Faded photographs

So far, this has been the summer of lost teeth, holding hands, swimming under the water, hugs for abuela, being fabulous (and fierce when necessary), of sisterly love and cousin crushes. My little girls are really growing up, and yet some days it feels like they can't get bigger fast enough. I'm so over the inexplicable crying, the tantrums and constant nagging to eat, stop snacking, no more carrying your stuff for you.  It's getting better--even easier at times--but I still hope for more. This summer has delivered more nap-free days than all six years of parenthood combined probably, and it's been a revelation. We can, and have, made it through days of activities and dare I say, fun, without paying for it with restless nights.  Yet, I wish there was more consistency. I wish I wasn't constantly managing moods and having to console egos. Sisters can be so loving and so vicious to each other in the same turn. "Stop laughing at me!" "She hit me!" I hear it from both of them all the time. And then I turn around and they are mid-hug, holding hands as they walk through the park. I really want to meet these girls as young women and see how they turned out.  

Yes, I think the summer of 2014 is shaping up to be a great one.  I can already tell these are the photos I will think about when they are much older. It's as if they have come pre-faded and tinged with nostalgia for a time and place that has barely passed. How can that be? How can I find myself already longing for what just happened?  I suppose I've always had a bit of that in me. Maybe it's why I love photos so much in the first place.  I want to capture and hold these thoughts and feelings forever.  And if I'm successful, if I really can see and taste and smell the past in a snapshot, I have earned a gift that few can claim. I have given myself the gift of time. Little seconds here and there frozen in images that add up over the course of a life. And these two lives, Elisa and Carolina's, that I love so much are so beautifully remembered. It takes a good deal of bribing to get them to stop for a moment and smile at times, and yet some of my favorite photos happen when they're not stopping at all.  I hope they will come to enjoy these photos as much as I enjoyed taking them. And if I'm right, in time, they will taking their own.