Timing is everything.
I have been a father for over 14 years now. And I still distinctly remember being shocked by how quickly my sons change in often short amounts of time. Have you ever woken up one morning and you are sure they grew taller over night?
My oldest son was born in New Zealand in the middle of our five years living there. When we moved back to the USA, he and my wife went ahead of me and I stayed in New Zealand for another five weeks. Now you wouldn’t think a 2.5 year old boy could change much in five weeks, but you would be wrong. My wife picked me up at SeaTac airport and we drove to the Tri-Cities where my son was with my parents-in-law.
When I walked in the door and saw my son for the first time in five weeks two things struck me — 1) he looked significantly different and older, and 2) he was even talking like an older child.
His hair was noticeably longer and he was taller and leaner. He was talking at an early age, but in that five week span his speech had become distinctly clearer and more mature. It’s hard to explain, but he was definitely not the same boy.
I share that story to remind parents that your children are changing rapidly. We don’t notice as much since we are with them so much. As I shared in this earlier blog post that I was fortunate to have my circumstances push me into taking frequent portraits of our first child. But, as is often the case, I took portraits much less frequently of our second child. I took up close but casual photos when I could, but I wish I had captured his face in a more consistent manner, as in taking more portraits.
So don’t be like I was with my second child, get your child’s portraits taken regularly.