The Best Reality Show

One of my favorite films starring Jim Carrey is The Truman Show. (That and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.) The concept of The Truman Show came just before Hollywood began to burst at the seams with show after show of reality television. In a way, the idea of following a man's life from the moment of conception to his birth and documenting his childhood and growth into adulthood was far fetched. But at the same time this concept was so dangerously close to giving a glimpse at what our future holds for the common man and our obsession with "reality" TV. While some aspects of the film remain somewhat unfeasible for the real world, the notion that a person's life becomes documented for the world to see is a reality we've yet to see but one I believe will happen eventually.

But theories aside, one of my favorite scenes in the film is pictured below. Ed Harris as Christof, the creator and director of "The Truman Show", watches over Truman (Jim Carrey) as he sleeps. The physicality of the scene and the emotion of the music is what draws me in every time I watch it.

To tie this in with my own kids, we recently received our first video monitor set from my Aunt as a gift for Aaron. Since he is currently sleeping in our room we decided to give it a try by setting the camera up in Noah's room. I'm telling you, watching your kid's nighttime antics when you thought they were sleeping is literally the best reality show that I've seen to date!

The first night as we were headed to bed - around 11:00pm - we noticed Noah moving around. He was awake and rolling back and forth and trying his hardest to go back to sleep. He did eventually but it took everything in me to not go in there and snuggle with him. I felt lonely for him being awake in the dark with no sound but the rain from his noise maker. Obviously he was alright but I didn't realize it would effect me as such.

We enjoyed testing it again as he took his regular nap times and I actually showed him the camera and the monitor together explaining what it does. The camera has a small red light circle that glows faintly in his room that he can see. Since our show-and-tell of the new system we've been a little more highly entertained. When Noah wakes he looks for the camera and stares straight into it, somehow knowing and expecting that we're watching and he's waiting. We've even caught him playing peekaboo with it!

Last night as I was putting Aaron back to bed after a 4:00am bottle feeding, I turned on the monitor to find Noah sitting straight up in bed. His glowing eyes were looking right at the camera. As sleepy as I was I could not take my eyes off him wondering what he was thinking. I knew he was waiting and listening for any sign of light or movement within the house to tell him that it was morning. After a few minutes of tossing and turning he went back to sleep.

So it was at this early hour that I randomly thought of The Truman Show and the scene with Christof and for the first time I felt the real emotion of that moment. Not that I needed a film to help me connect with how I feel about my son, but the emotions of love and concern and protectiveness over Noah washed over me and I was reminded how blessed I am to be his Mom.

Isn't technology amazing?