documenting childhood

I have always loved photos. I can remember the crinkling sound the paper in my Dad's photos albums would make each time I turned a page, looking at the photos of me and my siblings as babies, and I have strong memories of the first photos I took as a child. Before I became a Mother, I always knew that I wanted to document my children's childhood with an abundance of photos, but in a way that was purposeful so they didn't all end up sat on a hard drive somewhere. When my daughter was a few months old, I started making photo books from my Instagram photos. I backdated the first one to span the months of September 2013 - December 2013. In that time, I went from being heavily pregnant to having a new born baby.

the first photo I took of my daughter, just a couple of hours old

We now have eleven photo books sat on one of our shelves,spanning all of the months between now and then. The other day, I looked at the front cover of the very first photo book, and saw the first photo I ever took of my daughter, looking back at me. My first thought was, 'I don't remember her looking like that. But she looks like Ruby.' She is so different now. I always said to myself in those early weeks and months, 'I will never forget how you are right now. Because right now, you are wonderfully, perfectly you.' Four and a half years later, and I can safely but sadly say that I have forgotten. It is only with the help of videos that I can remember the subtleties of how she used to be when she was tiny. I still look at her and think, 'you are wonderfully and perfectly you', but rather than thinking, 'I will never forget how you are right now', I think, 'I want to remember how you are right now.' And that is why I take the time to write and document those small things that don't really matter, but that I want to remember as the years go by.

The wonderful thing about smartphones is that most of them have great cameras, and the photos look brilliant in print. I can highly recommend taking the time to make a photobook - it is truly time well spent, and something that you will never regret spending money on.