Kodak Moments

I'm finally getting around to organizing and downloading all of Jude's pictures thus far onto cds from my iPhone and iPhoto library so that I can get them all printed. My goal is to have boxes and albums of his baby pictures to physically go through some day when he goes off to college and I'm inevitably suffering from empty nest syndrome. I want to be surrounded by a floor covered in scattered pictures of the Duder to sift through and cry all over.

I didn't realize just how many I've already accumulated since he was born. This is natural and normal I'm sure for a mom and her first baby, but I believe that my generation of parents will have epic collections of baby pictures of their children compared to any other generation due to the sheer capacity of pictures current technology allows us to take.

Since digital cameras have come out, and I started using them, I realized that I really don't have hard physical copies of pictures anymore- with the exception of randoms I had printed for one reason or another. My once extensive collection of hard copy photo albums stop around 2004 and everything shot from then on out are on my computer in files.

I miss photo albums. I miss flipping through an entire series of images from roll of film that captured a specific slice of time in my life. I was thinking about old photos of my brother and I- family pictures- and it made me want to start better documenting my photograph collection. Before Jude, having my pictures on the computer was enough. But now I have the most precious pictures of my life on-hand and I must do something fantastic with them. Taylor and I- and Jude of course- will be glad I did.

I imagine myself thumbing through photo albums with Jude and future siblings of his and pointing out all of the wonderful things and images that make my heart sing right now. Then I imagine someday showing grandkids pictures of their parents when they were babies in those same dusty albums. This makes me happy in a way I never imagined I could feel before.

But.... !!!!!

There are SO many of them already! I mean, do I really need ten different shots of the same new and/or cute thing Jude does? Not really. But digital cameras let us snap and study each picture to make sure it's juuuust right. Then, after the perfect shot is established, why delete the others you took to get there? Hell, they're ALL cute- each in very subtle different ways that only the parent taking the picture will notice. So you wind up with an entire series of pictures of the same, priceless moment.

Case in point:







I mean, how does a mom choose which one to keep??? It's impossible. So I just keep them all. Like today. Jude actually didn't fight tummy time for like 10 minutes and amazed me and my iPhone with his fantastic skills with holding up his endearingly large cranium (and I say that in the most loving way- the kid has a large head to house his large brain!).

~can't...stop...taking...pictures....~






I have slightly different shots of pretty much every best picture I have of him, and every one of them are special in their own ways. The more the merrier, I say. Kids are only so small for so long- and people never shine like they do when they are brand new in the world!