My goal is to capture the culture of our family, document the days that feel nothing short of miraculous, and grab hold of the magic of childhood. I fully believe that the small moments make the biggest memories, so it’s ultra important to me that I honor those times by recording them. Like most moms, I bought the standard baby memory book that has first tooth, first words, etc., but there weren’t spaces to fill in the moments that I thought deemed a memory. Because of that, I decided to start a blank notebook of memories and stats.
Once Sully was born and the chaos that comes with a kid, I knew my documentation had to be sustainable. At close to two years in, I feel like I’ve done a fairly decent job at keeping up with his memories, so below is an outline of what has worked for me:
-Choose a format that is simple, easy to re-purchase, and easy to store:
As much as I love the cutesy baby books, it just didn’t offer the freedom to write as much or as a little as I wanted. I decided to go for a small blank notebook. My favorites are May Designs because I can customize the cover and inside pages.
–Keep it accessible:
For me, I have my calendar, Sully’s notebook, and my prayer journal all in one folio. It’s super easy to jot down a baby memory because it’s always close by in the house.
–Don’t stress about each entry being written perfectly or prettily:
For me, I can’t commit to sitting down and using my best handwriting or stressing over if I wrote each and every part of the entry with the right words. I just add what I can when I can, and know that as long as I recorded the feeling and moment, it’s okay. Sometimes I write my entries from my point of view; sometimes I write them as letters to Sully. Other entries are lists. There really is no right or wrong.
-Add titles:
When I flip back through his baby memories, it’s easy to know what I’m about to read because there is a title on the page. They aren’t overly fancy or thought out, but it makes it so that I can quickly reference something if I want.
–Use your phone to keep track of memories until you can get to the notebook:
I have a running Note on my phone of small things Sully did or said. Sometimes that list gets longer than I would have liked, but occasionally I’ll do a “catch up” title and entry with several random facts or baby memories.
–Date both your individual entries and the notebooks:
I love having a month, day, year as well as the time stamp for my entries because it makes the entries more special, but it also is a small picture of my day in itself. I have entries from 2:00 AM, and I have entries from 2:00 PM. I also like to use a label maker to add the start and end dates of a notebook once it’s full.
–No memory is too big or too small:
The smallest moments have been the best, in my opinion, so I document the smallest things. Down the road, I want to remember that Sully used to go around pretending to spray bugs with the hand sanitizer after he saw his dad spraying a wasps’ nest. Those things are important to me as much so as his first steps.
–Add pictures or mementos:
I don’t add a lot of pictures to my notebooks mainly because I organize my photos through Chatbooks, but there are times when I tape in an Instax or wrist band.
–Add easy decoration:
I like to do each separate entry with a different color pen so that my notebook is easily separated into different memories. I also will add a sticker or strip of wash tape or the occasional icon drawing.
It’s nothing fancy, but it’s working for us. I love the idea of Sully and I reading back through his books when he’s older and laughing at the silly things he said and did. Hopefully he’ll see all of the fun we had!
