For the last few days, we've been getting out a whole lot of old family videos to run off and store on a new hard-drive system we've bought. The ones we've been watching have been great, starting almost from the moment Logan drew his first breath. (Actually, there are a few earlier ones. A compilation of my childhood times, my 21st birthday party, our wedding, but so far we've been concentrating on the ones with the kids.)
Today, I found myself growing a little frustrated with my younger self in the video. Logan is almost 13 so it must've been about 12 years ago, while I was urging him to take a few of his earliest steps for the camera. "Come on, I know you can do this because you were doing it a few days ago... walk over to Mummy, it'll only be a few steps." He'd start on his feet, then fall on his knees and crawl over to me. Then I'd say, "We know you can crawl good, but we want you to walk this time. Start again." I felt like telling my 26-year-old self, "No, let him crawl! I want to watch him. There's plenty of time for walking. He walks all the time now. He hasn't crawled for so long and it looked really cute. Why were you in such a rush to show him off walking?"
Perhaps it taught me, even now, to enjoy every phase as it comes, even the prickly, cool-dude teenage one which is in its early stages. Later on, I watched Emma's sweet little baby face as she did her commando-crawl across the carpet. If we didn't have the reminding evidence we might've forgotten, but Emma never did the classic crawl like the boys. It was always one elbow being lifted over the next as she dragged herself along, but she did it at a cracking pace. And she'd watch Logan closely and turn her little head to see whatever he was up to. There were no cross words between them then. It was fun back in the mid '90s, although I didn't always realise it. It's still fun now, with family dynamics as they are, and the addition of Blake to the family. I'll remind myself of that in those loooong, pain-in-the-neck moments. One day I'll be watching memories and saying, "It was quite a lot of fun back in 2008."
GOOD Advice!!!!
ReplyDeleteI've found myself getting a bit annoyed at my younger self, too. More of a "What were you thinking?" sort of moment.
VERY good advice you give.
LOL!
ReplyDeleteI try to remind myself of that too! Especially those days when the attitude barometer is rising. Since I started looking at everything with a cartoonist's eye, life has gone much smoother!
Peace and Laughter,
Cristina
I spent last night after work in the emergency room with my seventeen year old. She waited till I got home to inform a parent (dad was home all day)that she had a terible ear ache. (I get home around 0030 hrs so it's late!) I couldn't help being jovial as this has become such routine over the years that the doctor asked ME what prescriptions to write! It left me thinking about the journey since her first ear infection and that first trip to the ER fifteen years ago!
ReplyDeleteTime flies when your a mom!
Hope things are well with you all. Wish we could travel there.
Vicki
P.S. those pictures on my blog were a total anomaly to our area. I believe the farmers run the sprinklers all night during a suspected freeze to keep the pipes from freezing. We were back up to beautiful weather by noon. Florida's a wonderful place to visit during the winter months except that's when the parks (Disney & such) are crowded! If you ever decide to visit Orlando, Fl, look us up! We'll even make room to put you up!
Have a wonderful day!
I can't even begin to tell you all the things that run through my mind when I watch old home videos. It's such a strange thing to watch yourself from another time in your life.
ReplyDeleteI liked the way you described your wanting yourself to hush it up and let the baby crawl. It's true, we rush everything with the first one.
I think I can relate to that sort of thing. When we watch old videos, I hate how many times I said to (whichever baby it was) "say Mama" - Ugh!! And now we have this recorded for posterity to irritate us forever!
ReplyDeleteIt is a wonder to watch our kids when they were so very young, having watched them grow up until now. How different they were - and how different WE were! I wish we had more video of Chad - we didn't get a recorder until we had Alec so what we have of Chad is copied from other family tapes.
Emma's crawl sounds funny! Kids find the most amusing ways to propel themselves when necessary.
Thanks for your comment. I was thinking Logan's birthday was in January so we have more time than I thought!
Enjoy your week!
Kate