There are a lot of differing opinions on pretty much every topic when it comes to parenting but there is one universal truth that I think every parent will agree with: kids grow too fast.
We do everything we can to slow it down. We try our best to hold on to every moment. We painstakingly try to remember and record every memory.
I’ve done it all when it comes to recording memories. With the thousands of pictures we’ve taken of our children I’ve made videos, scrapbooks, digital picture books. I’ve shared our moments on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and now the blog. We frame those moments in an attempt to keep them small. But all it does is freeze that moment, it doesn’t stop time and they continue to grow.
Time seems to speed up the older our children get and the more children we have. The moments become more fleeting and the memories fuzzier. The details begin to slip away and all we are left with are those still moments and memories that we’ve recorded to have for all of time.
I set out with a grand scrapbooking plan before Honeybun was born. Scrapbooking was something I enjoyed growing up (you know, back when it was actually still cool!) and so I figured it would be a really awesome thing to have to give her. And I worked really hard on it when she was little, taking those small moments of quiet and happy baby time to do a page or two. But then she got older and busier and it got harder to spread my stuff and not be bothered. And then I had two and while I still kept my intention of scrapbooking for my children alive, the actual practice quickly went out the window.
I even bought Doodle a book before he was born, but alas, the pages sit generally empty. Untouched aside from a few papers shoved in the front. I haven’t done a single page in any child’s book since we left Dublin nearly three years ago. Time, life and space have all gotten in the way.
But what I do have for each that I can (and will!) cherish is their baby books. Those cheesy record books that ask you to record all the tiny details and answer what, at the time, seem like ridiculous questions. But those books are exactly what keeps the memories of our babies alive and I LOVE those books. I love every word that I’ve taken the time to write down and I know that because I took the time, those memories will always exist.
The numbers that are easy to forget like how old each baby was when s/he crawled or what his/her first words were. All the things that keep them little in our memories.
It may be time for me to hang up my scrapbooking scissors (for now!) but you better believe that the baby book I already picked up for #4 will be filled out, those moments recorded, memories saved because sometimes the best we can do is the minimum but it will still be a beautiful memento nontheless!
How have you recorded and saved memories of your children’s earliest days? Leave a comment below and you could win this awesome set of Pregnancy and Baby Memory books by Geralyn Broder Murray including her From Pea to Pumpkin Pregnancy Journal and the From Pea to Pumpkin Baby Journal.
The Pregnancy Journal provides the expecting mommy (or parents) to choronicle her pregnancy week-by-week. Each week is spread across two pages with a description of baby’s size in relation to a fruit or vegetable starting with a pea at 6 weeks (.25 inches) and ending at a pumpkin at 40 weeks ( 7.5 lbs) which I love! Each week also includes a multiple choice question like “My boobs are” (week 8) and “My outlook on the baby’s arrival is” (week 35), a few fill in the blank questions about preparing for baby and an opportunity to write a little something to baby with prompts like “Baby, I want you to grow up to be” (week 17) and “Baby, someday, I plan on telling you all about” (week 36). I love the open-endedness of the questions and how you can answer exactly how you’re feeling rather than putting superficial answers like a lot of journals seem to look for. (This week my little dumpling is the size of a papaya, approximately 2 pounds and I am still feeling like this baby will never get here!)
The Baby Journal is just that, a journal. It’s not like the baby books I have that look for facts but rather gives you the opportunity to fully chronicle baby’s first year. Written in story format rather than just as questions, the pages flow beautifully to really capture the moment you and your baby are in. There are also a good number of pages for adding pictures and writing freely which enables you to really make the book and memories your own!
