Strolling Down Memory Lane

I've mentioned before that my husband is off during the summer so he's currently doing projects around the house. His latest project is converting all of our old VHS home movies into a digital format. Yesterday evening I got to watch my wedding. Today I got to see excerpts from my now 14-year old daughter's first year of life. By the time my son was born we were exclusively on digital devices, so I've watched videos from his infancy from time-to-time, but this was the first time, probably since we made the recordings, that I've seen video of my daughter from that age.

It's almost magical to see ourselves as newlyweds and new parents again. We were so young and inexperienced back then. My daughter was the center of our family's universe. She was the first grandchild on both sides of the family, and the first great-grandchild for some of our grandparents. It was also very wonderful to see video of people who aren't with us any longer. I saw an aunt, an uncle, a grandfather, and a great-grandfather who have since died. We saw my husband's grandmother not only while she was still alive, but before the Alzheimer's had stolen much of her personality. But my very favorite was getting to see my Dad walk me down the aisle, and watching our easy interactions during my daughter's first birthday party.

My husband asked if it made me sad. I told him no, it actually reminded me of how wonderful our lives have been and made me feel very grateful. I've been feeling a little down lately, I think because I'm so tired (I do have a doctor's appointment on July 24th to do something about that). So it was exactly what I needed. I also a very productive half day at work today, so between the two I'm feeling much better now than I was this morning.