I took a trip to NYC this fall and spent some time with family that I hadn’t seen in 20 years (or ever met in some cases!)  We sat around and chatted mostly, had some drinks, got to know one-another.  It was such a great time.  I honestly wish I’d taken the kids and hubby with me (who am I kidding?  a week off was luxurious!).  Seriously though, family connection is important.

Being that I have a passion for photography, I asked my Aunt Phoop … well, really Aunt Susan but at the age of 2, I called her Aunt Phoop, to pull out the old family photos.  Devistatingly, I found that a great majority of them had been lost but there was one treasured shoe-box remaining.  ONE box of photos to document our family for the last 75 years.  Wow.  I wanted to see them and I wanted someone to sit with me and go through them, one-by-one.  I wanted that connection and to know who each person was, how old they were, where the photo was taken.  I spent hours that afternoon, deeply entrenched in my family history and laughed, cried, and listened to stories I’d never been told before.  It was honestly “good times”.

As we went through I noticed that some photos just really “stick out” in a collection like that.  First, the newborn photos.  To see what my Dad looked like as an infant was amazing.  My youngest son looks JUST like him.  It is incredible.  The other two ages that stuck out to me were the shots at about 5-7 years old, when those first teeth fall out and you start to see the “grown up” in that baby and the high school graduation pictures.  These photos I’ll treasure forever.

Sorry to ramble, but I just want to share one picture today.  This is baby E.  He was only 9 days old in this photo and he sure has changed a lot already.  Those newborn moments are so fleeting.  I’m so glad I get to take pictures of babies.  It fills me with excitement of new life, and it fills me with joy knowing that someday, some where, a relative might find the picture in a shoe box and think their baby looks just like him.