It happened again.  And I'm going to say it AGAIN:  Print your favorite pics!

My son was visiting last weekend and brought his 6 month old son, Colt.  He's such a cutie (i'm talking about Colt, but his dad is, too) and proud dad was doing the father/son selfie thing with his phone.  We got into a discussion about who Colt looked like.  I went to the shelf and retrieved the little photo album I had made for my son with random pictures from birth to about 3 years old.  And there it was - a snapshot of my son looking exactly like Colt.  What fun we had with that.

Then my son made an innocent, but profound, observation.  "Wow, Colt's going to be really mad at me if I ever l lose this phone because all his baby pictures are in it."  Think about that.  What if all I had to use for comparing Colt and his dad was a roll of film or some negatives?  What image will Colt have when he's a new dad to see if HE looks like HIS son?  Will a cellphone camera roll survive 30 years of upgrades, transfers, and new technology?  Do you have printed pictures of yourself as a child?  Probably.  Does your child?

I made small photo albums for all 6 of my kids.  I'm no supermom but I thought this was an important endeavor.  All my kids were adopted at a young age and luckily each one came with a few photos of themselves as infants and even as newborns.  Some of those were poor quality Polaroids, but still the images were real.  For some reason I thought that the adoption situation made the albums even more critical for their history.  But now decades later, I passionately believe that printed, tangible images are important for everyone.  They're proof of life and childhood, validation of our memories.  Print a few of your favorite images and stick them in a little photo album.  I promise it will be one of your child's most cherished gifts.