Sidetracked

I was writing about my favorite cat, Ellie, when I experienced the best case of sidetrack. Ever.

I needed a picture of Ellie. How could I blog about her most recent trials and tribulations without showing the world (or the miniscule fraction that reads this blog) her regal face? And usually I just go to my phone and upload what I need, but for some reason, today it wouldn't upload. I was going to be forced to break out the laptop. Ugh. I could go into great detail about my detestation for the laptop, but I will simplify and say its cumbersome and unreliable.

Since I was being forced to use the laptop, I thought to myself...

Maybe I can make this annoyance work to my advantage. I'm sure there's a picture of Ellie on the laptop that really shows off her best features.

And that is where I went wrong.

Here I sit, at least an hour later, writing a completely different post. Ellie's post, still not written. Upon first glance, it looks like I have successfully wasted productivity during K's nap time. Ah, but maybe not. While I was sidetracked in photo land, I had an epiphany.

I had an amazingly, awesome 2011 with K. Spectacular, really. 

See, because of the unreliable nature of the laptop, we were not able to unload any pictures off the camera for the better half of 2011. After taking two pictures the morning of December 25th, it finally happened, the memory card was full. Pictures were forced to be unloaded in a hurry and that was that.
:::note to self, always check the memory card before the biggest picture taking holiday:::

So, prior to an hour ago, I hadn't really looked at the pictures I had taken throughout the year. It's not that I had forgotten that K and I went to the butterfly conservatory or the pumpkin patch, but seeing the images transported me back to the moment. And it was good.

Sometimes it's so easy to be overwhelmed by the day to day struggles. I find myself losing sight of what's important, what really matters. So this...this sidetrack...was very much needed, to put it all back in prospective. To see the smiling face of my beautiful daughter over and over again. To watch her hair grow from short, wispy toddler hair to long big-kid hair all in a matter of months. To remember again, to relive every holiday, special occasion, and random camera worthy moment. It was so gratifying to be reminded of all the good I have experienced in the past year with such a charismatic, little girl. 

She is, without a doubt, my sun and my moon.