It'd save a whole lot of explaining when my kids get ahold of them someday- because I know that's inevitably going to happen.
Now, like most every other young parent in the digital age, photographing myself and my friends (and my pets!) has pretty much been replaced with photographing every little thing that my babies do. There are the occasional nights out with friends, but for the most part, I'm lucky if I make it into pictures at all these days- and that's ok by me- although I do wish that my husband would pick the camera up every now and then and shoot some pictures of me and the kids. I'll admit that I would like to be able to be in them with my babies more often, and not just the off-centered self-portraits I occasionally manage to pull off from time to time. Tay is in a ton of them. Me- not so much.
Historically, Dads seemed to be the ones who were missing in the photos- I know my Dad used to comment on that- but now it seems to be the opposite, with the moms following everyone around with the camera. Isn't it interesting how that's worked out? I wonder what that says about mothers and fathers in this day and age? Maybe it doesn't mean jack, but I believe that little quirky shifts in social and family dynamics mean something somehow...
Anyways, photographs are no longer about documenting me- it's all about my babies, just like everything else. I'm still documenting my life and the fun I'm having- it's just that now, my life and the fun I am having is wrapped up in my family- and I wouldn't have it any other way.
Our children are by far, thus far, the most documented children in the history of mankind. I don't know about anyone else, but it has become a task unto itself to keep my photo library organized and updated and backed up and blah blah blah with the ridiculous number of pictures I take with my big camera, my little camera and my cell phone camera. It's kind of stupid how much of my days and time are consumed by documenting and archiving my photos. But it'd be a waste to take all of these pictures and not keep up with them and maintain them and do something with them, I think.
Every day that passes my babies are getting bigger (which is great of course! yay for growing healthy kids!), and I guess by attempting to archive their images as best as I can, I'm trying to freeze time a little... and keep them small...
I love technology and all of the perks it affords me as a parent- but I am just as wary of it. I don't trust it as much as I don't fully understand it. I have had the hard drive of my laptop crap out on me in the past- which forced me to say good bye to nearly the entire year in pictures for 2007 and made me a little freakishly obsessive now when it comes to backing up my photos and making actual PRINTS of my photos.
I love the feel and smell of old photo albums. I always have. My parents always had tons and tons of pictures, especially since my dad has always been really into home media- as I'd imagine most dads of people my age were (thank you 1980s home media advancements!). The problem was that both my parents worked so much that a lot of their photos were housed in messy, unorganized boxes and they never got around to doing anything with them because they didn't have time.
It was fun to sort through the photos growing up, but the anal retentive organizer in me always would have liked to have seen them more in sequence.
So, since the day Jude was born in 2009, that is exactly what I have done with my photos. I want my kids to be able to pull out albums and flip through and see themselves grow and progress in order. Every season, I pour through my photo catalog on my computer, edit, select and order my prints- then organize them in chronological order into physical photo albums. I remember each image and when and where they were taken and have a lot of fun building the albums.
It's time consuming, but a labor of love.
The end results are priceless books that I just want to hug to my chest and rock back and forth like a little girl with a baby doll. I have about a dozen full albums- and Mochi isn't even 6 months yet. Taylor sometimes heckles me about how wrapped up I get in this routine I have- and teases me about the whole "Japanese tourist thing"- but I know he knows he'll thank me someday when we're old.
That's my reasoning for a lot of things these days: he'll "thank me someday when we're old"- and they're old too.
Strawberry Cupcake Mochi. Her first Halloween costume. There are about 50 photos I took of her in this outfit. I couldn't decide which I liked best so I'm having all of them printed.
And each one makes me equally happy. This is how you wind up with 50 billion pictures of your kids on your computer.
Same for Jude in his lion costume at his first school Halloween party. These are from the end of the party, but I'm printing a gazillion images because I can't get enough of him from that day.
Baby in an Ergo watching her big brother run in the yard- her favorite place to be.
A happy kid in a swing, pumped full of Halloween sugar in what was left of his lion costume from the day- lion tail swinging on a beautiful afternoon in our backyard. There are about 20 of these from just this single swing session- but it's little moments like this that I feel compelled to capture and don't feel redundant in printing and putting into albums, because each shot is something entirely different than the other.
