The other night the moppets suggested that we watch home movies. I've got to be honest, watching hours of recorded school projects, Steadfast Husband telling everyone to, "Say, 'Hi'," and various moppets' firsts* is not my favorite thing to do. But the other night watching reenacted memories just felt right. So when they asked, I agree, née encouraged the home video bender to commence. (*To be clear, we have never caught an actual first on camera, but have done an awesomely mediocre job of enthusiastically recording recreated firsts).
At The Cottage, watching home movies is quite an ordeal and truly requires perseverance. We still haven't converted our VHS tapes to DVDs and our VCR is 138 years old...so after 45 minutes of finagling (by Steadfast Husband), hundreds of queries of "is it ready, yet?" (by the moppets), lots of unsolicited advice "just hit play!" (also the moppets) and endless heckling (by me- I believe in the motivational powers of heckling), Fall of 2004 came to life in full blurry black and white.
Snippets of Oldest Son, at age 13, skateboarding, Oldest Daughter, then 10, doing an interview-style book review, with her 7 year-old sister serving as the hard-hitting interviewer and middle and youngest sons showing true brotherly love as only a 4 year-old and 2 year-old can- hugging each other- with the acumen of professional wrestlers, with huge teeth-gritting smiles on their little faces, (there may have been some mooning as well, but I don't want to embarrass anyone).
I must admit to losing interest- a little (and by a little, I mean just a smidgen shy of completely), and was weighing my desire to flee with my lack of desire to move, when the sound of my nasally narrative roused me from my debate. "Okay, let me finish changing him, then you can hold him," I heard. I looked up at the screen to discover the most precious treasure ever! Crackling video footage of sweet baby Hart, he was lying on a blanket on the floor and I was zipping up his romper. I had never seen this footage before! I felt like one of those people who discovers an original Picasso hidden behind a painting of a leprechaun.
Watching the video, it is clear that we were aware that it was being filmed, but none of us had any memory of it, nor could anyone recall ever watching it. We all sat there and watched in silent awe. It was so amazing. And beautiful. And mundane-a diaper change, youngest son patiently waiting, then holding his baby brother-which held his interest for exactly 17 seconds, after which he scooted out from underneath our tandem baby holding fun and started climbing on the furniture. The beauty of the moment was in its complete ordinariness.
“I've seen and met angels wearing the disguise of ordinary people living ordinary lives”
-Tracy Chapman
I might still be sitting there now, lost in my reverie if I wasn't olfactively snapped out of it twenty minutes later when one of our adorable dogs had a smack-down with a skunk.
In my heart it still feels like Christmas morning! (Like an old-fashioned Christmas morning 'round the rendering plant, but Christmas morning all the same!)
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