A Moment Captured

I love this photo. It makes me think of classic Hollywood and Audrey Hepburn.

And here’s the best part. This photo was taken on a Fisher Price digital camera by one of my kids. The children had received the chubby camera as a gift from their aunt and uncle, and they went to town with it. Half the time, the kids took photos of their toys, their toes, or random scenery. The other half, they surprised me. They tried to make a stop-motion film, frame by frame. They found patterns in their everyday world and captured their beauty. They took candid shots of family members as they cooked, read, or played. And then, there was this photo.

For me, this is a gift. I don’t remember ever seeing my daughter in this get-up. Most likely, I was busy preparing dinner, or paying the bills, or, ahem, typing on the computer. When my children say “Look, Mama!” I do my best to actually stop what I am doing and look, but oftentimes, moments are still missed. And then I blink, and my baby is a toddler, my toddler is a kindergartener, and my kindergartener is a teenager.

But as long as I have this photo, I will have this half-a-second in my seven-year-old daughter’s life. It is a moment captured, rather than a moment missed.