Seasoned Smiles

Childhood is the most beautiful of all life's seasons ~ Author Unknown

It's Fall. Well, not technically yet, but it is in my mind. Autumn has arrived because Starbucks is serving pumpkin spiced latte; Downtown Brown has found its way to my fingernails; I've begun daydreaming about riding boots, New England, and crackling fires... and the kids are back in school.

Since the monkeys' first day of preschool, I've been "that" mom who snaps shots of her kids every single morning at drop-off. Exhibit A: This grainy gem from two years back...

I can tell this was a Friday because they've got their cute little show-and-tells. I also can tell that it was two years ago almost to the month, because that's when they happily wore their Chuckie T's with zero complaint. That stage lasted approximately two months.

Lila used to wear her hair in two cute messy little buns all the time. (This was at least six months prior to the quite unfortunate "hair cutting incident".) AJ looks like the paparazzi caught him on his way to work.

The adulation of creatures is a regular occurrence at school drop-off.

AJ has sported varying hairstyles throughout his school career. Top-left: Longer, thanks to our lackadaisical summer hair cutting ways. Center: According to GQ, a bad mood can be nicely offset by a cute and spiky 'do. (This was back when he allowed me to "make his hair handsome." Those days are long gone.) Top-right: Buzzed, as per aforementioned incident.

Lila's hair has gone through several changes in length, as well, though not of her own volition. If it were up to her, she'd have long hair down to her Underoos by now. Above we see: Pre-AJ-experimenting-with-scissors-incident, directly following incident, and growing-out-of-incident.

Every now and then, my charges will humor me during my morning shoots.

Lila, then and now.

And AJ, at 2.5 and 4.5...   Sigh.

Time is going by so quickly. I can't believe it's already Fall. I'm incredulous that my babies are almost five. There's a quote somewhere out there in the abyss that mentions the dire importance of sitting back and watching the leaves change color. I couldn't agree more. As I virtually sift through these years of photos of my sweet, funny, expressive children, their transformation astounds me, fills me with gut-wrenching nostalgia, and yet calms me at the same time. Just like Autumn...

Happy Fall!