A Second a Day from Birth Video

Life is Good: technology gives warm fuzzies!

While pregnant, I had grand plans of documenting the month mark of each child for their first year with a photograph. Sometimes I took the photo on the right date and sometimes it was a day or two after. That first year is just so full. Full of fun and first and deprivation of sleep! While I would love to look back on a series of perfectly-timed 1-12 photos, I gave myself a break about the "8 month old photo" being the day after or the "3 month old photo" being the "3 months and 2 weeks photo".

Something I have done for each child is create a slideshow on the computer of their past year in photos. Each time I download photos, I grab a few of the best, funniest, or most "telling", and add them to a slideshow file. Then, we run the photo on the big screen or a wall or whatever at their birthday party. It has turned out to be a real treasure. Every once in a while, our family will just watch the slideshow for the nostalgia. And the big kid will request a viewing every once in a while, too. He really loves the early slideshows of himself and his brother. We all enjoy it.

I will admit that I am not a regular online video watcher. I just don't take the time. Notice I didn't say that I don't have the time? None of us have the time. We're all busy. But we make time for the things that are important to us; we make time for what we want and what we can. And so I would rather do something else than watch videos. That doesn't mean that I am doing something brilliant or important or satisfying. So no judgements if you do watch a lot of online videos. HOWEVER. I did take the time to watch this video. And I think you should, too. A dad in England took video footage of his son every day for his first year of his life and then took one second from each of those days to create a 365-second video. It is precious. It is lovely. It is 365 seconds of smiles and joy and hope that hug and hover around new and young life.

I loved the video because the daddy shows so much love in that piece. In the thought, in the intention, in the time and effort. I also loved the video because it reminded me of when my children were that tiny. It reminded me of the newness and the bliss of being a new parent. It is also such an amazing visual of the leaps and bounds of the first year of life. We enter this world only knowing how to breathe and sleep. We quickly learn how to eat. And then, in twelve months time, we are balancing a gigantic head, laughing, sitting, talking, walking and more. Amazing seems like such a throw away word these days, but the first year of life really is amazing.

Here's one more chance to watch the video! Here's to giggles and snuggles and j.o.y.