"the monster" is 5 :: photography :: personal story

today is "the monster's" 5th birthday!  it's amazing how fast the time has gone and how awful my memory is.  i remember glimpses of moments with him as a baby, but sadly, i cannot remember everything.  it's the important stuff that sticks and i guess that's all that matters, but i have never wished for a photographic memory more than i do as a parent.  sure, it would have been nice all those years of text-book reading in school, and lab work in college, but as a "mommy", i want a good recollection with all of my heart.

knowing that i have always been on the forgetful side, i relentlessly document my sons' lives with photographs and cherish each project, birthday, race & special day in a stack of albums that reaches the ceiling.  one thing i also do is write "the monster" a letter each year on his birthday.  it captures the stories that pictures don't.  like when he makes me tell him the "big tractor & little tractor" stories over and over.  and the description of his funny pronunciation of large words.  and the feeling i get when he runs to me with excitement as i pick him up from pre-school.  i write about how much i love him and how i feel about our family at that moment on his birthday. 

it's a special letter on a special day and if you are not already doing so, i encourage you to sit down and write a loved one a letter.  i'm not gonna lie, it's difficult.  my hand starts to hurt because it is no longer trained to script, but to type.  but it's worth it.  and i'm pretty sure "the monster" will think so too someday.