When I was designing my house in the spring of 2017, I very much wanted my living room, kitchen, and dining area on the first floor to be one open space for family and friends to gather. It’s where folks would come to watch football games and TV show finales. It’s where my husband, Lance, and I would host Tuesday night dinners in the winter with my best friend and her boyfriend. And it’s where, in the summer, people would flow in and out of the AC-cooled space if it got too hot in the backyard during a cookout.

For five years, it served us in its intended purpose well. But in July of 2023, when Lance and I brought home our daughter, Harper, that area became something entirely different. 

It’s now a space for Harper to grow and learn. It’s where we watched her roll over for the first time and take her first steps. It’s where she dances, sits in her chair to read, and sprawls out on the floor to color. It’s where she looks at the photographs on the walls and on our digital picture frame and yells out the names of the people she sees. We smile every time she says “baby,” not realizing that it is herself.

One grouping of pictures behind the couch showcase Harper at various stages in her first year of life: the day she was born, smiling at the camera at two months old, trying to crawl at five months, me and her on Mother’s Day, her and Lance on Father’s Day, her first birthday. “She has grown too fast,” I think to myself each time I look at them.

Editor Vanessa Czarnecki, and her husband, Matthew Sharkovitz, recently embarked on their journey of parenthood with the birth of their daughter, Zoey. And while I’m sure they have received all kinds of advice from other parents, I’ll still offer my own: capture every moment and display it. Eventually, you’ll look at the photographs on the walls and wonder, “Where has the time gone?”