Time Marches On: From First Year to Senior Year

It's been a long standing tradition in our family to have a baby's photograph taken on the day of their first birthday; it's purpose being to capture that special milestone of a new family member's life.

So every year, we (usually my mother and I) would make the trek to a local photographer and fulfill this tradition.


Although you are only seeing one here, there are actually three of these 16 x 20 photos hanging in my living room. (We'll be adding a fourth one of Princess A in January.)

For all these years, they've hung there to remind me, in the difficult times, just how sweet and adorable they were and how much I loved them. It's amazing how just looking back at the sweet and cuddly years can make you love again a rude, obnoxious teen or a super active, sometimes bossy preschooler.

But time marches on and there comes a time that the precious baby smiles must be replaced.

When my oldest son (17) went to have his senior photos taken, I knew then what would replace his First Year photo.


So with this week's project looming, I opted to tackle a hard one; albeit an emotionally, not physically, hard one.

I took down the photo of my beautiful baby boy and replaced him with the strong, handsome young man I had raised.

Then something dawned on me: I plan to take this tradition one step farther. I will do with the baby photos as I have done here with the senior photo. Then as they each marry, I will replace senior photos with one that reflects a new member of our family in the form of a wife or husband. Those will be followed by photos with my children and their spouses along with their own children.

And throughout it all, I will continue to use the same frames and store the old photographs in a safe place, all to be passed down to generations that come long after us.