The milestones start as soon as you get that blue line to confirm you are pregnant. You look forward to your 12-week scan, your 20-week scan, meeting the half waypoint, seeing the belly grow and feeling the little one move inside, as they are getting ready to meet you. The day your baby is born, a new set of milestones starts and we are observing as our baby learn to grab, follow you with their eyes, lifting their head, smiling, laughing, sitting, walking… The first 12-18 months of that baby’s life is just so busy and full of milestones. Slowly the milestones become further apart and in a way just part of our children’s life, what we expect from them.

This year however we had a big milestone, the baby in our family started school. Unlike her sister who started school at the age of five when we lived in Scotland, the Norwegian school system means that they don’t start school until they are 6. Instead of starting school like her friends in UK, the last year has been her pre-school year where she has spent the last year of fun at nursery. Come August she was ready to meet a new milestone and start a new chapter in life.

Over the summer, we have talked about starting school and Molly was adamant she wanted to wear a uniform on her first day of school. Molly was only 3.5 years old when we moved to Norway so I didn’t think she would remember much about the school uniforms her sister used to wear. Yet somehow, she had a strong association between uniform, or school clothes as she calls it and starting school. While visiting family in UK over the summer we made a point of buying the school uniform that she really wanted. She picked a pinafore and a skirt with all the matching accessories. Excited about her new clothes she tried them on as soon as she got to the rented cottage and I was lucky enough to be able to take some photos of her.

She is already several weeks into a life at school and she loves every minute of it. We hear stories from her day at school of making new friends, playing games, learning new letters and sounds. Every second Tuesday they have swimming and this was something she was really looking forward to and at the moment the math’s homework seem to be her favourite. The new structure to her life means that she is exhausted at the end of every day, but she is glowing.

Stavanger Lifestyle photographer, capturing moments