So! Here’s the thing.
When you’re pregnant, the days seem to stretch on forever. Those forty weeks seem to continue forever and ever and ever and ever and ever and, even when you’re pregnant with a second child and time goes faster than it did with the first, you’re basically stuck in this weird timeline of “forever” because everything is crushingly exciting and terrifying at the same time and, some days, all you want to do is sit down and cry because the ice cream shop closed at eleven and you want ice cream at two o’clock in the morning or because you lost your favorite shirt or because you can’t see your feet or because you fell asleep during nap time when you really wanted to stay awake and think about baby names or because the flowers you picked up at the grocery store died before you wanted them to. I mean, there are a ton of emotions going on in that nine-but-really-ten months and they change at a breakneck speed.
And then! Nine months after birth! You find yourself looking at a toothy and slobbery nine month old baby with chubby cheeks and bright eyes and you think, “How did that happen so fast?!” and, before you even have time to come up for air, your kid’s eating sand at the beach while laughing wildly or concentrating seriously (and, sometimes, both!) and, a week after that, your wild haired two year old is chasing you everywhere with a coloring book saying “I color! I color! I color!” and, before you’ve even blinked, you find your two and a half year old wedged between the couch and the wall shrieking “I’m stuck, Mama! I’m stuck!” in a gravely toddler voice that’s trying (and failing!) to mask a laugh because your kid is always climbing and always laughing and both of y’all know that getting stuck behind a couch will never top the time he fell on a cactus in the middle of the desert.
Kids! They are crazy! And they leave babyhood so, so quickly.
So! Last week! When my two year, six month, and three and half week old (yes, I totally count) found himself wedged between the wall and the couch for the third time in two days, I pulled out my camera and let him go crazy because, well, before I know it, he’s going to be in swimming lessons and kindergarten and playing the drums or the oboe or the flute or the piano and disagreeing with me every hot second that he has the chance. But! Last week! He was a bright eyed, tow headed two year old who spent half an afternoon climbing on the couch and loving every second. And as a mom? It’s my job to remember these fleeting, crazy moments so that, when he’s twenty-eight and exasperated with his toddler that zooms from one direction to the other and is always seeing how high he can climb, I can chuckle and be that annoying mother who says “Yeah, dude. You did that, too. You did that, too.“
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* Lissa Chandler is a creative portrait and wedding photographer in Northwest Arkansas who specializes in lifestyle family, senior portrait and wedding photography. Lissa is known for creative and emotive photography in Northwest Arkansas and currently lives in Fayetteville with her family: a husband whose DNA basically replicated in the form of Henry, a four year old who is growing up just as fast as his baby bro, and a two year old who chattered nonstop the entire time she was writing this post. Lissa is currently booking Summer and Fall Sessions for 2016 Seniors and 2015 & 2016 Weddings in Fayetteville, Bentonville, Rogers, Springdale, and all of NWA. She is available for wedding work nationwide. *