Seven Months-ish

Everyone says the same things about having a second child:

• “Parents are way more relaxed about them …” 
• “They don’t get as much attention as the first child …” 
• "Parents don’t worry as much about germs, colds, and scrapes …” 

Everyone says these things because they are true. At least that’s what Bridget and I have found. We know what we’re doing (sort of) the second time around and it’s virtually impossible to provide the same attention when there’s a toddler running around the house. We do our best and we love our little Aurora more than words could describe, but we’ve failed her in one critical area:

Monthly milestone stickers.

Those big, colorful sticky numbers you put on a baby’s onesie. You know the ones. You carefully place the number on the baby’s stomach and then take at least 7,500 pictures trying to find the perfect one to share on social media. Is she smiling in this one? Is the light perfect in that one? What if we sat her in that enormous chair? Could we hang her from the ceiling?

(On a related note, it's always interesting see the number of "likes" decrease over the months. The one-month photo: 100 likes. The three-month photo: 30 likes. The seven-month photo: "Ugh. You again?")

Sure, we’ve taken Aurora’s first six pictures – one per month – but we’re nowhere near the right day. Like, not even close. The one-month photo (somewhere close to April 7) wasn’t bad, but it was all downhill from there. The two-month photo was a week late, the three-month photo was two weeks late, and the four- and fifth-month photos were essentially in the same photo shoot. The seven-month photo, now 16 days late, will materialize any day now.

For Annabelle, we took the photos on. the. exact. day. We may have even tried to do it at the exact time of her birth, just so we could capture the exact moment when she went from an eight-month-old to a nine-month-old. (Such things are very important, you know.) Why was it so important to take the photo on the exact day? Who knows? I forget what life was like with one child just like I forget what life was like before children. (Well, I remember, but it seems like someone else’s life.)

Whatever the reason, we found it to be really important for Annabelle. And now, before the Internet and God, I’m writing that we can do better. We must do better! We have five more chances with Aurora. Five more opportunities to capture her completing a big monthly milestone. We are going to take photos 8, 9, 10, 11, and 12 on the 7th of every month. Let’s do this!

Now, if I could just find Aurora. She was just here a minute ago …