Doc turned 6 a month ago. We had homemade cake, spaghetti and meatballs, lots of presents and everyone was home. It was a wonderful party. When all was done, I realized we didn't take one picture. Thinking about that, I realized that I'm not collecting any memorabilia of the grandkids at all. We don't have a thousand photos of smiling faces covering our walls or artworks on the fridge. No stuffed scrapbook for old report cards, certificates, or trinket reminders of bygone days at all. I'm not down on the ballfield with my Canon XJ-red 27 nor ordering the 'family pak' of school photos so I can have a dozen wallet shots to give away. Every time I pick up the living room and sweep the latest crop out from under the sofa where it is dusty, neglected and lost, I wonder again if I should pack this piece of their childhood away or just let it go.
I realize through facebook and blogging that I am way out of the mainstream. Most people cover their pages, and their homes, with kiddie art and snaps along with generous descriptions to go along with. I don't have a problem with that, so I don't know what it says about me that I'm not but I really have no interest in it (Their dad isn't doing it, either, but that's another story). I guess I'm not all that sentimental and while I have a few knicknacks that I collected from my own childhood, it amounts to no more than a cigar box of stuff I can hardly recall the significance of.
We do take some photos, so it's not like there is no record and I have videos of them making movies with me. But I'm not snapping away feverishly to capture every moment. What strikes me as odd on facebook is that so many people post literally hundreds of photos of themselves, sometimes dozens from the same shoot, like they just can't decide which view they like best. I can understand shots of family and kids and events and so forth, but hundreds of self portraits?
Some day the boys may regret not having a blow by blow reminder of these times and maybe I should be on the ball with it for their sake. But with all that goes on around here, it's one more thing to look after.
