The Youngest Bain EVER!

On a rainy Sunday morning, I sent Lisa off to get some well deserved pampering, and thought I’d get some QT with the boy.

We’d played with every toy we owned, but weren’t used to being stuck inside. We were running out of ideas.

I thought we’d explore the basement (parking garage), but when we got down there, Oliver became fascinated with the shopping carts we keep around to bring stuff up from our cars in the elevator.

I thought I’d give him a little ride, but every time I tried to stop, he begged for more (you can see him resort to sign language in the video’s final sequence).

We ended up goofing around down there for an hour. I filmed a fraction of what we did, and set it to some fun music.

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Oliver’s 1st birthday

It’s a big deal to travel with a baby. It’s hard for different reasons at different ages, and I can only imagine that it’s a lot harder with multiple kids.

But we HAD to take Oliver to the Cape this summer. He needed to drink in a little Cape magic, and we knew it’d be a riot to do a joint b-day party for him and his granddaddy (both born 7/30).

I knew that everyone involved would take a million pics, so I figured I’d focus a little more on video. By the time the week was done, I’d shot 86 minutes of footage on 3 different cameras.

I knew that’d take a while to go through, but I hadn’t accounted for the fact that I’d also be swamped with work after returning from a week off. That’s why this is being posted two weeks after the fact.

A few more things:

• Most movie crews have a “second unit” that deals with things like establishing shots (e.g. the quick shot from outside a house right before a cut to people in the kitchen talking). I felt at times like I needed a second unit on this trip. Without some of that filler footage, there’s a noticeable lack of context in many “scenes”.
• I know that no one has any interest in watching a 16 minute video of someone else’s kid. That’s fine. Don’t watch it. But I felt like making this to preserve the memory, and if any part of it is interesting to anyone else, by all means enjoy.
• I shot the video with a Kodak PlaySport (it was a groomsman gift at my brother’s wedding). It goes underwater safely, which is neat, but I realized quickly that Oliver doesn’t go underwater, so, other than a few quick shots of his thighs, I didn’t really use that feature :-)
  • I didn’t always do a stellar job of holding the camera steady. Sorry about that.
• I always like to stress with this stuff that I’m really careful not to let the filming and photographing of any major milestones get in the way of actually enjoying them in real-time. I shoot 10 seconds at a time, and there’s tons of stuff I don’t shoot. During some of the most special moments (e.g. the pony, the cake) I handed the camera to my sister’s boyfriend, Matt, who did some great camera work and freed me up to just be dad.

Oliver grew up a lot on the Cape. All the interaction and attention was obviously great for him. He was a great sport about constantly being the center of attention, and he performed his “tricks” whenever asked. We’d hoped he might take his first steps while he was there, but it didn’t quite come together in time.

We’re so thankful to Ann and Bill for hosting/planning/spoiling, but we got a lot of help everyone in the family throughout the week. THANKS A MILLION!

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For most people, a package with two crackers (or “mum mums” as Oliver knows them) is a quick snack.

For this guy, it’s an emotional journey of self-discovery. Friends become enemies, enemies become friends. And we all learn a little bit along the way.

In all seriousness, you can hear him making an “m” sound at the beginning of the video. Oliver loves these crackers, and makes this sound over an over when he sees them. It appears his first “word” is the brand name of his favorite meal :-)

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[The video was shot at 1080P; feel free to blow it up across your screen]

Oliver stood up on his own for the first time moments before we rolled tape (last weekend). I believe this is technically footage of the 3rd time he ever stood up on his own, but it’s exciting to see him realizing he can “go vertical.”

After a lot of careful consideration, everything suddenly “clicks” for him at the 0:55 point in the vid, then quickly “unclicks” at the 1:03 point.

You may also notice that part-way through he briefly sits “Tony Peña-style.”

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It got pretty sunny at the Giants game, so we came inside for a quick break.

I started bouncing the O-Zone on my knee, he got giggly, and Lisa’s camera started rolling. We caught about 25 seconds of the shinanigans.

It’s nothing special, just some afternoon silliness.

The other fun discovery: while Oliver was on my knee I dipped him back a few times, and he loved it. When I stopped after the third or fourth time, he whipped his head back to initiate another dip. I believe that’s the first time he’s explicitly communicated to us that he wanted to play a specific game.

We picked up Oliver from school together this evening.

The weather was perfect, and as we walked home, Lisa suggested we let Oliver test drive the nearby park’s swing set.

Wouldn’t you love a video of the first time your parents pushed you on the swings?

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