This month, my oldest is turning 5. I’m having a difficult time wrapping my mind around that one. 5 is a tough pill to swallow. Mostly because I don’t really know where the time has gone. How it has passed so quickly.

So I’ve been spending time going through old photos. It amazes me how palpable the memories become when looking at the photos. I can smell the way things smelled that day, I can taste the way the food tastes. I can almost, just almost, feel her chubby hand in mine and her squishy cheeks against my lips. People pursuing time travel need look no further than the humble camera. Such a simple thing but it truly transports you back to a moment in time.

So I invite you to climb into my time machine with me and peek back at moments with my daughter but also take a peek at my growth, because it is just as evident there, from my point and shoot days when I had no idea what you could do with a camera, all the way through to just this week with my full frame dSLR and a nearly perfect SOOC photo with the spring flowers on the trees.

Point and shoot doesn’t do too shabby when you have natural light to work with like above but oh this poor baby below had lots of flash popping in her face in the early days. First Halloween. She was a very cheerful male lion!

Started learning manual mode on my trusty point and shoot, a Nikon P100. I learned a lot by using such a limited tool!

Finally, a crop sensor dSLR in my hands. I was able to start out in manual mode first thing thanks to learning on my point and shoot! Ecstatic to be turning 2 and having everyone singing to her!

First Starbucks! Hot Cocoa, of course! Riding her first bike, a well cared for hand me down from her cousins! Becoming a 3 year old full of attitude above, and 2 months later, a brand new big sister below! 3rd haircut but nothing to show for the first 2, not anything but phone photos anyway! Mommy got a full frame, things just got real! A beautiful and graceful 4 year old dancing to her own music. And here, almost 5, doing a “monkey hang” from a flower tree, and amazing me with the amazingly smart and kind and beautiful girl she is becoming. A lot of photos, right? Just think of all the ones I didn’t share. 5 years is a long time. And also gone in a blink of an eye. Thankfully I’ve got my time machine and I’m putting it to good use!