Many months before Madelyn was born, I realized that becoming a father meant that my responsibility as an amateur photographer and filmmaker increased significantly. Well, when it comes to capturing moments, I think I’ve been doing pretty well for the most part – of course along with a lot of help from both sets of grandparents and an already very photo-conscious mommy. Over the past 16 months, we’ve taken [tens of] thousands of photos and [a few] hours of footage and they have all been shared [possibly too] liberally with friends and family on Facebook as well as right here on this blog.

I do feel that there is one thing that’s been missing though – Madelyn’s “First Year” video. I mean, my version of this video was just basically my dad using the camcorder for a couple of mornings and afternoons and stringing all the footage together sequentially on the same VHS tape. It wasn’t exactly a creative masterpiece but at least it was all contained and easily accessible (as long as you had a VCR). Now, most of our videos are scattered across iPhones and they are all two or three minute clips that are perfect for YouTube but hardly worthy of snuggling up on the couch with Madelyn and a bowl of popcorn and watching in sequence so we can reminisce about the early years. All these video clips and pictures need to come together in a single sensory masterpiece.

As you might have guessed, I’ve already begun working on it. In fact, the plan was to have it ready by Madelyn’s first birthday, but of course, no one ever really thought that would happen. With any luck, though, maybe I’ll have it ready by her second birthday and perhaps I could even extend it to be Madelyn’s “First Two Years” video. If my four-year honeymoon video project is any indication, though, I may actually be working on Madelyn’s “Pre-Kindergarten Years” video.

Well, luckily, I’m not a complete failure. I have been able to pull together a great opening sequence for whichever version of Madelyn’s “First Year[s]” video ultimately gets completed. It covers the first five days of Madelyn’s life in photos, video, and music. Of course, while this may seem like a small achievement, rest assured that the amount of available content is slightly skewed toward the beginning of M’s life – we were all a bit camera happy back then. So the good news is that while I still have [at least] 360 days left to cover, I’m hoping it won’t take me as long to put it all together.

So, enjoy the first few days of Madelyn’s life and have fun being as amazed as I am by just how small she once was:

(If you watch this and feel like you may have seen it before, perhaps you’ve followed this blog for a while and are just having a little deja vu.)