november, 2002

This past Sunday, my husband helped me to clean out and organize my closet. He is much better at this than I, as he is much less sentimental and far more practical. We got a lot accomplished. It's a good feeling.

In my closet I found an envelope of pictures. They are just casual shots taken of The Babe from November 2002. She had just turned one year old. Let me tell you... those pictures had me near tears. There is nothing unusual about them, but my goodness, the changes that have taken place.

Obviously, I recognized The Babe right away. There was never any question that it is her in the pictures, she looks in them exactly as I remember her looking. Except, and it's big... except that I actually *needed* the pictures in order to remember. Looking at the pictures, I remember every goofy face she used to make, I remember all the little toys that are strewn about, I remember all the little outfits she wore, and I remember how her hair curled around her face. But without the pictures, I had forgotten. And I felt like crying. How could I have forgotten so much? What else is out there, that I hope to God there is a picture of somewhere to remind me?

I look at The Babe now, and she is big. She is a five year old girl. She goes to school. She talks incessantly. She has a vivid imagination. She's enormous to me, and yet, really, five years old is pretty small. But... it's so much bigger than the one year old in those pictures.

It makes me very sad that I have forgotten so much about what it was like to have The Babe at that age. Our lives were so different, our jobs, our home, everything was different. But, wow, she was really different. I love her as she is now. Just as I love The Boy as he is now. I love how they both are growing up, and I love the people they are becoming. But seeing those pictures... *sigh*