📷 Pics Or It Didn't Happen

In this week's P.O. Box:

April dribbled a soccer ball for the first time yesterday. It took me by surprise because it wasn’t something we had been “practicing” or anything.

I was giggling to myself while watching her try to control the ball down the driveway before the impulse kicked in…

I should record this.

When April turned one, I wrote about how I’ve traditionally been bad at remembering to take photos and videos because I enjoy soaking up a moment without any distractions.

These days, I’m constantly wrestling with the desire to be present or try to capture it with a photo or quick video. The urge to document has been stronger than ever recently because April is now doing so many things for the first time—saying her name, using a fork, walking backwards (it’s one of her favorite bits), taking a bubble bath.

I’ve been trying to unpack exactly why this gravitational pull to capture moments exists after discussing it with my pal Denny Carter on his new ‘Dad Szn’ show the other day.

A lot of it comes from a reasonable place of wanting to share it with family and friends—specifically her grandparents who live thousands of miles away and devour every morsel of April content—but there’s also this element of wanting to preserve the moment.