When my son was born, I documented everything to ridiculous proportions. He opened his eyes! Wow! 20 photos. He YAWNED! Video. Oh look, sleeping on Daddy’s chest, another 50 photos, and another 50 the next night of exactly the same thing. Tummy time!? Yep, 20 more. 

Oh and how many did I take of him lying in his bassinet, just looking up,  just….lying there, doing absolutely nothing? Too many. WAY too many. I cringe when I think of all the family and friends I subjected to these photos.  So you can imagine how trigger happy I got when he started actually DOING things, like rolling over, crawling and walking. Every parent does this, right? We don’t want to miss one single thing, like it didn’t actually happen unless you got it on film.

Enter baby #2. She is just as much the love of my life as her brother is, but she really gets the shaft when it comes to documentation.  There just aren’t enough minutes in the day and I don’t have enough arms to deal with anything more than meeting the needs of these two little ones. I feel like her milestones are happening in my peripheral vision. While I am busy keeping my toddler from pouring syrup all over the kitchen floor, (and then slipping in it), I look over and see that my baby daughter has somehow gotten half way across the living room. Forget about trying to find a camera-unless I want in drenched in maple goodness.

The other day my mom came over, and while playing with the baby she said, “Oh look! She is pushing herself up on her knees! Has she done that before?” Sadly I couldn’t answer that. It was the first time I saw it, but for all I know she’s been doing it for weeks.  If I just had another camera somewhere that could run on autopilot, I could document all of these things., but I will have to settle for the joy of seeing it myself and keeping it like a photo in my mind.

 Looking back, I didn’t need most of the pictures I took of my baby boy. There are a couple that capture the moment, but for the most part, one or two suffice. In any case, it’s not the photo but the actual memory that matters. If my baby girl starts crawling, walking or dancing, and I miss it entirely because I am fumbling to find a camera, I think I’ve missed the point. Wow, to think things really do happen even if you don’t capture it on film!