Two major things in my life have caused me to obsess over the passage of time: my children and my job. When I was younger (and before I had kids), time seemed to move so slowly. I couldn't wait to graduate high school, I couldn't wait to finish college, I couldn't wait to be married, I couldn't wait to have a baby.

But now I want to put the breaks on everything. Everything is moving much, much too quickly. I just want this merry-go-round to stop for just a second and let me take it all in for a few minutes.

And unfortunately, my job makes me feel this way about my clients, too. I'm sure I must've seemed like that annoying aunt that pinches everyone's cheeks and says, "My, how you've grown!" when I saw them again for our session. I was just so overwhelmed with how much the children (well, some of them don't even seem like children anymore) had changed. See that adorable little red-head in the blue shirt? Yeah. This was him just a few years ago. And the littlest guy wasn't even a glimmer in mom's eye yet. But the older two...wow! They are now beautiful and protective and confident and intelligent young adults.

In her pre-session questionairre, mom wrote that she wanted to document where they were at this point in time: "son taller than his mom, but not dad. daughter getting so pretty and surviving as the lone girl. J being crazy. baby being snuggly." These words really struck a chord with me. I love how she noticed this important milestone for her family. I loved this little preview of what my life might be like in just a few short years. It makes me both happy and sad. I love when pictures can do both.