I spent a few hours with a dear friend of mine on Sunday. She came over for dinner, along with her husband and their two darling daughters, and we started discussing how quickly childhood goes, and how badly we want to remember all the little bits that seem to get lost in the clutter that is life. She keeps a blog to remember these things – for posterity or blackmail or graduation party slideshows and wedding toasts – and she mentioned that every month she writes down all the things she doesn’t want to forget. The little things that are big things when they happen. Minutia. Celebrations. Hard days. Good days. Smiles and tears. Any and all of it. I liked the idea so much I’ve decided to steal it. I used to be a mom blogger.  I used to keep better track of my memories. These girls are growing like weeds, and will be teenagers as soon as I allow myself to blink. So I’m going to capture their childhood in a bottle as long – and as mightily – as I possibly can.

Things I Don’t Want To Forget – July 2013

* Stella. Exactly the way she looks in the photo above. This is the first portrait I’ve taken of her where she looks incredibly like her father, and it makes me teary every single time I look at it. It also happens to be one of my most favorite images I’ve created. Ever.

*Elena’s insane fervor for the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

*Elena telling me before bed last night that she doesn’t want to keep learning how to read, because she doesn’t want to grow up. Reading makes you a big kid and she wants to stay my little girl forever.

*Stella punching the front door in a fit of rage because a glass of water made her hands wet and she couldn’t open the door and “it wasn’t very nice of the water!”

*Stella’s naked 3 year old butt cheeks. Stark white and darling.

*The girls singing “Hit Me With Your Best Shot” at the top of their lungs.

*Frogs and toads and beetles and snakes.

*Bare feet and camping and mosquito bites that turn into giant lumpy bumps.

*Elena. Just as she looks in the photo below. On the precipice of being a big girl, of having her own say, and independence, and playing with friends until the sun kisses the horizon, while clinging desperately to always being one of my littles.