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Have you ever seen those cartoon flip books. You know the ones if you flip the pages at the right speed the book seems to come to life. The still characters if drawn just right get set in motion. They remind me of my brothers baby books. I swear if you flip fast enough it is as if you can watch him grow. The first year of his life so well documented. Like a court stenographer was running around after him recording every coo, ooh, ah, and giggle. First steps. First words. Locks of hair. All recorded. Saved in a book. Every facial expression. Silly or sly smile. Mad, sad, and teary eyed mood. All captured. Kept in plastic pockets.

Then along came me. If you flipped through my album you would find that I was born. Baptized. And then I turned one. My mother stands by her story that the camera was broken.... which I would be inclined to believe except for the fact that it seemed to magically work on holidays. That and now I have more than one child.

From the day Aidan was born until he turned 5 I took note of everything. Took thousands of pictures. Literally thousands. Saved everything from scribbles on scraps of paper to ticket stubs of shows we took him to. I wrote down every major milestone. His first smile. First wave hello. First steps. First word (s). First hair cut. Which I saved the hair from and then sometime later got repulsed by the old hair sitting in the book and threw it out (but that is a whole other story). I wrote little notes behind photographs about what his favorite thing was about that day. 5 time consuming. Meticulously crafted. Made with love. Scrap books. I spent hundreds of dollars on paper. Stickers and stamps. Glue and tape.

I took Aidan for those monthly professional portraits and for special occasions in between. I sent out post cards for every holiday with matching stamps that also had his face. The walls in our house were all plastered with.... AIDAN. AIDAN. AND MORE AIDAN.

And then I had Seark. His first professional pictures were taken when he was one week old and then not again until he turned one. I took fewer pictures and rarely got any printed. If I did it was because someone asked for updated shots of the boys and then I would get so many printed at one time that it was overwhelming and I would wind up throwing them all in a shoe box until I could really sort through everything. One by one the shoe boxes filled up while the scrap books remained empty.

And then came Ry. He is almost one and I have yet to even print and hang a picture of him on the wall. I can already hear myself telling them how the camera was broken when they came along. I don't love them any less. They are certainly just as cute.  I just can not seem to find the time. If it weren't for groovebook (if you don't know about them check them out) and the camera on my cell phone there may not even be any record that I had anymore children. Well that's an exaggeration but you get the idea. With each baby I took fewer pictures. Forgot to document even some of the things that I wish I had. Days turn into weeks. Weeks into months. Months into a year. Then two, three and four. So today I decided to stop procrastinating and start putting together books for Seark and Rylan. With in 5 minutes Rylan woke up from his nap and I decided to start tomorrow. Definitely tomorrow... after we go grocery shopping. Straighten up the house. Make lunch. Put Ry down for a nap. Throw on a load of laundry. Get a start on dinner so I can go to the gym by 7:00.... and oh who am I kidding it's probably not gonna happen tomorrow either. So for now I took a short cut and uploaded everything I haven't printed to shutterfly and ordered picture books. They don't compare to the books I made for Aidan... but hey its a start. I even ordered a few canvas prints of Rylan to hang on these walls. I have decided to stop giving my mother the guilt trip too... mostly because I have a feeling I am the next one in line for that ride.