Five Sentences

A few weeks ago Colin turned four. Four! Four? Not possible.

His teacher sent home a paper the week before his birthday asking for me to provide five pictures of Colin (one for each year of his life) along with one sentence that described an event that occurred during that year.

Five pictures! Five sentences? Not possible.

I take hundreds--make that thousands--of pictures of my boys on a monthly basis. I Instagram our life...daily...with hashtags. I write blog posts on huge milestones (like when my youngest learned to walk) as well as the minute details of life (like when my oldest discovered his pockets). As a writer and avid photographer, minimalism isn't my forte; documentation is. I could write a novel, a trilogy, a miniseries on Colin, accompanied by photos from close to every day of his life. This is not an exaggeration. You take your kids for a walk around the block? I do, too, but I bring my camera, take 100 photos, and write an essay relating stopping to look at bugs and being in the moment.

I joked with his teacher, telling her that I could put together a quick slide show (set to music) instead. She responded that five photos would be adequate. Humph. It took me days to comb through my painstakingly organized photo collection, year by year, month by month, to select only five photos. It took so long to make my final choices that I had to settle and get the pictures printed at Walgreens in lieu of my normal professional quality photo lab. So even though I had the perfect pictures, the color, tone, paper quality, and cropping was sub-par. Humph.

Next I started filling in the worksheet. I kept it simple, as the directions specifically stated in two separate places.

Birth: Colin was born on April 1. April Fools Day!

1 Year Old: Colin took his first airplane ride to Florida when he was one.

I stared at the page, over and over again. How could I possibly jump between birth and flying on an airplane?

So much happened between those two simple sentences.

Life changed. Life changed in ways I can tangibly put to words, and it changed in ways I will never be able to articulate on paper. My priorities shifted. I became calmer, more loving, more attentive, focused, and protective. I lived through sleepless nights, milestones, and the joys, pride, confusion, frustration, and excitement of that first year. I quickly learned that I, in fact, knew nothing. Four years later, I still don't. I leaned on those around me, gathering their wisdom. I stayed humble. Every day was a new challenge, opportunity, and adventure, and if I've learned anything in these last four years, it's that every day will include all of the above. 

In that first year, I learned to trust myself, my instincts. Although filled with fears (rational and more commonly irrational), I gained a new confidence. And most importantly, we survived. 

No.We thrived.

He is my greatest adventure, and I'll continue to marvel in his development, his vocabulary, and the little person he's becoming. I look forward to the big events of the next four years, and every single moment in between. 

So yes. There is so much that happened between those two simple sentences.  So much in fact that even a quick slide show (set to music) probably wouldn’t begin to scratch the surface.

-Laura
Pssst. Honest Mom Project is now on Twitter! If you tweet (we have no idea what we are doing) follow us! @honestmomproj