Happiness is... remembering

On Monday, Preston got a haircut. (Gracie just had one four weeks ago, so isn't due yet.) His hair is short and should be just the right amount of surfer-boy shaggy by the time late spring rolls around! There's nothing like a fresh haircut to alter a child's appearance... and pull at this Mommy's heartstrings! It reminded me of the short cut he had last year, so I pulled up an older picture of him. The next thing I knew, I spent the better part of two hours steering down memory lane watching videos and looking at pictures of my "babies" - - and, when I do that, I feel this tiny (okay, huge) tug in my heart. While I thoroughly enjoy where they are in their respective developmental stages, in some ways, remembering makes me want to freeze time.

They both have changed so much, though, for obvious reasons, Preston's changes are far more noticeable on the surface and happen much faster than Gracie's. Their progress is miraculous, beautiful and, of course, very different. His changes come naturally and fairly easily while hers have months or years of patience, persistence and work behind them.

So, back to last night... I watched this video I made last January and realized I had tears in my eyes and an enormous lump in my throat. So much change and growth has occurred in twelve months; it's astounding. I am glad and grateful that I spend time (usually while up with Gracie) documenting things my kids do, uploading pictures & videos and gathering my thoughts about it all so that I can easily indulge my mamaheart and remember the littlest things with the simple click of a button.

(Things like exactly long it used to take Gracie to toss a ball, how she'd sweetly clap for herself, how much joy swinging gave & gives her.... what Preston looked like when he'd point to his body parts, how he loved swinging his sister, what he looked like when he signed "throw" to her and what he sounded like when he said "buh" while signing "bug." All of that has changed now, but because it's captured in this format, I actually do have little moments of them frozen in time.)

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com