Snapshots

Today is Evie's last day of that seldom-discussed age between 12 weeks and 3 months.

As children grow, the units for measuring their ages grow longer. People speak of 2-day-olds, 6-week-olds, 8-month-olds, and 4-year-olds.

People warn me to be careful, that children grow up too fast. Even though The World Before Evie feels like an old movie that was once recounted to me by a stranger, I'm starting to know what they mean.

And so I take snapshots, reminders that she will never be exactly the same again.

I loved...

When I was a child, I loved my animals.

Baby dolls were boring. Cabbage Patch Kids freaked me out. I only played Barbies under extreme duress from my friends.

I shared my bedroom with approximately two dozen stuffed animals. If I try hard, I can form hazy pictures of a few of them. A droopy-faced puppy with exaggerated sad eyes. A pink, heart-adorned bear who was a Valentine's Day gift. A lime-scented parrot from the Strawberry Shortcake collection. A panda of sorts.

There were all the others, and then there was Russ.