It started when I was away in China. The Boys were missing The Girls so they went and put on the family DVDs I'd made years ago. They were a huge hit, the boys were transfixed, but all the way through Scrag kept asking, "Where's me?"
Oh dear. Mr G was in trouble. He emailed me in a panic asking if we had any movies of Scrag or there would be fireworks.
Of course for years I had been filming every birthday and Christmas and holiday abroad, but the mini discs could only be watched through the camera (I had failed to "finalise" them for "playback on other devices".)
From the other side of the world I tried to remember how to operate the camera for playback. Somehow hubby was able to decipher my instructions. A crisis averted, a small boy appeased.
Scrag was in love with the sight of himself on film.
He gives his requests sing-song style, over and over, until we sigh and go hook up the camera and sort through the bag of mini-discs until we find the one he wants to watch.
Christmas 2008 is his favourite (where daddy makes baby-Scrag dance on his knee wearing his new shoes). His first birthday teddy bears picnic is another favourite, along with our most recent Gold Coast holiday.
As long as he sees himself on the screen, Scrag is happy.
Of course it's been fun for us too.
It had been a while since we watched the old family movies.
It had gotten to the point that I'd even given up filming birthday parties, content to give up my juggling act between capturing video footage and snapping photos since nobody really watched the videos anyway.
Oh dear. A grave miscalculation there, Simoney.
Now we have missed filming the epic Peter Pan Party (one of my best ever) and the fun Baking Birthday (so enjoyable). Christmas 2011 went unfilmed too, along with this year's school shows and holidays.
What was I thinking????
It's time to charge up my handicam battery pack. Invest in some more mini-discs. Start capturing life's special moments in live action again.
Because photos are wonderful, but in the end they are only a snapshot. There's no soundtrack on a photo. A photo doesn't capture the sound of childish voices and the funny things they say.
I didn't realise how sweet and cute Dash's little-boy voice was. I forgot how Scrag used to call his dummy, his "dummygone" (as in Where's your dummy gone?). Miss Fab's hairstyles and endless handstands. The Christmases where the kids blew us away with their lovely manners: "Let Scrag go first cos he's the littlest".
I'd forgotten how much hugging and kissing and laughing and wrestling and joking we have enjoyed through the years.
Priceless.
And now I know what I'm going to do for Scrag this Christmas... Convert all those endless mini discs onto DVD so I don't have to hook up blimmin cables and handicam every time he says those words:
"Can I watch a Movie of Me...?"
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