Watching your baby take his very first steps is one of the most thrilling moments any mom experiences. That's probably why we tend to obsess over when exactly our babies will start walking.

It's no big secret that walking happens at different times depending on the baby, and some parents are even fortunate enough to see their little ones take off before their first birthday. But for those of you who are still waiting for the big moment and are wondering why your baby isn't walking yet -- there might be a simple, yet very surprising thing that is slowing him down.

People with grownup kids love to tell those of us with little ones that "it goes so fast." And you know what? They're right. In a flash, they go from sleeping infant to smart-talking 7-year-old, and there's only one way to hold on to childhood: get a camera and start snapping.

Only now you wonder, what photos do you take? Is there a way to capture it all? The answer, quite simply, is no. BUT there are a number of key photos parents absolutely must take of their kids! These are the pictures you'll look back on in years to come and be able to flash back in time.

My little girl is no longer a baby. What? How can this be? It seems like just yesterday my doctor placed her in my arms, all 7 pounds, 9 ounces, and 21 inches of her ... born on an ordinary Thursday evening, 23 days early. 

And now, she's 1!

A few months ago, my brother-in-law emailed around a video of his baby's first steps. Oh, how it took me back -- that wobbling, arms-wide stance; the delighted pre-verbal chirrups; those pudgy, dimpled knees. Seeing my nephew take his first strides towards toddling mobility sent me straight to my own computer archives so I could revisit that same milestone when it happened in our house.

Thank god for video. I am so glad I have something more than my own treacherous memory to help me revisit some of the moments from my boys' infanthood. I took a hundred thousand photos, I wrote a million words, but nothing takes me back like video. Even a short, low-quality clip sends me straight back in time in a way no other medium can.

Today's a big day, in case you're forgetting (silly you). Today is when Americans decide who will be president for the next four years. Amid all the budget balancing (or lack thereof), bill signing, taxing the pants off people, war mongering, and world peace fostering, one of the little-known things Presidents of the United States do is for babies. And I'm not talking about kissing them on the campaign trail (though they do that a lot too). I'm talking about sending them cards when they arrive in this crazy world.

Oh, you didn't know presidents did that sort of thing? Yes, yes they do. Not just current presidents, either. Former presidents will oblige too. But you have to ask them.

And so, shortly after our daughter was born last November, my husband and I wrote to all five living U.S. presidents announcing her birth in the hopes that they'd send us their blessings. And one by one, each of them did.

Ian McLeod started taking photos of his infant son Cory on a whim. He thought it would be interesting to take a photo a day to document his newborn son’s life. Fast-forward 21 years and he has captured a small lifetime on video.

The video sequence opens gradually, frame after frame captures a tiny baby from the day he was born in Yorkshire, England. Then it races forward and becomes Cory’s life flashing before our eyes through pictures that Ian took of his son, every day of his 21 years. He compiled more than 7,500 images into this six-minute time-lapse sequence video.

"Our circle of friends has babies born within a few days/weeks of our child. The only negative is one couple who are obsessed with trying to compete with the rest of us. Now that the babies are here, it’s about the weight of the babies/who has teeth first/who rolled over first, etc. What is the best way to handle such silliness?" This advice column question is probably familiar to anyone who's been in the awkward -- yet bizarrely inevitable -- position of comparing their infant to someone else's baby.

Here's the posted answer: "A good response (for competitive anything) is to smile serenely and say, 'You win.' If they don’t get a clue and grow up, eventually they’ll get so miffed they’ll stop hanging around."

Yeah, okay. That works, assuming you enjoy dishing out passive-aggressive snark when faced with a perceived my-baby-is-smarter-than-yours situation. But I have a better idea.

by Ciaran BlumenfeldEach image that Ciaran Blumenfeld shares in today's photo series touches on two universal themes that moms witness daily: growth and change -- and how it happens right before our eyes. From the milestones of her youngest child to the pensive portait of her tween daughter and everything "in between," these windows into motherhood strike a chord and remind us how fleeting the moments of childhood really are.