When I bought a video camera to capture all of our little guy’s milestones, a friend warned that I’d stop using it within a year. Shows what he knows. I lasted a year and a half. For most of the
When I bought a video camera to capture all of our little guy’s milestones, a friend warned that I’d stop using it within a year.
Shows what he knows. I lasted a year and a half.
For most of the past year, the $270-some gadget has sat in its $35 case in the ultimate energy-saving mode: off. The inventory of footage has dwindled as he’s grown.
Last week we spent some time reminiscing, watching videos with our 2-year-old son, Sean. It was tough to tell whether he understood that baby blowing bubbles in the bathtub was himself. Either way, he was mesmerized.
We browsed through dozens of clips of him as a baby, doing baby-like stuff. There were 49 seconds of me giving him the raspberries and 56 seconds of him kicking excitedly at a play set. Months later, in multiple takes, we prodded the trained seal to show off his beginning vocabulary.
From the past year, we found exactly two clips.
Poor little guy. Usually that kind of apathy is reserved for the second kid. The one whose section in the family photo album depicts only birth, baptism and high-school graduation.
Probably the intimidating, 148-page manual had something to do with my loss of interest in the camcorder. That and, by the time I unlatched the childproofed storage basket, removed it from the Velcro-protected pouch, snapped in the extended-life battery and flipped the switch to the right setting, the boy was no longer doing that hilarious thing that absolutely had to be caught on tape.
At checkout time, a thick instruction manual just means more cool features to utilize. I was prepared to edit the footage into a polished product, Hollywood-style, using the special software. Apparently adding his name in text was too ambitious, because it crashed every time I tried.
I seem to remember choosing between this and a cheap, high-definition model with a “quick start” feature. Only now can I admit “easy to use” is no cop-out.
We’re in no position to replace it, so I’ll have to welcome this camera back into the family. I’m determined not to abandon Uncle Hitachi to the pile of bread makers, ab exercisers and other washed-up gadgets.
As parents who see him daily, it’s harder to spot the gradual changes in our son. Sure, pictures can point them out to a certain extent, but video is king.
It captures movement, reminding us there was a time he did more wobbling than walking. It also captures voices, reminding us that the 2-year-old who so clearly enunciates today once thrilled us just by saying “buh” as the bus approached.
Recording is the only way to relive those days, because we can’t rewind life. Or, if we can, the instructions are buried somewhere on page 127.
• Daddy Talk is an online parenting blog written by (Racine, Wisc.) Journal Times reporter Mike Moore. Find it online at www.journaltimes.com/mom.
