When Seamus was born, we were like most new parents, armed with a camera and a baby book, and a Flip cam and an iPhone… As a photographer, I was more concerned with bringing the proper photo gear to the hospital than the right clothes. Once he was born, I was obsessed with every new thing he did. Most new parents are.

I have always loved Dooce‘s monthly blog posts that marked her daughter(s) growth. It reminded me of finding a very detailed schedule that my mom had written out for our babysitter many moons ago. Things like that fascinate me. I remember bits and pieces of my early childhood, but am always interested to learn more and compare that to who I am today.

In an effort to encapsulate the swell of love that comes with a new baby and to freeze the constant changes so they would not slip away, I decided to write weekly journal updates for Seamus’ first year. I deliberately made the entries short and sweet, mostly so I’d not get overwhelmed by the self-imposed obligation. As for the photos, that wasn’t a problem. He was like the ultimate portrait challenge. How many different ways could I photograph this baby? This proved to be an interesting study in my own development as I can see a gradual but distinct change of style in the photos around the six month mark.

The end result is a week by week book that I’ve created out of the journal entries and images. I plan to post them to the blog, week by week, over the next year. Happy One Year Birthday, Baby! Look what we were doing last year this time!