documenting the early years

While I know time will be more sparse, I’m equipping for that and finding ways to make it easier. The Story of You, a baby book that is more of an interactive photo journal is just what I am looking for. It’s filled with fill-in-the-blanks, excellent prompts, and places to add photos. I sat down and filled out chapter one for this one in a few minutes (maybe more since a little helper joined me) I like that there’s room if you wanted to add in more, or if you don’t like a certain prompt you can simply take it out. It’s certainly true to the high standards of Artifact Uprising, a photo company I use because they love good, quality paper as much as I do.

We’re starting the countdown now with just a couple months until we’re a family of four. It has really started to sink in as we prepare for her arrival by gathering clothes, cleaning the house, and making a home for her. I long to be able to share this book with my little girl someday to share with her these experiences that she was never able to log into her own memory.

My firstborn is almost 2.5 and is just starting to remember. My husband and I often like to talk about what will be her first memories. What will she recall as her very first memory? Will it be from a simple day at home? When she saw the ocean for the first time? or the Eiffel Tower? Or one of our walks down to the local toy shop?

It still boggles my mind that up to this point she has no memory of her life here. It’s up to us to share with her what her first laugh sounded like, her favorite book. It’s not even about the good times either, I also want her to know of the time her mama took her on an airplane by herself and we were stuck in D.C. with no diapers for over 4 hours.

These days can be so long, but they’re the good ones, the kind we’re constantly reminded by older generations to savor. I’m heeding their advice and savoring it the best I can even in the midst of the wildness. And of course writing it all down so that my mama brain can remember and reminisce when the days aren’t so wild.

Because sometimes a quiet moment alone trying to document the life of your second child turns a little chaotic.

But, then she does something like this and points out her ‘big sister’ shirt and sifts through the photos of her little sister in mama’s belly. And I am reminded that she is as big of a part of this little life than I am, I can’t wait to see these sisters together for the first time.

I keep waiting for a time when I’m caught up or have some miraculous free time to write about my little one’s two years here on Earth. I’m not so sure that’s going to happen, or at least not while we’re at this stage. Even so, I’m going to take time to document, to recall these days, to write it down because we’ll surely forget. It doesn’t have to be perfect, your hand will surely be bumped while writing, but it will be there.

I’m starting earlier the second time around and learning that even if it’s a quick jot on paper. A “you made your dad crack up laughing when you made this face” and a “I just stared at you while I should have been sleeping” is more than enough. 

Baby no. 02, we are ready to meet you and start the second chapter of this book. 

Here’s a video to give you more of an idea of what this book is like.