Whether your photographic storage solution involves Apple’s iPhoto program, like this writer, neatly organized photo albums or even a gigantic canvas beach bag filled to the brim with packages of pictures like my mother once employed, you should take the time to sit down as a family, flip through some photos and reminisce about the fun times, cool sights and goofy moments you experienced together.
My family had a pretty exciting 2006. We traveled great distances three times: The Gulf Coast of Florida, Maine, and France. We also made shorter trips to New York City, Philadelphia and a couple of other places. Naturally we have a ton of pictures documenting these amazing times.
We like to snuggle up in bed (yes, we do a lot of this!) about once a month to take new silly pictures with the built in camera on our Apple macbook and then casually scroll through all the photos stored on the laptop computer. We talk about the sights we saw in Paris, the fun things we did while up in Maine and the great times we had playing in the warm Gulf Coast water. I think it is important to remember, and actively think about and discuss, all the cool things you have seen and done together. Going through your photos regularly will also serve as a way to keep the memories alive and allow your family to relive some of those treasured emotions and moments captured on film or memory card.
For us, because we did some really neat things with our daughter at a very young age, we treat these photographic reviews as trips down learned memory lane. We know she will not, in all likelihood, remember all the events during her 2nd year, but if she frequently sees pictures of herself inside the Louvre, atop the Eiffel Tower and in a kayak in Maine, the thought is that we are helping to build up her memory skills by keeping the visual connection to her past alive and in front of her frequently. We do know this is working!
Just the other day, we pulled a free Olivia book from a box of Cheerios and in the short story Olivia dreams of Egypt and a Sphinx. Our girl immediately recants her own love of the Sphinx, and of a statue featuring two gigantic feet (with no body attached), that she saw in the Louvre. It came from left field, more than three months after our visit to Paris! We have no doubt that our monthly photo journey is helping make moments like this possible! Now that is fun!
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