Downsizing.

After our big Hallowe'en photo shoot with Padrin – and subsequent downloading of some very large files onto my computer – it suddenly became quite clear that my computer hard drive is not a bottomless well of storage space.

The warning that said storage space was perilously low caught me quite off guard, but it was certainly an eye opener.

In a previous life (AKA "before babies") I worked as a graphic designer and have a considerable amount of client files on this computer dating back to 2005. I designed for both print and web and I can assure you that there are some very large print files being stored on my computer. Trade-show displays. Multi-page documents rife with hi-res photos. Billboards.

The complete contents of my client folder adds up to 13 GB. This is the sum of 5 years of work.

My folder with every single picture I've ever taken of my boys EVER?

Well, that would be 30 GB.

That's 30 gigabytes, everyone!

For the non-nerdy types, rest assured it's a lot.

Like, a lot a lot a lot.

And as much as I enjoy taking pics of the boys, I am still fumbling my way toward hobbyist level at best. For every 30 photos I take of my sons, maybe 3 are keepers.

I am no Padrin.

So, I've been spending "all my free time" lately making an effort to properly archive the nice photos of the boys (ie. largely the ones that made it onto the blog).

I've still got a long way to go, but have made a small dent at least – and in doing so, I've unearthed a few treasures.

Treasures I'd put aside to blog about later.

At the time, I never would have thought that "later" would mean 17 months later, and yet here we are.

Without further ado (and before Gamma Rita leaves a message complaining about all the posts lately with no pictures), the OP proudly presents a blast from the past in the form of 4 month old Nate and Seth:

Gamma Rita was in fact sitting across from me when I took these pics. We were on a patio at Starbucks™ enjoying the summer weather after a nice walk with the boys during her epic first visit to finally meet her grandsons. She even bought those outfits, including the "Division Champ" t-shirts and the "Team Captain" hoodies. I can't believe I still remember all that actually, but I do. Maybe it was because it was the first time I realized how sharp they look in orange. 

Or "unge" as my babies would say. 

Looking back, I can now see that Seth was already working on his cool-dude gaze that would later be the downfall of many a cutie, and that Nate was still 75% eyeballs. 

I can also see that Nate was deploying his wing-flaps and that that probably meant something, but I didn't know about wing-flaps then so it went unnoticed at the time. Seth was clearly onto it though, and also over it.

And lastly there was this: 

The precursor to all those teeth that continue to torment us to this day. I knew something was up even at the time. If the boys weren't busy drooling, they were busy chewing. They loved those terry cloths like nobody's business. 

- L.

PS. I hope you all enjoyed the trip down memory lane. I have a feeling there will at least a few more posts much like this one while I get busy archiving things properly.