time together and a means for me to hit that SAVE button on who he is right now, how he looks right now, all those tiny details right now that might change in a month or two.

Tips to Create a fun yearly photo shoot at home:

This is something you can do right at home! You don’t need a professional photographer to capture these (however if you’ve ever seen one of my ALL ABOUT ME SESSIONS those are perfect for this)! You can do this right at home with your phone camera! It’s easy peasy friend and I want you to be able to hit that return button too!

Here are 4 easy tips!

1. MAKE IT A TRADITION: There’s something to be said for family traditions! There’s just something special about an activity that you do with your parent or parents on a routinely basis. It’s expected, it’s exciting and it’s something to look forward to! Even as a teen I can remember family traditions being something that were important to me. Sure, I would groan sometimes but ask any teenager, if the tradition was skipped, that’s kind of a big deal! It’s kind of a bummer if you skip a family tradition, even if you aren’t a fan of it. Plus, do you have any family traditions you remember and loved as a kid that you now do with your family?! I sure do! So how do you start? Make is something that you do on a certain date and time that you can repeat. You might do it monthly, you might do it yearly like I do, whatever is best for your family! Heck, that might change as your kids do. I started out doing it monthly when Linc was a baby and now we do it yearly! Just make it something that the family can do over and over again!
2. MAKE IT FUN! Make it fun for them! Make it personal! Let them be involved! Take into account what they are into right now and incorporate that into your photo! Do they love legos? Grab those legos mama and have them build something! Are they a book lover? Snag those books off of that shelf and make a book fort! Are they a video gamer?! Grab some cool shades and some controllers and go wild! Let them be involved in the theme and the fun! If it’s fun, they will come!
3. CAPTURE THOSE SMALL DETAILS: If you are like me, you have a million images of you babies (human and fur) on your phone! So, what makes these any different! THE DETAILS!!! It’s truly hard for us a parents to notice those small little daily changes in our babies because we are with them all the time. Those little details are what you want to capture and I’m totally talking about their little faces! Tell me you haven’t seen a photo memory pop up on facebook or time hop and caught yourself thinking: where did my those chubby cheeks go?! I swear it’s like overnight that our babies change from chubby little angel babies to tweens and teens! You want to capture those little details like their cheeks, their baby rolls, their eyes and their smile! Those are all things that change from year to year! I can’t tell you how I’ve cried over Linc’s little underbite smile that changed to a gapped tooth smile that is now braces! What I wouldn’t give to go back to that little no teeth crooked smile now!
4. PUT THEM SIDE BY SIDE: Find a place where you can put theses images side by side! This is where you can truly see the growth. I have mine in an album! I love albums which is why I have a collection devoted entirely to albums for my clients. I think albums are the perfect way to showcase your family story from year to year. They are easily stored and can be kept anywhere in your home. You can put them on a coffee table, on a shelf, by your bedside, or in a basket near the couch to be thumbed through whenever you want! I also love albums because your little ones can reach for them like they would a storybook! It’s an easy way to place all your photos together so you can visually see growth and changes and the magic of your child! However, if an album isn’t for you; you can always frame them! They make beautiful frames where you can put little wallet sized images of your kiddos from year to year. Just please get them off that computer!

It’s no secret our children grow up and if we do our job right as parents they will be independent and successful and won’t need us anymore! UGHHHH enter the tears and groans of a mama who is not ready!

I know as moms we can all say this because we all feel it: Some days time is slow like a snail! It drags on forever and the days are hard. But isn’t that what makes this so sweet?! Then there are the other days, the ones that truly hit us like a ton of bricks. Those are the days that fly by us so quickly that we can’t remember what day, which week and what month. These are the moments where we are caught off guard because the little baby that is standing before us all of a sudden is in fact, NOT a baby anymore and we can’t remember how that happened!

That’s why it’s important to get these types of photos!

We are truly blessed and it is a gift that we get to watch these beautiful angels grow! So let’s make sure we capture it!