I am so disappointed with myself. I have done a terrible job of completing the baby books for my girls. I have had such good intentions. I even planned this post three months in advance. Over Christmas I was beginning to feel guilty that I wasn’t capturing all of the special moments in my kids life in one place for them. I gave myself until my birthday (this month) to complete my four year old’s book and get as far as I could on Annie’s. My goal for this article was to write about how accomplished I feel in finally finishing this important task, instead my deadline has hit and I have done nothing.
Well, I have done a little. I have the first inch of hair that was cut off, the first words said, even the ultrasound pictures. The problem is all these keepsakes are scattered around my house, written on random pieces of paper, or stored away in the closet, some in the desk and some in shoe boxes. I often think of our friend Jennifer and how she excelled at organization and capturing memories with a personal touch. I think I am just missing that organizational gene – the one that I need to complete this task.
So am I terrible mother? I guess not, or not until my daughter starts asking more about when she was baby, and I fumble to find evidence of her wonderful first years of life. My next step is to set another deadline for myself – one that I have to keep. I can’t help but feel like a terrible mother, but I guess there are worse things that I could put off….
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Jenny – all of us have good intentions and are so hard on ourselves. you are not a terrible mother at all. you have this on your radar and it will get done – in its own time frame – listen, if it makes you feel any better – I have all that stuff in a large shopping bag – awaiting a nice stretch of time for me to sit down and finger everything and put it into a nice book – pictures, memories, ephemera of my son’s life – and he is 9! It will happen – maybe a little slower than you thought or not quite as perfect as you expected – but yes it will happen, because you want it to.
I’ve done okay keeping up with a baby book for one. But, now that I’m expecting multiples, I know that will not be a possibility. Any advice from multiple moms about how to keep up with it and how to remember which baby did what and when?
Coming from a mom of twins, I have done ok to keep their baby books together. Make sure you label…label…label. Everytime you find something that you want to put in their baby book, label it and put it in a box or something so that you know whos was whos. Also, keep a journal near by and write down notes in that journal. And one thing that I have done is do one child at a time. I have realized if I do that, at least I can come back and copy most of the first one for the second. For the most part, everything has been similar so it hasn’t been too hard. I have most of it caught up….for now…
My advice as a mom of identical twins is to put all of the phsyical memories (lock of hair, etc) in a labeled box but then use the internet for the baby books! I am not a crafty person so the baby book idea did not appeal to me, but I am always online. After some research, I found totsites.com. I created my own personal website for the twins that can only be accessed with a protected password that I give out only to certain folks. It has a place for their “stats” –by child–which I enter after each dr appt. It has a journal page, polls, guestbook, pictures….you name it. And the best part…I’ve actaully kept up with it. They are over 2 years old now and I’ve entered their data and hilarious antics each week…in about 5 – 10 minutes each time. Family and friends can sign up for alerts so that each time I enter data, they can be alerted to check the site. Very cool!
I use an cheap calendar to jot stuff down on and a box to store other items in so when it’s time to sit down and put stuff in the baby book it’s all there.. I just have to transfer it and make it pretty!
Nanine, thank you for your sweet note. I am sure I’ll get them done at some point.And totsites.com sounds great. I’ll have to check it out.
I could have written this post!!! Thank you so much for making the rest of us missing that organized/creative/inspired scrapbooking gene feel better! 🙂 I also have a big box full of stuff just waiting for me to find 20 hours of empty time to complete it for BOTH kids!!!
Jenny – you are so NOT alone! Jake is turning 5 this week and I find myself reflecting on this big milestone of his short, yet full life of so many changes and achievements along the way. I made a goal for myself that I would devote some of my time while I was on maternity leave with Ryanne (I even took 4 months) to get his baby book done. I don’t even think I pulled my “pile” of stuff out. I did manage to buy a baby book for Ryanne … but it is still in the box it came in! One thing that I did do, and will pass along to all our fellow unorganized moms out there – I bought a blank calander (so you can start the month they are born and capture a full year) for each of my children and jot down fun little things and key milestones along the way. Sometimes I fall a month or so behind, but I’m usually able to catch back up. And it’s been a lot of fun to go back and look at Jake’s calendar to see what he was doing when and how Ryanne compares. I jotted down various doctor’s appts and how much they weigh to visitors that came into town to the frightful night we ended up in the ER and now look back on it and laugh!I also got a big plastic bin for Jake and have been tossing little momentos into it such as the ticket from his first Panther’s game to precious artwork he brings home from school. Maybe some day I’ll get it all organized … or maybe some day I’ll just hand over the bins as they head off to college and let them sort through it!
I suppose I have a different perspective on this and thought I’d share. I’m a new mom of a 6 month old daughter and am now very curious about myself as a baby. Unfortunately, my own mom passed away in 2006 and now it is as if memories of my own childhood are gone as well. (my father was not an active participant and not helpful in this department) I’ll make every effort to document as much of my own daughter’s childhood as she grows up so that, God forbid, I’m not here to share it with her myself it’s available for her when she’s interested.