Home Movies

Who doesn't cringe when you are at someone's house and they break out the photo albums or the home movies.  Okay... you might like that sort of thing. 

I don't really mind when it's about people or places I know, especially cute kids.  I don't even mind flipping through vacation photos as long as I can do it quickly. However, I don't need the full 2 hour story per photo complete with re-enactments.  My inlaws used to torture us with album after album of their vacation photos of nothing interesting (seriously rocks are not interesting unless you're there in person to see their "special" colours) until they had kids and could no longer afford the expensive vacations.  Thank you baby!

However, when it comes to our OWN home movies it's a whole other story.  I love looking back at the old baby photos and playing those short 30 second clips of the kids.  I don't do it very often but when I do, I invariably end up with the kids on my knee, jostling each other for a better look at their wee selves.

It's amazing how much they love to see themselves and it just makes their eyes light up as I tell them funny or sweet stories about themselves.  Things we had forgotten like when Papa was handing out Christmas presents and he called for J, O came up to him and Papa asked "Is your name J?"  O solemnly nodded his head, looked Papa straight in the eye and said "Yup".   Fortunately, we have that on video or none of us would even have remembered it.

Of course, there are embarrassing things to be found on those videos too... like E singing Happy Birthday Stinky J through the entire rendition of Happy Birthda to J at her 3rd birthday party.  E is very upset about that and hates it when I talk about it or play that video.  I think it's funny.  Hopefully, one day she will see the humour in it. 

What strikes me the most is how much my babies are changing.  Unfortunately, our oldest can be so loud at times that the other two often get drowned out.  So I strain to hear little J lisp her way through the story of Goldilocks and the three bwears.  I had completely forgot how cute and babyish her little voice was. 

O will be four next week and maybe it's because he's my last baby that I see how much he has changed.  Gone is the little chubby blonde haired baby with the wispy curls and instead I have a lean, sturdy little boy with slightly darker hair.  Sigh.

Of course, I couldn't possibly end this post without submitting you to a couple of my favourite home movies.  Got ya didn't I.  Heh heh. 

First one is of E at about 3 months old.  Check out her crazy hair.  What she was staring at was the ceiling fan above my bed.  It was the best baby entertainer ever.  I could lie her on the bed, turn the fan on and she'd be perfectly happy.  I'm so glad I have this on video.

And one of O....

I wish I had a good gone of J because I don't want her to feel left out but unfortunately, I think all her babyish ones are on the Sony camcorder which is broke and so we haven't gotten the tapes transferred. Back before we went digital.   Gotta get on that.