Documenting your kids' development?

[birdgirl73]

Is anyone else here into documenting your kids' development? We only have one son, and we've always been in his face with cameras. I also always kept all the requisite baby milestone books, keepsakes, report cards, etc., and we took videos of his soccer games, school events, Christmases and all that. I think as a writer, I've always had an urge to leave various types of records behind. A close friend helped plant an idea in my head the year I got married to do a video chronicle if I ever had a baby, and I've done that faithfully. My younger sister, who's a trained video producer, helped.

Every year on my son's birthday, which is in May, we'd set up a camera and shoot about 5 minutes of video of him and me and his dad. We started it with video footage of him coming home from the hospital and as a newborn. And then on his first and second birthdays, it was mostly just us sitting there next to him in his high-chair, listening to him coo and babble and talking briefly about his likes/dislikes and key family and baby-development milestones. But as he got older and could converse, I'd ask him questions about his year, the high points, the low ones, his attitudes about life, his favorite toys, animals, activities, friends. There is a funny one from his 14th birthday where he was furious at us and was in a sullen teenage mood, arms crossed tightly across his chest, just enduring the torment and barely answering my questions.

I began sorting through that footage today to begin compiling some of it into a DVD to show at his 21st birthday party this spring. I guess I'll end the chronicle with 21, but I may wait till he graduates college and is fully on his own. I haven't made my mind up yet. I think he and his future wife and kids and grandkids are going to love watching the video chronicles someday. I had tears pouring down my face as I was reviewing some of the footage because, of course, those baby years won't ever come again.

Just wondered if anyone else has done anything similar and figured it'd be neat to share the idea with those of you out there who are planning kids in the future or have small children and babies now.

birdgirl73 Reviewed by birdgirl73 on 02-12-2007. Documenting your kids' development? Is anyone else here into documenting your kids' development? We only have one son, and we've always been in his face with cameras. I also always kept all the requisite baby milestone books, keepsakes, report cards, etc., and we took videos of his soccer games, school events, Christmases and all that. I think as a writer, I've always had an urge to leave various types of records behind. A close friend helped plant an idea in my head the year I got married to do a video chronicle if I ever had a Rating: 5

[BabySnookums]

i still have the hair from our son's first haircut ^_^

i look at the pics of him when he was like, 2 days old...now he's 2 years old...and i'm just amazed. the other day we looked in on him in his room, and we found out he sleeps like his daddy...with a pillow pulled over his head ^_^

[Skink]

i still have the hair from our son's first haircut ^_^

i look at the pics of him when he was like, 2 days old...now he's 2 years old...and i'm just amazed. the other day we looked in on him in his room, and we found out he sleeps like his daddy...with a pillow pulled over his head ^_^

That was cute...

[Skink]

Is anyone else here into documenting your kids' development? We only have one son, and we've always been in his face with cameras. I also always kept all the requisite baby milestone books, keepsakes, report cards, etc., and we took videos of his soccer games, school events, Christmases and all that. I think as a writer, I've always had an urge to leave various types of records behind. A close friend helped plant an idea in my head the year I got married to do a video chronicle if I ever had a baby, and I've done that faithfully. My younger sister, who's a trained video producer, helped.

Every year on my son's birthday, which is in May, we'd set up a camera and shoot about 5 minutes of video of him and me and his dad. We started it with video footage of him coming home from the hospital and as a newborn. And then on his first and second birthdays, it was mostly just us sitting there next to him in his high-chair, listening to him coo and babble and talking briefly about his likes/dislikes and key family and baby-development milestones. But as he got older and could converse, I'd ask him questions about his year, the high points, the low ones, his attitudes about life, his favorite toys, animals, activities, friends. There is a funny one from his 14th birthday where he was furious at us and was in a sullen teenage mood, arms crossed tightly across his chest, just enduring the torment and barely answering my questions.

I began sorting through that footage today to begin compiling some of it into a DVD to show at his 21st birthday party this spring. I guess I'll end the chronicle with 21, but I may wait till he graduates college and is fully on his own. I haven't made my mind up yet. I think he and his future wife and kids and grandkids are going to love watching the video chronicles someday. I had tears pouring down my face as I was reviewing some of the footage because, of course, those baby years won't ever come again.

Just wondered if anyone else has done anything similar and figured it'd be neat to share the idea with those of you out there who are planning kids in the future or have small children and babies now.

I love you like a sister but,,, if you showed that at my 21st birthday I would be so embarrased I would need an ice pack... I hope he is different and can take the heat...

[Chronic Chrissy]

Our Duaghter is only 6 months. I've fallen behind in the milestones book but she has a journal that was started when I was 7 weeks pg. Every little thing or thought is written down every week or two I sit down and write my heart out. I have a snip of hair from when she was 1 month old. We have footprints and smudged handprints. Oh and the video recorder, I just keep it on the back of the couch and almost daily turn it on for a few minutes here and there. As you can tell she's our first and only. The number of pictures is unbelievable.

[napolitana869]

my parents were really good about taking lots of pictures of my older brother, but when I came along taking pictures wasnt really in the front of their minds. It's worse for my boyfriend though. He's the last of 3.

[Fengzi]

Photography is a hobby of mine and I've taken, literally, thousands of pictures of our daughter since she was born 3 years ago. We had one of the milestones books but never kept up with it though. I wish we did but for some reason just never got around to it.

Speaking of that type of thing, has anyone ever tried one of those things where you make a cast of your baby's hand and then make a little plaster statue of it? We got one as a gift when my daugher was born and I must say that it caused pure misery and a huge amount of stress on two people already stressed out from lack of sleep. You make this warm goo and then are supposed to put your infants hand in it and hold it motionless for like 30 seconds. Yeah, right We went though about 20 of those damn kits before giving up.

[Skink]

Photography is a hobby of mine and I've taken, literally, thousands of pictures of our daughter since she was born 3 years ago. We had one of the milestones books but never kept up with it though. I wish we did but for some reason just never got around to it.

Speaking of that type of thing, has anyone ever tried one of those things where you make a cast of your baby's hand and then make a little plaster statue of it? We got one as a gift when my daugher was born and I must say that it caused pure misery and a huge amount of stress on two people already stressed out from lack of sleep. You make this warm goo and then are supposed to put your infants hand in it and hold it motionless for like 30 seconds. Yeah, right We went though about 20 of those damn kits before giving up.

I think a Daughter would accept a cronical way easier than a Son...

ha ha that's like the Vet giving me a bottle of pills and expecting the cat to just take one twice a day...

[Skink]

I love you like a sister but,,, if you showed that at my 21st birthday I would be so embarrased I would need an ice pack... I hope he is different and can take the heat...

I hope I did not upset you,,,this might of been an unnecessary post...

[birdgirl73]

I hope I did not upset you,,,this might of been an unnecessary post...

Hey there! Oh heavens no, you didn't upset me. I was online for a short time last night but had a lot of studying to get to and so didn't even remember to circle back around to this thread.

You made a good point. I raised the same question with Dave when we started looking at the video on Sunday. He said, "Aw heck, don't worry about that. It won't be fun unless he turns red." Typical guy. Y'all are so much less worried about embarrassing each other than women are, usually. So I called our son that afternoon and told him what we were thinking, and he said "There aren't any diaper-changing shots of me or anything, are there?" I assured him there weren't. And then he said "I'll be fine with it." I just couldn't not run that by him.

Anyway, we're not planning to show the whole birthday video from each year. That'd be boring and potentially embarrassing. My sister, who's producing this, is basically making a sort of birthday documentary about him, and one part of it will be fast cuts from each year of birthday video to show his growth. Essentially still shots from those video chronicles, one after another, that'll pass very quickly. The more potentially embarrassing part is going to be the documentary itself, where she includes video of his friends talking about him over the years, big life events, his grandparents, and us. But he authorized the entire idea back at Christmas, so I trust he'll be OK with it. He's fairly easy-going kid and able to let stuff roll of his back. I'm sure my sister will show him a rough cut before she finishes it so he can veto anything he hates.

And by the way, I happen to love you like a brother, too!