There is nothing like having children to make you realize that time is fleeting. There is nothing like having children to make you realize your memory sucks. I can’t remember what I had for breakfast much less what my daughter wore on her first birthday or the secret my son whispered to me as I dropped him off at school.
 
So I scribbled in journals, on napkins, posted on Facebook, all these little sayings and doings so that they wouldn’t be lost. When my children are older I want to remember them as they are today. Then I realized that these moments will not even be memories for my children, they will be erased, replaced with “newer” memories. And what they may recall will be shrouded in a dream-like haze.
 
I’ve always loved stories, stories filled with detail and history and perspective. Everything sounds prettier, feels better. Storytelling allows us to live in a moment, to find grace in that moment and to find beauty in the details. Our lives are filled with stories, we just need to take the time to see it.
 
I put pictures to words and words to pictures to tell our story and preserve our everyday, our history, so that it never fades. I want to remember and I want my children to know our family, as we are today.
 

Photo: Ali Anderson