I would ask how you’re doing but I already know that you’re relaxed and soaking up all that awesome first baby, all the puffy heart eyes, she sleeps through the night and eats like a champ, parenting is easy delusional bliss. That little baby is five years old now and she’s still just as awesome as ever but she’s also got a lot of words. Lots of them. All the time. Somehow, she also ended up with a little sister and a little brother too. You’re outnumbered now and you’re tired. So very tired. And as cliche as it is and even though you roll your eyes right out of your head every time you hear it, time does just fly on by and it’s hard to believe that I was ever a first time mom and it hits me like a ton of bricks just how BIG that little happy baby is now. All I can say is that I’m glad you picked up that camera in 2011 and decided to take way too many pictures of that little baby and the two more that would come along.

I sit at night sometimes and look through the images that you took over the last five years. Some are just downright embarrassing because you know, I was an “artist” and all and it showed in my weird compositions and questionable processing. But, there they are just the same. They remind me of how I fumbled through photography and finding myself there just as much as how I’ve fumbled through parenting and finding myself as a mother. It’s an ever evolving process, both being an artist and a mother, and I don’t know that we will ever truly know what we’re doing or where we will end up. It’s beautiful (mostly) and emotional and I hope one day, our babies will learn a different side of us through how we saw them and the world through our images.

You’ve learned so much since you first picked up that baby in the hospital and snapped your first picture as a mother and I’m still learning after 5 years into this beautiful mess. I look forward to where we’ll be another 5 years from now.