A picture lasts forever

I'm a picture fanatic. I feel lost if I haven't pulled out the camera at least once a week and snapped some photos of the girls. (Hmmm, maybe that's why all three of them are so good at "CHEEZ" whenever a camera is near!) I don't post them here because I'm not quite comfortable sharing that with you all, but I have beautiful girls. Trust me. :)

But why do I love pictures so much? Because it's nearly impossible to remember exactly how someone looked 5 years ago. Because I don't ever want to hear "why are there all these pictures of K but no pictures of me?!?!" in 20 years. Because when my girls have kids, I want them to have pictures to compare themselves to their babies. Maybe it's because there is only one picture of my mom as a little girl.

I didn't think I'd see the benefit of all these pictures until the girls were much older, but already it's come in handy. M was a little jealous of all the attention and fuss over L on her 2nd birthday. She kept asking about her 2nd birthday, but in a guilt-inducing way: "Did I get balloons on MY second birthday?" "Did you make me a duck cake for MY second birthday?" "Did I get a turtle sandbox for MY birthday?"

After about the 5th question, I got the hint and sat down with M, her baby book, and her photo album. I showed her exactly what we did to celebrate her 2nd birthday, complete with a Dora the Explorer Wilton-type cake. Dude, it took me 2 hours to decorate M's 2nd birthday cake. Yes, I did adequately fuss over M on her 2nd birthday, just like I adequately fussed over L on her 2nd birthday. If anyone has need to complain, it's K, who's birthday parties were derailed twice due to medical emergencies, including a 2nd birthday party that got moved to the maternity ward. But that's another story.

The point is, without all those daily pictures, I wouldn't have remembered all the details that are already important to M. What would I remember in 5 years? Probably nothing. But that's okay, because this photo-crazy mama has plenty of evidence to help her remember.