On October 18th, my daughter was born and I became the mother of three children. Hundreds of miles away, on the same day, another baby girl was born and another woman added the third child to her family. We were complete strangers at that time, but our love of photography and family brought us together. We started to have a conversation about motherhood with images, because we tell stories with our cameras. Since some tales are so similar, and some are not, we decided to collaborate and share a photo a week from a normal day as a mother to three.
“Normal day, let me be aware of the treasure you are. Let me learn from you, love you, bless you before you depart. Let me not pass you by in quest of some rare and perfect tomorrow. Let me hold you while I may, for it may not always be so. One day I shall dig my nails into the earth, or bury my face in the pillow, or stretch myself taut, or raise my hands to the sky and want, more than all the world, your return.” – Mary Jean Irion
i hadn’t begun documenting the everyday bits of our life back when you were this little. my passion for photography had begun but i was still in the early stages taking photo after photo of you as up close as i could get. they were all head shots really. it was all about the eyes. no story there. i wish i had stepped back and saw things differently then because i remember very little of that time. as your baby sister sat there pulling book after book from the shelf i had a déjà vu type of moment realizing that you used to sit in that exact same place doing that exact same thing. and i had already forgotten it.
photo by Heather Robinson
I need to remember this. The moment I watched you both watch the sun set over the Adirondacks. That moment you see the earth and sun move, and so suddenly, so quickly the sun drops and then disappears. Every night of vacation we grown-ups watched the sun set, but this night we held you on the dock, we begged you both, to just stay and watch. And you both did. It was amazing.
photo by Olivia Gatti of Click Click Love