call out
Che’s felted and hand-stitched bat from Montessori. My heart swells every time I see it.
Hello there,
Did you know that I work as a freelance writer? Yes siree I do. In the chaos that is the spare room at home I type away, blessed to thread words together and make money at the same time. I get to eat lunch with my family and breastfeed Poet whenever she calls my name. Sometimes I put on a load of washing while the kettle is boiling in my ‘morning tea break’.
Right now I’m working on a story about mothers and I’m thinking that a few of you could help me out.
You see, I’m interested to know how you document your children’s days. Do you photograph them? Do you write letters to them, perhaps to be opened on the momentous 21st birthday? What do you do with all those craft projects? Do you write down their quirky, adorable kid-sayings and put those pieces of paper in a magical thinking jar?
How are you recording the magic of the everyday that is childhood?
I’d love to hear from you, regardless of where you are in the world. You can leave a comment here with your email address or alternatively you can email me: jodiclairewilson @ yahoo (dot) com (dot) au
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i've ordered this book for me and my two sisters for Christmas:
http://www.amazon.com/One-Line-Day-Five-Year-Memory/dp/0811870197
I'm excited about the possibilities
D
Apart from lots of photographs and blogging, I document Cohen's big and small special moments in a journal just for him. I record new words he has learnt, ways that he is growing up, his firsts and his birthday letters that I write each year.
We also buy visual diaries for him to draw in, so that there are less loose pieces of paper laying around and so we have his drawings as a record. And we have a special box to keep his little keepsakes in, like first shoes, birthday cards, first haircut etc.
🙂
1. a digital PL album to document first 1-2yrs of life.
2. a digital PL album to document our everyday family life
(both beckyhiggins.com)
3. a storage box – clothes I loved/have special meaning, first shoes, etc
4. a storage envelope, pregnancy yellow card, hospital tags, ultrasound photos, etc
5. i keep some artwork, photograph some (from PL albums), and use the rest for cards and wrapping paper.
would love to organise/display it alittle better.
Photos, photos, photos.
We take video too, and I write little letters to her here and there on my blog. We're hoping it will serve as a keepsake to look back on…
One of the purposes of my blog is for it to be a record of my life with my children. I hope that it will give them a sense of their childhood and also give them an understanding of what their mama was like at the time. And lots of photos!
Mostly my blog which I print off too for when they.'re older (I'm terrible at noting things down and the blog with photos works ). I also hang around the house most of their artwork. Sam is the one who wries me little notes and drawi gs when he goes to school 🙂
I have a notebook for each of my children where I write them letters – sometimes I do this regularly – sometimes not. I also take thousands of photo's, home-videos and ofcourse, blog!
I have this thought that one day when we no longer walk this earth, I will be able to recall all those amazing moments and hold them in my heart like they are real and still current and there. Does that make sense? xx Rach
Like Dee I have a five-year-journal which I started when a couple of weeks pregnant. Although I cheat sometimes and write down a sentence for more than one day, it has not one blank day so far. Secondly, my partner and I both started a book only for her throughout the pregnancy with approximately one entry per moth by either him or me. Scans and birth-plan are in there as well as the notebook pages of her first week when we punctiliously noted every feed, nap and diaper (which are a great mix of endearing, informative and unnecessary). Another documentation (with a completely different tone since the journal is primary for me as a logbook of our life as a little growing family, although I might show her some pages once she's older) of E growing up are the bi-monthly (or so) emails with one photo in the centre which I send to her grandparents and aunt in Canada.
I take many, many photos, write about the things they say and do in my blog and in an attempt to keep a record of all their creative pursuits I'm photographing their artwork too.
Well, I blog of course 🙂 I also keep a journal for her. I started it on the very day, in fact the very hour that I found out I was pregnant. I write in it all of the small day to day things and what it feels like to be her mother. I plan on giving it to her when she becomes pregnant with her own child.
Love to read your words and your beautiful approach to motherhood.
I plan to print off my blog into a book but as I don't share things that are too personal on here, I keep a lot of things on my hardrive (text, photos and videos). I also use the notes app in my iPhone (21st century mum tool, right!) to write down funny quotes from my son. I bought a diary called "One Line a Day" but I don't always have it at hand so the iPhone option works better for me. And I have a box at home in which I store little keepsakes.
Wow. I'm pregnant with my first and I'm getting worried that I won't be able to keep up with all this documentation of my child's life!!
My mum only kept a few things of mine – an artwork here and there, certainly no quotes or funny sayings. Sure, she can't remember the details of life with me as a toddler, but I don't think I've missed out on anything by not having my funny sayings and artwork close to hand.
I wonder if we spend too much time documenting our lives these days rather than living them??
before starting my blog I didn't keep a record at all, with the exception of photo's that have since been lost in the crashing of various computers, ipods and external hard drives.
I now have the blog that contains photo's and stories but we don't keep a little 'baby book' or anything like that…
xo
I take at least a few photos/videso a day, I blog, I take a monthly photo in the same location/position, I scan the artwork….at the end of the year, I make a photo book of each month's best and most meaningful memories as well as a small poster with a montage of the artwork.
I do keep a very small memory box of things; but we really keep our memories alive through story telling. I have told the story of our life over and over again. My daughter has now become the oral historian of her own life and I rather like that. All memories are vivid and etched in colour for her. They truly are living things. Precious.
This is such a tough question – we keep plenty of photos all stored in photo albums and kept on hard drive (yes duplicating everything)! We also get a photo book every year with all the photo highlights in it. The kids LOVE these books. We also have a baby book for each of our kids which is very out of date. For our youngest I take a photo every month in the same position. I plan to hang these photos up on a measuring tape for her 1st birthday. I find however that record keeping takes up so much time and while I'm doing it I miss out on precious time with my children. Hence I'm sooooo far behind.
Kym
Despite blogging and a healthy amount of photographs and videos, I'm really trying to remind myself that the best memories are formed by experiencing moments purely and simply – in the moment, with the naked senses. Not through a lens or a viewfinder. Memories aren't made by jotting notes in a diary… it certainly helps… but the best way of ensuring everything is recorded – is to just be present, attentive, and lost in the moment.
…as for recording for our children's sake – I honestly believe in the power of storytelling above all else. My fondest memories of my childhood are the stories that my parents painted so beautifully and vividly about my experiences growing up. A lot of these events I have no photographic evidence of, but I don't feel like it's missing… I love that I can let my imagination fill in the blanks.
…much easier said than done, though. The camera is certainly tempting…
xx
I have a family blog that I have been using since my eldest was about 1. I take photos of all their art work so I have a digital copy & then recycle the pieces we won't be keeping! My relatives all live in the UK so every Sunday one of my Aunties shows my Nana our blog….keeps me on my toes as I don't want her to be disappointed there is nothing new to see. Enjoy your book writing! xx
I've got a book for each with their birth story in it. each birthday I will add to it, and write of what's happened in their year. Also any quotes that they have said go in there as they happen. If we have gone away I send a postcard to them which also gets popped in the book.
Sometimes it's an effort, but already I love looking back on it.
This is a lovely idea. I hope you will share your finished peice with us?
We had the typical baby book to begin with. I also have a box with ultrasound photos and dvd, hospital bands, newspaper from his birth day, his tiny beanie, and first jumpsuit.
Now a days, I tend to record everything on the blog, I can put my photos there and my thoughts, plus I write birthday letters and updates here. I have heard that you can get a book made of your blog, so maybe one day in years to come will look into that.
Rhi xx
I write monthly letters to my son about his milestones, our adventures, and other sentiments–and I post them on my blog as well if you want to see them. 🙂 I plan to make them into a Blurb book when he turns a year old next month. I take a lot of photographs and videos of just the small day-to-day. At first, I tried taking a photo a day, but that became overwhelming as I found myself, so I took the pressure off of myself and ended up taking more (and better) photos throughout the week. When I was pregnant, I kept a journal that I used to write letters to him almost every day.
p.s. I love your blog and your photos! Your babes are just beautiful!
I email my daugther! Yep, she has had a gmail account since infancy. It works. I also take tons of photos, blog, facebook funny little moments in our days and I've installed this Iphone app called Momento, which allows journaling by iphone and also culminates postings from FB, Twitter, Flickr onto this one sight.
Oh, on my blog I also keep a little page called Did She REally? where I sometimes write cute little things she does.