Ever since our oldest kid was bitty, I've been jotting down notes about her journey in a simple notebook. I write about her preciousness, favorites, silly pronunciations, newly learned tricks, precocious behaviors, learning experiences, little person wisdom, and our family adventures together. Now, I've been able to do that for our little one too.
I don't dedicate time every single day or even every week, but I keep an ongoing list of important moments to write about. Whenever I have a quiet moment to write, I use the list as a memory jogger to write a short note for each moment.
The entries aren't dated but show up in semi-chronological order. I've chosen to write in short paragraph form to allow for quick mental transfer between experiences. I separate the entries into years so each new section starts with a birthday because the growth is more apparent when grouped into yearly chunks. Each entry is a tiny snippet and doesn't go into elaborate detail but it exists and it's satisfying to watch the book fill up over the years.
There are many ways I record memories and each serves its unique purpose. Writing in the kids' books is one of the methods I employ. It's a quick and efficient way for me to record the crucial moments that will eventually be handed to them in a compact form.
Do you think memory keeping is important? If so, why? What do you like to keep records of? What are your preferred memory-keeping methods? So many questions! I'd love to hear more!
I try to keep a journal as well as my blog as memory keepers. (Although I've been pretty bad at blogging lately.) I also try to take at least one picture every day to document my life. I also try to tag all of the pictures that I have and make them searchable.
ReplyDeleteI definitely think that memory keeping is very important. I'm glad that you're doing this. I think it will mean a lot to the little ones when they are big ones.