Too much time gone by

I've spent easily two hours this morning watching the four 30 minute tapes from our very own camcorder (are they still called that?) of our early time with Bam-Bam. The recordings, which begin 7 months before the Prodigal Son's arrival capture small fragments of time of his first year and a half.

Five minutes of my mother in law holding him the day he was born. The only moments of that day actually on video. A good fifteen minutes of him laying on a pillow in June when Ray Bourque finally won his only Stanley Cup title. One ridiculously long portion of tape capturing the tree frogs laying eggs in our swamp, I mean pool. Two long segments showing us feeding him which were an assignment from his occupational therapist that was helping us with a feeding issue. A spot with his infectious giggling while his daddy juggled some of his toys in front of the Christmas tree. His first steps just before he turned a year. Some of his first words one lazy Saturday morning taped about 6 months later.

And then nothing. The camera apparently placed on a shelf and forgotten amid the hectic schedule we called life. It's almost too sad to think about. All those moments in between that we could have recorded for prosperity that would have been much more cherished and touching to us years from now than the frogs laying eggs.

Any of this birthday parties. Days at the lake. Swimming lessons. Building the snowman with daddy two days ago. Gone except in our memory. And who knows, some day those memories may not be recalled either.

We're trying to make a renewed effort to capture him on tape more frequently in the future and are also going to investigate getting the previous tapes transferred to DVD for prosperity sake. Just when you think you're being a great parent, something like this comes along to remind you that you could be doing just a liiiiittttlllle bit more.