Five ways to document your child as they grow

One of the best parts of being a mum is watching our children grow. We love to watch them transition from sleepsuits to dresses, take their first steps and speak their first “Mummy” to us. It makes our hearts melt, and they’re memories that we’ll cherish for the rest of our lives.

As our children grow, and the day comes that they pack their things and leave to find a flat of their own, we’re torn between the pride we feel as a mum who’s raised them right, and the pain of realising that our children won’t be around as much anymore. When that day comes, we all want something that we can look back on, and remember the times that our children filled our lives with joy in the simplest ways.

To help you preserve the memories of your child’s growth, and ensure that you can revisit them as the years go by, following are five ideas you can use to preserve those little moments of joy that give life meaning!

 

  1. Start a Scrapbook

Scrapbooking is a great creative outlet that any mum can take advantage of, because you can work on it in those rare, spare moments you have, can put as much or as little into it as you want, and it costs next to nothing. You don’t have to limit yourself to pictures, although those are always great to see! You can include a copy of your ultrasound when you first saw your baby, a shoestring from their first pair of shoes, or their first hair bow. The more unique and recognisable, the more they’ll have you weeping with joy when you look back on those beautiful memories.

Scrap booking also allows mums to grow closer to their kids by including them in the fun! Let your little darlings pics out the photos and articles they want included in the book, and let them paste them in and decorate them how they’d like!

 

  1. Start a Family Blog

Blogs are not only a great way to connect with the world around us; they allow us to preserve the memories of our family’s adventures so that they’ll never be lost, and others can join us in all of life’s joys!

Through your blog, you can chronicle your child’s first words, their first day of school, or that trip to the beach your family takes in the summer. In addition, you can give advice and tips to help other mums enjoy their parenting adventures to the fullest, and find some great wisdom you can use yourself. And who knows? If you develop a large enough following, you might even be able to start making money from your blog!

Starting a blog is a very easy process, so you don’t have to be tech savvy to get started. All you’ll have to do to get your family blog rolling is register a domain, design a basic website (don’t worry: there’s plenty of how-to’s and templates online), and you’re ready to start sharing those moments you’ll never forget!

 

  1. Start a Family Photo Wall

 

In the same vein as a scrapbook, if you enjoy doing your own interior design, you can devote an entire wall (or maybe even a room!) to chronicling your children’s growth. You can start by taking a photo right at birth, and then taking a new photo each year on their birthday. As the years pass, you’ll be able to pause and reflect on the different stages in your child’s life, and recall all of the memories that each brings. To make your photo wall even more personalised, you can measure how tall your children grow and mark the results, along with the year, in pencil on the wall. Put your measurements right beside your photo collage so that you can stand back and watch your child’s growth in two unique ways!

 

  1. Record Video Messages From Your Child

One cute idea that would be unique is to have your child video themselves sending a message to their future selves. They can talk about what they’ve done recently that was fun, what interests they have at the moment, and what they hope their future self will achieve.

The following year, pull up your message and watch it with your child. You’ll both laugh to see what younger them was doing at the time, and compare what your child is like now to how they were then. This will not only provide a great archive of happy, laugh-inducing memories for you, it will also provide a chronicle that your child can reflect on, and beam with pride at how much they’ve grown, for many years to come.

 

  1. Knit a New Pair of Socks Every Year for Your Child

To commemorate a new year with your bundles of joy, you should consider knitting a new pair of socks for your children each year, whether on their birthday or some other date that is significant for you both. To add some historical value into your socks, and help you recall that year more clearly, knit something relevant to your child’s life at the time into the socks. It could be a spaceship because they told you they wanted to be an astronaut one year, and a dog the next to signify the first time you brought a pet into your family’s life.

Once your child outgrows their socks, or it’s time for a new pair, you can hang them on a wall or preserve them in a drawer that you devote for that specific purpose. That way, aside from helping you bring up these happy moments later on, you’ll be able to track your child’s growth through their socks! They don’t necessarily have to wear each and every pair; what’s important is that you as a mother are showing your love and affection through your skills, and your children will come to appreciate that love and devotion over the years, whether they’re actively using your socks or not.

 

The Best Days of Your Life

The years you’re spending now with your little ones will be the craziest, wildest, most frustrating, and happiest moments of your life. I want to help you enjoy and preserve the moments that mean the most to you, and I hope these ideas help you chronicle your parenting adventures, grow closer to your children, and have a blast doing it. Now, go make some great memories!

 

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