I have a lot of pictures on my phone, of Bean. And by a lot, I mean hundreds. It’s to the point that my phone no longer has enough memory to update itself. Even my emails don’t come through, unless I delete several texts, apps, or pictures. Pictures are always the deletion of last resort. I just can’t seem to pick any that are less important, cute, memorable, sentimental or adorable than any others. Sure, I have them all saved to my computer. Sure, I rarely take the time to scroll through them. Sure, I could print them out and put them in a scrapbook (which I do plan to do) or a photo album (also in the plans), but how convenient is it to carry around a big, heavy book to pull out when I’m bragging about Bean? I mean, let’s be realistic.
As with all parents, I strongly believe that my little one is the most adorable, intelligent and brilliant child in the world. On the rare occasion that I get the time to view the pictures on my phone, I realize how far she’s come. Almost two years, and she’s truly one of the most loving, caring, sweet, independent, strong willed, smart, capable, aggravating, heart-meltingly wonderful people that I know. I miss her when we aren’t together. Sometimes, I miss her when she’s having an abnormally long nap (This is when I shake my head and say “Snap out of it! She never sleeps! Enjoy this moment!”). I spend hours thinking of things that we can to together, and as a family, that will create memories, and try to muster up the energy to do them. Then, I worry about remembering these occasions, so I take pictures. Which I never want to take off of my phone! I read, somewhere, that taking pictures actually diminishes the ability to retain a memory of that moment in time, so I try not to take too many. But, really. How many is too many?
Bean loves to play dress up. She will pick every piece of jewelry in the house as a must-wear. Then she will usually select an outfit from her princess trunk. Atop of this, she will wear her suspenders which have wings attached to them, and finish the whole thing off with her hot pink cowboy hat and tiara. She is already a style icon. How many pictures of her outfits do I have, you ask? Well, let’s just say that I could probably fill a year’s worth of Vogue Magazine fashion spreads. At least.
Did I mention that I also have a Canon DSLR? My photography obsession does not end with my Android. I think that I might have a problem. I should probably talk to someone about it.
Nah. This is my girly. I will never be able to get this time with her back. I want to make sure that, when she’s older, we can sit down together and laugh at the times we got to share. I want to make sure that I don’t forget these special moments. I want to make sure that we create new memories, as we relive the old ones.
Karen Huntley is a local wife and mother and writes a regular parenting column for The Leduc/Wetaskiwin Pipestone Flyer.