Every girl in my 5th grade class wanted to be Mary and hold a real baby in the nativity play. I was instead cast in the roll of “Artist”. But before the play started, I got to hold the real baby. In that moment holding that baby, something changed in me. I fell in love with babies. I saw something. There was something unbelievably special about babies.

Since then, I’ve had 3 of my own babies. I’ve held them and had that irreplaceable magical feeling of joy fall on me all over again. Then a sense of anxiety ticks in. I have to soak it all up as much as possible because the next time I look at that baby, she’s going to be older and different.

This is central to life for me. This is my life right now. I want to give this to you. I want to take a picture of you holding your baby soaking in those eyelashes as they sleep. I want to frame that photo for you so 5 minutes from now, when that baby is crawling or drinking out of a sippy cup or putting on their own shoes and you’re learning more about the person they are every day, you can remember how it all began.