Capturing memories - how important are they?

Most of us, whether we have kids or not, probably have a notion of what the "first steps" will be like.  The family is all gathered around the living room, the child clutching to the end of the table.  All at once, he takes his first wobbly steps away from the table, probably right in to the waiting mother's open arms.  All gathered family look proudly pleased.  The memory is captured on film, still photography, and the memories of the entire family.

This ridiculous notion must be burned - for first steps, and indeed for all "firsts."

Already, despite my best intentions, I've let a few milestones go.  The "baby book," into which I was going to record all of James' first events to the last detail, lies empty, dormant, and gathering dust.  Things I thought I would never forget - the day I stopped breastfeeding, the first night he slept on his own - have now disappeared into the cloud of "sometime around 9 months, or 3 months, or whatever."  I can barely even remember last night - did he wake up?  What did he eat?

And we haven't recorded as many videos as we intended.  We started out making one short 30-45 second video a day, which quickly lapsed into one a week.  We kept that up for about two months, at great effort.  At the present time, it's been about 4 months since the last video.

If you feel yourself in a similar situation, where day-to-day living takes priority over recording the present for posterity, take heart.  Last weekend, Brendan and I settled in to watch some of these old videos of the first few weeks of his life.  We went to one of my favourites - when James saw his first video game, and eagerly outstretched his hand to touch the moving figures.  We used to proudly observe how he reacted as we watched the video time and again.

Now?  The video is - let's be honest - completely boring.  James resembles a worm.  He has no facial reaction, and his fingers are shaky.  New edition James would be able to push this little one over, grab the game, and start laughing.

Recording the past may not be so important after all.  Do we longingly wish for our old computers from 2000?  No!  The new edition does all the previous tricks, and more.  Just like James.

So, take my advice, and record a few things every now and then.  But living is much more important than recording - and if you don't have the time to record now, how will you have the time to watch later?