When Stef asked me to put together some older photos of Reilly for her birthday blog post, I wasn’t quite prepared for the effect this would have on me.

Going through the photos from the last several years, I had a difficult time holding it together. I looked at the photos I took at dinner last night, then poured through a collection of familiar yet distant images of her from just a few years past.

When did this happen? Where did this time go? How can in seven short years am I able to not completely remember everything about her even with these wonderful photographs? I am constantly astonished at the cliche “It goes by so quickly” and how unavoidably true it is. I’ve heard this a million times and have probably repeated it as much, but still am not prepared for it.

Where did it go…

I hope her memories are as fond as mine of these times, and that they seem a lot longer for her than for me. And I hope, that with any luck, some of these photographs will help her keep those memories close.

Seven years…Miss T is really not that far behind and I’m not quite sure I’m ready for another toothless smile, or for “breafkast” to be pronounced right, for princesses to fall out of favor, for bubbles not to be fascinating, or for serious doubt whether or not Santa Claus is a viable source for presents.

And I will certainly never be ready for the last time I carry either one of them up the stairs to bed.

Until then, all aboard! Here is a blast from the (not so distant) past.

Happy birthday Reilly, I love you.