New parents are a special breed of people. They are thrusted into this awesome responsibility with absolutely no handbook. Yes, people can give you all types of advice, but you have to really learn on the job. That's the only way to do it.
One of those duties as a parent is to capture every minute of your kid's lives -- well, maybe not every minute, but pretty damn close to it.
So, what do you get the new parent for Christmas to help them in their endeavor to be the family paparazzi? Here are five items:
Handheld Video Camera: There are two major handheld video camera manufacturers on the market -- Kodak and Flip. Both are good choices and shoot high definition. The great thing is that there's no need to convert the video files as they are in a format that you can manipulate right from the get go. You can upload right to Facebook, for example.
Canon Powershot S95: Point and shoot cameras are a dime a dozen, but the Canon Powershot S95 is a great little toy. It has a solid built, takes great pictures and also shoots high def video (720p). It's pretty slim and fits right into your pocket (or diaper bag).
CEIVA Digital Photo Frame: These little frames are fantastic. They are digital photo frames that you can connect to your home wi-fi and send pictures to the frame from Facebook, Picasa, iPhoto, you mobile device, etc. Basically, it eliminates the need to load up memory cards and ensures that the pics on the frame are in constant rotation, i.e. you're not viewing photos from the summer when it's Christmas time.
External Hard Drives: This gift is the gift that will house the memories that you'll capture with the first two items on this list. You need a place to secure the videos and photos. Keeping them on the computer is ok, but what if your computer craps the bed? All those memories would be lost and of course, that would be tragic.
Online Back-up: In addition to a hard drive, online back-up is a great gift because it ensures that those memories will live in the "cloud" and be available to you when and if you need to access your back-up. If something tragic ever happened to your house, your computer, your hard drive, etc. the online back-up would ensure that your memories would still be available to you.
What's on your new parent Christmas list?