A Birthday Story | Portland Family Documentary Photographer
I recall vividly the endless hours of sitting on my son's rug while we built train tracks. It was important to find just the right pieces to create elaborate transit systems for both the battery-powered and hand-powered locomotives.
We would visit the toy store and dream about all the different switches, T's and complicated pieces we could use to build a track to beat out all other tracks. Over the years, we collected a huge Rubbermaid tote of tracks, buildings, trains, and other speciality items.
The boy is 12 now. He doesn't play with trains.
So, thank goodness we have family who have children who are just as obsessed! These wooden memories live on through new hands, building their own creations with just as much love.
Mr. O was celebrating his third birthday with family and friends. Dad and Uncle Nate both helped lay out the train track, taking it apart a couple times to get it just right (perfectionists, folks).
Mama and auntie, due within a couple months of one another, share how they are feeling (tired) and somehow touch their bellies at the same time. I think this might be the go-to stance of all pregnant women. It's been many years for me, so this old brain has forgotten.
Friends, trains, family, candles, and treats make for a fantastic birthday celebration!
How do you celebrate? Do you find yourself excited about the party, or anxious about all the people coming?
I love parties, mostly because of the food and people (mostly food). I love the happiness, the smoke in the air after the candles are extinguished, the off-key voices as songs of celebration are sung, and the laughter.
Each birthday is a unique representation of your family. Document it. Feel it. Remember it.
Then get in touch when the next celebration is around the corner. I'll be here.