A baby...

Yesterday I watched an episode of A Baby Story on television... for some reason it spurred me to find (and watch!) the tape we made of my first daughter's birth and first year. We aren't video fanatics, so this is all on one tape! I am particularly fascinated by births for some reason - all the little details of who said what, the reactions of observers, the quiet stillness for many of the hours that pass just waiting, and all the emotions and energies that converge at the moment of birth in a joint effort to bring a new baby to the world. It was a great memory to relive.

There were also little clips of moments thru the first year - napping with mommy in the early days, first solid foods, sitting up, crawling, laughing hysterically at the dogs. I had remembered all these things, but with much less vividness. What hit me the most though is that she was (is) absolutely beautiful - of course I knew that already - but seeing it was more powerful than what I remember.

Isn't that why pictures and video are so great? Not that you will forget these moments as if they had never happened, but you never remember exactly and you never remember everything. We do have tons (and tons) of pictures that can take us for quite a detailed tour down memory lane whenever we wish, but I must admit that I am a bit sad that I was not a photographer at that time. What we have are "snapshots" and they serve their purpose, but what I feel is missing is the specialness of pictures that illustrate the emotion, ones that even come close to the beauty that I saw with my eyes, ones that document the bonds that were forming, ones that make me feel like that beautiful baby is really still looking back at me :)

Lucky for me, my interest and skill in photography grew with that bundle of joy and I now have albums full of images that convey exactly what I want them to - whether it is a toddler dressed up in mismatched clothes or the solo dance of a ballerina in the living room. We all know though, that it isn't the picture that is worth a thousand words - it is what is in them that melts our hearts!