Baby Footage from Exactly 20 Years Ago
When I think about the children with parents who film every single day of their growing up, I must admit that I get sort of jealous. Well, maybe not jealous but I think it must be so cool for them to look back at footage of themselves growing up. My parents have always been taking tons of photos, which my mother then arranged into photo albums. I love those photo albums but I've rarely sen myself on film, especially at a very young age - that is until now.
We're moving my little brother from his room upstairs to the basement, which for many years have mainly functioned as a place to store a lot of our old stuff. Back in the day, it was my mother's office but that's along time ago. As a family effort, we're clearing it out and my mother stumbled across an old VHS tape in one of her drawers. Remember those? If not, then this is how it looks like.
Pretty rustic, am I right? Oh, it brings back so many memories. My mother was just about the throw it out seeing as we haven't really seen anything on VHS for years (we hardly even use our old DVD player). I stopped her.
I have an old TV in my room that's just been sitting collecting dust for years. I don't even think I've turned it on for maybe five years. It's small and crappy, but it has a built in VHS player! Thanks to my mother's organising skills, she had written the exact dates, which it was filmed, on the tape. It was filmed on the 22nd and 23rd of July 1995! Exactly 20 years ago as I'm writing this!! I don't know what to say about that coincidence.
At first I just got the classic screen of black and white flimmer and worried that my player might have broken or something. Then I remembered that tapes doesn't automatically goes back to the beginning, so I played it back and it had over 35 minutes of footage! Even the four blurred lines indicating that it was playing back, made me think of how many childhood movies I've done that too.
I stood in awe on my bed, as I can't really see the screen that well otherwise, and just felt all the nostalgia. I'm about eight and a half months old at the point and I'm round-faced, wide-eyed, very curious and fairly defiant. I never share photos of myself on this blog but I thought that I would share a snapchat or two of me as a baby anyway.
While it funny to see myself, I'm more fascinated by seeing my parents. They are the same. With more baby talk, especially from my father's side whom also tried to call me to him like a dog - thanks, dad! - and singing along to children's songs. Speaking of dogs, I also got to see our old Boxer whom I sadly don't remember very well because she died before I turned four.
In one of the shots, she's licking my head and ear and I'm having none of it. I push my fat fingers in her face and she patiently stands still before carefully licking them as well. She was so gentle with me and it's absolutely adorable. I'm sure she wasn't pleased that a new baby joined the family but by this point she's totally accepted me.
My father is the camera-man most of the time but that doesn't stop my mother from commenting on if he's filming, if he got that or if he should turn it off for a while. It sounds just like them now to be honest. The one time I am sitting with my father, of course, he is trying to coach my mother how to operate the camera and zoom out. He's very didactic, as he is today.
Even then I also had the ability to play by myself. Quite a few minutes are just me tugging at a robe at the front of a train toy with ducks on top, utterly mesmerised and entertained. I can hear my mother talking about me in the background, it sounds like she's on the phone to somebody, and she tells them that I do that almost every day. I do it after I've eaten and am sort of sleepy but don't want to sleep, but it seems like I'm still relaxing doing it.
I've yet to show it to either of my parents, as they had to head out just as we found the tape but I'm definitely showing it to them. I'm so glad it stopped my mother from throwing it out. Sure, we have saved a lot of old crap but most of it holds a sentimental value and some are actual gems like this tape. It's like a time machine into the past.
I recognise our old furniture but not really the home as we moved two years later. But apparently, I didn't want to leave my room when we had to move to the new house, which sounds so much like me. I wasn't sure that babies and young children were supposed to have so many stubborn opinions but I did.
It was nice to see myself as a baby, although very, very weird. Like, that was me once. I was that small and unable to talk and refusing to walk on camera, even though both of my parents tried to convince me to do so. I was biting the edge of my cot and the edge of the foot rest. I crawled under the dining table and sat under the chairs, something according to my mother's voice in the background, I did all the time.
I thought this too precious not to write about it and the coincidence of the dates are just too amazing not to share it immediately. Maybe, this was the universe throwing me a bone, telling me that I too could see what I had been like as a baby. It's not just for YouTube children.
I'm so happy that we found this and that we still had a player that could play it. Thanks, mum and dad of the past, for recording that!
We're moving my little brother from his room upstairs to the basement, which for many years have mainly functioned as a place to store a lot of our old stuff. Back in the day, it was my mother's office but that's along time ago. As a family effort, we're clearing it out and my mother stumbled across an old VHS tape in one of her drawers. Remember those? If not, then this is how it looks like.
Pretty rustic, am I right? Oh, it brings back so many memories. My mother was just about the throw it out seeing as we haven't really seen anything on VHS for years (we hardly even use our old DVD player). I stopped her.
I have an old TV in my room that's just been sitting collecting dust for years. I don't even think I've turned it on for maybe five years. It's small and crappy, but it has a built in VHS player! Thanks to my mother's organising skills, she had written the exact dates, which it was filmed, on the tape. It was filmed on the 22nd and 23rd of July 1995! Exactly 20 years ago as I'm writing this!! I don't know what to say about that coincidence.
At first I just got the classic screen of black and white flimmer and worried that my player might have broken or something. Then I remembered that tapes doesn't automatically goes back to the beginning, so I played it back and it had over 35 minutes of footage! Even the four blurred lines indicating that it was playing back, made me think of how many childhood movies I've done that too.
I stood in awe on my bed, as I can't really see the screen that well otherwise, and just felt all the nostalgia. I'm about eight and a half months old at the point and I'm round-faced, wide-eyed, very curious and fairly defiant. I never share photos of myself on this blog but I thought that I would share a snapchat or two of me as a baby anyway.
While it funny to see myself, I'm more fascinated by seeing my parents. They are the same. With more baby talk, especially from my father's side whom also tried to call me to him like a dog - thanks, dad! - and singing along to children's songs. Speaking of dogs, I also got to see our old Boxer whom I sadly don't remember very well because she died before I turned four.
In one of the shots, she's licking my head and ear and I'm having none of it. I push my fat fingers in her face and she patiently stands still before carefully licking them as well. She was so gentle with me and it's absolutely adorable. I'm sure she wasn't pleased that a new baby joined the family but by this point she's totally accepted me.
My father is the camera-man most of the time but that doesn't stop my mother from commenting on if he's filming, if he got that or if he should turn it off for a while. It sounds just like them now to be honest. The one time I am sitting with my father, of course, he is trying to coach my mother how to operate the camera and zoom out. He's very didactic, as he is today.
Even then I also had the ability to play by myself. Quite a few minutes are just me tugging at a robe at the front of a train toy with ducks on top, utterly mesmerised and entertained. I can hear my mother talking about me in the background, it sounds like she's on the phone to somebody, and she tells them that I do that almost every day. I do it after I've eaten and am sort of sleepy but don't want to sleep, but it seems like I'm still relaxing doing it.
I've yet to show it to either of my parents, as they had to head out just as we found the tape but I'm definitely showing it to them. I'm so glad it stopped my mother from throwing it out. Sure, we have saved a lot of old crap but most of it holds a sentimental value and some are actual gems like this tape. It's like a time machine into the past.
I recognise our old furniture but not really the home as we moved two years later. But apparently, I didn't want to leave my room when we had to move to the new house, which sounds so much like me. I wasn't sure that babies and young children were supposed to have so many stubborn opinions but I did.
It was nice to see myself as a baby, although very, very weird. Like, that was me once. I was that small and unable to talk and refusing to walk on camera, even though both of my parents tried to convince me to do so. I was biting the edge of my cot and the edge of the foot rest. I crawled under the dining table and sat under the chairs, something according to my mother's voice in the background, I did all the time.
I thought this too precious not to write about it and the coincidence of the dates are just too amazing not to share it immediately. Maybe, this was the universe throwing me a bone, telling me that I too could see what I had been like as a baby. It's not just for YouTube children.
I'm so happy that we found this and that we still had a player that could play it. Thanks, mum and dad of the past, for recording that!
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