A Memorable Secret

I have a little secret for you.

I do write so you’ll be amused, but mostly, I write so I have a written snapshot of what life is like in our family on a daily basis.

Scrapbooking scares me and my journal for the kids is current to Uno being about six months old.  So my blogs, they’re the memory book I hope we’ll have forever.

I don’t know anyone who is able to keep those memory books up for their kids.  When the little ones are immobile and spend most of their time sleeping, eating, drooling and expelling their food in various form that’s one thing.

But then the little munchkins start to crawl and walk and the free time you used to cut out flowers and carefully stencil borders around photos disappears into a flood of, “Please, Mama!” and scrambling to keep your home looking a little less like a conscious-less tornado with the ability to put peanut butter and jelly sandwich pieces in the toilet paper roll swept through.

This week I shopped at Staples and found a whole section of “School Year” books.  It boggles my mind that anyone would choose one book and keep it for their child’s whole life!  It’s amazing to me I have the First Year in Photos frame filled out.  That’s a lengthy commitment!  (And, now that I think about it, Tres’s frame is still empty.  Whoops, I’ll have to fix that!)

(I know out there now there’s a 35-year-old thinking, “My mom kept a memory book for me!”  And, to you, I pray you enjoy your memory book filled in all its 1970s splendor, brown and orange and full of polyester leisure suits.  I will stand strong for the slackers.)

A few years ago I got a Blackberry phone with an unlimited data plan to use for my job.  I had never sent a text message before that time.  Very quickly I discovered the joy of Twitter and facebook for keeping track of the quotes that tickled me as the ruffians learned to use the English language.

I share the bones of the memories over social media, then come back through and write about the full experience.  It works for me and it doesn’t involve craft supplies!

(For the record, Uno is much less amusing now that she knows how to talk.  But she’s creepy, too, because she makes statements about the world that are downright insightful.  Dos is my wealth of hilarity when it comes to funny statements.  This morning she’s been full of stories about Curly-Top, a Shirley Temple movie she watched with her MiMa while in The Big City.  And Tres, she’s not really talking.  But she is using sign language.  Just this morning she slapped her hand on her chest with the sign of “please” trying to get Lucky Charms for breakfast I’m afraid she’ll have a bruise!)

Sometimes I feel my lack of willingness to do artistic endeavors is a glaring indicator of my lack of homemaking skills.

I feel my kids are missing out on life because PlayDough is a bad word and finger paints are poisonous to me.

Then I blog about it and feel better.

The End.

Do you keep a scrapbook?  Photos?  Writing? Pictures?  How do you keep track of the important things in your life?