On the 26th Februrary 2012, my husband Daniel and I became the proud parents of our beautiful baby girl, Ella Grace. It was an instinctive thing that we immediately reached for the camera to document this amazing moment in our lives. Within seconds, our baby girl was featured in many photographs with her tired but amazed parents looking at her adoringly. Since that moment in time, we have found ourselves taking photos endlessly. Whether it be on our camera, iPhone or iPad, the ability to capture her first smiles, blue eyes and cheeky grin has been something that has brought us much joy.
In my world at the moment, it seems that babies are everywhere. When I mean everywhere, I mean that Daniel and I counted twenty friends who were pregnant and expecting their first or second children in the first half of 2012. Incredibly, this means that we have been blessed with people who are sharing similar highs and lows, joys and struggles as we tackle the challenge of learning to be a Mum and Dad. It still makes me laugh to think that we are parents. Parents of who we think (of course), is the most gorgeous little girl on the planet. Taking photos and videos of her growing and developing is something that we hope will help us to enjoy each and every moment, as well as keep her tiny and cute for maybe just that little bit longer.
Sharing these photos with our family and friends has also been something that we have both enjoyed immensely. Whether it be via email, Facebook or Instagram, being able to instantly share these happy memories with the people we love only makes this time more amazing. This world that our baby girl is going to grow up in is so incredibly different from the one that we knew as young children in so many ways. Digital cameras mean that we can capture that perfect shot, and share it within seconds, with anyone, anywhere! I was at my Mum’s the other day and looked at the vast array of photo albums that adorn the study walls. It amazed me to think that I haven’t placed a photo in an album in over ten years. The last complete album that I have was for my wedding, and that was made by our photographer. To think that my Mum spent so much time developing photos and placing them lovingly in albums, many with captions to remember the moment. It makes me a little sad to think that we do not do this anymore. To add to this, last week my iPhoto library on my Mac crashed. Thousands of photos could have been lost (and believe me, they have been in the past), and if it wasn’t for my back up, then Ella’s first few months could have been wiped out.
This made me think about making sure that I document this time in a way that is safe, so that we and her can look back over these amazing months. A friend recently asked me If I had thought about creating a blog to do just this, with the hope that one day, Ella might write her own posts to add to mine. I thought this was a great idea, and given that I have blogged about technology in education for a while, I thought that this something that I would love to do. Not only capture photos in time, but also stories that other people might find familiar and can relate to. It has been the support of great family and friends that has helped us through this challenging yet amazing time. I hope that this blog can help us to share the amazing moments in time that we have each day with our baby girl. Hopefully one day she can read over this and know how much we love her, more than we ever thought possible.
A special thanks goes to Ellie @ Pitter Patter Portraits for her amazing photos of our beautiful girl….
