Growing up in pictures!

Man oh man what the digital camera has done for the world, for mothers, and for mothers with horrible memories! Now, if we've been snap-happy, must fill up my 1G, 2G, and 4G memory card type people, we can look back at every single thing that has ever happened in the last few years (since we jumped on the digital camera bandwagon!). For us, that was in 2003. We bought our first one for our honeymoon. And, while we took a lot of pictures, it's nothing compared to what we took in subsequent years. It's amazing really. Back in the old days (college) when all I had was a 35mm camera, I used to joke that I had a picture for almost every day of my life for a year or two there... now I have probably 2-50 pictures of every single day of Kayla's life. Which is why, when our camera broke this morning at 10:30am - I was on the Internet immediately researching other Canons I could buy and by 7pm this evening I had a new one in my hot little hands! Eric questioned why I was so desperate to get one TONIGHT and I was like "well, what if she does the cutest thing she's ever done in her whole life and never does it again?!?!" It turns out that when we got home, we ate dinner, gave her a bath, played a little bit, and put her to sleep by 8:15.... so she didn't do the cutest thing she's ever done in her whole life... but had we not had the camera she so would have! :)

Anyway, I try to remember, while I try to capture one of her more mundane but oh so adorable moments - experience this. I read that in a new mom book a while back and it's really stuck with me. I know you can get stuck watching life through the viewfinder or the screen but it's really important to experience what's going on in front of the camera! I try, honest I do, to not capture the first time she does anything - or even the 2nd or 3rd time necessarily because those are things that I want to experience, that I want to be completely present for. So, I'm sorry for you guys that now know you aren't seeing the first of anything really, but I had to be honest because I am a mom first and photographer second. Even if it seems the other way around with the constant barrage of pictures posted to Picasa. Even if we end up with 900,000,000 extra pictures of her/our life - it's all there for us to look back on, to laugh at, to learn from, to relive. I have no regrets for the amount of pictures I take (who would!)... what I'm not so comfortable with is the fact that I don't know if I will ever get them into a scrapbook for her! I might, might, have to move to digital scrapbooking... which is super cute but just not as much fun as going to the store and buying up the cutest things and making the pages at home. But it takes a lot less time and a lot less money. So, we'll see. It might have to be my default for now.

Alright - stepping off my soapbox. Enjoy the pics this week! I uploaded some to her her outfits and her 7 month album!