08/18/2026
There’s something so bittersweet about watching your baby grow.
In the beginning, you memorize every tiny detail - the way their whole hand wraps around one of your fingers, the little wrinkles in their feet, the sleepy stretches, the wispy newborn hair. You’re exhausted and overwhelmed and completely in love, and somehow the days feel endless while the weeks disappear right in front of you.
Then, almost without noticing, that tiny newborn starts becoming them.
Their eyes light up when they see you. Their little personality begins to peek through. They learn to sit, then crawl, then pull themselves up. That sleepy newborn you once held against your chest becomes a giggling, curious little person who wants to explore everything around them.
And suddenly, you’re celebrating a first birthday wondering how an entire year could possibly have gone by so quickly.
Motherhood has a funny way of making you wish for time to slow down while simultaneously being so excited to see who your baby becomes. We spend so much of these early years looking forward to the next milestone, only to realize later just how much we’d give to hold that tiny version of them one more time.
But that first year isn’t only about watching a baby grow - it’s about watching parents grow, too.
It’s learning how to navigate an entirely new world with this tiny person who has somehow become your whole world. It’s overcoming challenges you never saw coming, second-guessing yourself and figuring it out anyway. It’s sleepless nights, changed plans, quiet sacrifices, endless patience, and a kind of dedication you don’t fully understand until someone depends on you for absolutely everything. There are hard days and beautiful days - and sometimes they’re the very same day. Somewhere along the way, through all of the learning, sacrificing, worrying and loving, you realize that while you’ve been busy raising your baby, becoming their parent has been changing you, too.
That’s why taking the pictures matters. Not because every outfit has to be perfect or every baby has to smile at the camera - but because this version of them exists for such a short time. One day, those little fingers won’t be so little anymore. Before we know it, we’re shopping for school supplies, signing permission slips, sitting on the sidelines at their games, and wondering when exactly our babies got so big.
It has been such an honor to capture these milestones for Huxley - from that tiny, sleepy newborn in the hospital to the happy, adventurous little boy celebrating his first year. But even more special has been getting to watch him grow from behind my lens.
And just as special as watching Huxley grow has been watching Mom and Dad grow right alongside him. I’ve watched them navigate the beautiful and difficult parts of becoming new parents, learn their little boy, overcome obstacles together, make sacrifices for him without hesitation, and love him fiercely through every season. Watching two people I care about step into this new chapter of life and become the incredible parents they are today has made documenting Huxley’s first year that much more meaningful.
Happy First Birthday, Huxley. 🤎
What a privilege it has been to preserve a little piece of your first year - because babies don’t keep, but photographs let us hold onto just a little bit of who they were. 🥹
