Earlier today, Harper noticed her own hand for the first time. After a few wild swings in the air, she reached out and wrapped her little fingers around her Reba the Zebra blankie. I sprang up from the floor, sprinted to the coffee table to grab my phone, stubbed seven of my 10 toes in the process, fumbled to get to the camera icon, waited for it to focus and SNAP… “OUT OF STORAGE.”
ARGH!!!!!!
So I did the only thing any sane mother would do… I began furiously deleting pictures and videos while trying to keep Harper distracted so she’d keep grabbing at Reba.
I’d love to tell you that this is the first time that’s happened, but it’s not. This is a daily occurrence. I take pictures. I run out of storage. I delete pictures. I curse at the lack of storage space on my phone. I take more pictures and the madness begins again.
In today’s insta-photo world, there’s no proof if there’s no picture. I can brag to Steph all day that Harper typed on the computer or did a cartwheel or cooked dinner by herself, but it never happened if it’s not on my phone. As a new mom, I’m constantly doing two things: Thinking about Harper and taking pictures of Harper. And I know I’m not alone. You can always spot a parent by how fast they whip out the phone to show you a picture of their kid. And when meeting someone for the first time, old school pleasantries (what do you do for a living?) have been replaced by new school pleasantries (wanna see a picture of my kid?).
One would assume there would be a device for moms that would allow us to take 35 million pictures of our newborn, instantaneously upload them to some big trunk in the sky and then let all our friends and family dive in and explore. Now I know what you’re saying: “use iCloud or Dropbox or Pinterest or Vimeo or YouTube or Shutterfly” or any of the ten thousand media outlets that I can pronounce but have no idea how to use. What I need is an IT specialist who wants to be my friend, and who works well with a baby crying in the background.
Before Harper came along, my smartphone priorities were Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and some news apps. Now, and I know other moms will agree with me, my phone priority is pictures, pictures, videos, pictures and pictures. So when I see OUT OF STORAGE, I might as well see I JUST KICKED YOU IN THE SHIN.
While I do dream of a world of limitless picture storage, sometimes it's sweeter to rely on your memory and not your computer. That is, until she giggles for the first time. Or talks. Or walks. Where's my phone?
