Capturing Pieces of Them

I haven’t quite grasped the practice of video taping my kids. Mostly I leave that up to Justin, and his phone fills quickly with all sorts of random clips of each child. There are baseball moments, first cartwheels in gymnastics, first rides on a two wheeler and even first smiles. My phone and most of my devices are full of still shots; snaps of all of the above, plus about 20 more to make sure that I got at least one really good one.

The one thing we don’t have very much of at all of is candid conversations with the kids. I want to remember that Jack is lisping with his two missing front teeth, and that Zoe has the most hilarious and adorable mannerisms, and that Beau’s words and language are coming to him quicker than his little mouth can keep up. I even want to remember the little cooing noises and the sounds of Evvie’s cries, the way they change so rapidly from the newborn phase. Shooting video is daunting for me, mostly because I find the editing process time intensive, mind numbing and excruciating. So, when we were introduced to the OneDay app and it’s incredibly easy, seamless editing and processing of video clips, I got excited.

The kids come home with all kinds of homework, but last night Zoe’s asked her to answer a handful of questions like “Who do you admire”, and “what are some of your strengths”-her handwritten answers were adorable, but would have been even sweeter if captured live and candid. That’s what OneDay does. It allows the user to ask questions, record the video of the child, and it neatly and easily strings together the answers into a short and concise piece. It’s honestly exactly the amount of time and effort that I feel like putting forth when using video, not to mention their attention span. The videos are easily saved to the device and I’ve even begun emailing them to relatives on the spot.

And, ladies and gentlemen: My toddler.

They’re cute and quick, and the kids had a blast watching them afterwards.

These moments are so, so rich and yet so incredibly fleeting. I’m thrilled that I have 6.2 million photos saved from the last seven years, but I wonder how often I’ll go through them in the future. I know for sure that having little video clips of my children with their different mannerisms and characteristics is going to be priceless to me, something that a photo won’t be able to provide, a brief moment back in time. The OneDay app’s ready-made template and simple functionality make this process much less daunting, especially for someone like me.

Thank you to OneDay for sponsoring this post, and thank you for reading!