Last week I officially wrapped up a year of portraits of my children. A whole year and I didn’t miss even one week. I know, I’m even more shocked than you.
An explanation of the 52 project.
I really enjoyed the project for a lot of reasons. There were reasons I expected — I love having 52 photos of each child, not just pictures of the one that happens to be learning to walk, or pictures of special occasions.
And there were reasons I didn’t — Every week I had a chance to tell an anecdote about my children and capture small windows of their personalities; favorite toys, their habits, silly moments. The mundane, special things that fill my days but doesn’t always make for a full blog post. I loved this side effect of weekly photos. Maybe because, though I love photos, I’ll always be a writer first.
Looking back, the project helped me create a comprehensive look at our year in words and photos. We’ve had a busy, exhausting, exciting year, and I can’t look at these photos without a note of nostalgia about how much my kids have grown in 52 weeks. Or without being overwhelmed with gratitude for our almighty God who sustains.
As much as I enjoyed the results, I’m not sure I’ll continue the project next year. Maybe in the future, or maybe if my kids keep insisting on playing outside in the afternoon light. Because who could resist clicking the shutter?
And now, some (ok, a lot) favorites from the year…
Mary Virginia, sick with a fever that eventually brought all three kids down. I love this picture, though, because of her trademark scowl.
Thomas, learning to crawl.
David never sleeps during the day unless he’s sick. In this case, he was very, very sick.
Some sort of fine motor skill switch flipped for David this year and now he loves to draw. So many photos were like this — shots of him drawing, painting, creating.
At first Thomas’s cat food habit was cute. Now he’s 65 percent water, 30 percent cat food, and 5 percent vital organs.
Nowadays David is Brigham’s favorite.
Thomas on his birthday.
Mary Virginia on her birthday
Hesitantly first steps.
Climbing on a table, surrounded by mess is Thomas’s natural habitat.
David on his birthday.
Looking so grown up.
You did much better than me! I crashed and burned in November when the light went and my three and a half days for thanking photos of the children in nice light turned into house hunting days. I’m not going to try again next year, I’ve got a linky that I host called Siblings so I’ll stick to trying to persuade all three into a photo together once a month!
It was great fun to feel like I got to see a glimpse into your life each week, now that I don’t have Facebook I have missed that mama connection with other people’s daily routines. My kids also loved seeing the pics each week! Thanks for seeing it through.
You did great with the 52 project! and these are some great pictures!