I’m Joanna, mom of two kids (two and under) and wife to a sports-obsessed guy. I’m a Florida native and University of Florida grad living in New England. I’m the founder of BabyGatorsDen.com where I blog about motherhood and life in the smallest state, Rhode Island.
My Mother-In-Law is in the same league as Martha Stewart. She kept an amazing baby book for my husband, detailing when each tooth came in and what his favorite foods at 6 months of age were. The details are incredible and I’m in awe of her record-keeping. I, on the other hand, am not so good in the baby book department. Jackson’s has a few things stuck in there and little Sidney’s sits completely empty in her closet. I always felt a little inferior to my scrapbooking friends until I realized that I *do* keep track of everything, right on this little blog.
I consider myself a 21st century Mom and with that comes “digital” memories. I started this blog 2 years ago to keep track of Jackson’s milestones and stay in touch with family across the country. Baby Gators Den is the virtual baby book of both kids, in addition to our family’s story. I can use the “search” feature in the right hand sidebar to find out when Jackson chewed his crib, had his first birthday party or when I found out I was pregnant with a little girl.
In addition to having all of their memories on this blog, I have also opened up email accounts for both kids. Obviously they’re “my” email accounts until they’re old enough, but they are one of my favorite ways to preserve memories for them. I’ve subscribed each child to the blog, so individual post gets delivered directly to their inbox (just in case I ever close this blog down or lose data, etc). The emails are also handy to send pictures and videos right from my iPhone. When I share the latest cute video of the kids with my Mom & Grandparents, I always cc: the kids’ emails. The pictures and videos will be waiting for them in their inbox when they’re old enough to appreciate it, complete with a note from me. For example, I sent the kids this photo in their email with the subject “Valentine’s Day 2012.” I’d like to think that someday they will appreciate it. Maybe their kids and grandkids will too. 🙂
To summarize, this is what I do for my modern day baby book(s):
- Each child has their own email account
- Grandparents & other family members can also share their memories and pictures with these accounts
- Both kids are subscribed via email to the blog so each post is delivered to their inbox, complete with the pictures
- I upload all of their videos to my private Vimeo account (I’m so glad I did this when my external harddrive failed)
- All pictures are uploaded to my private Picasa Web Albums (also backed up to an external HD), I have 7 years of pictures on there and I look at them much more than pulling out physical picture albums
How do you organize your family’s memories? I’d love to hear some new ideas!
I’ll admit that I am really anal about making sure that I keep each baby book up to date. I kept a pregnancy journel and calendar with each child. I also did a first and second year calendar for each child to write things down. I am now onto a toddler memory book that I found. It is for years 2-4. What really set the tone for me to be adament about doing this was the fact that my mother didn’t write a single thing and couldn’t remember any of it either when I asked her. I don’t want my kids to be in that situation.
I love these ideas! I really need to start the email for each of them – what a fun way to share with them stories from everyone!!