Today we took Annalyn to get her hair cut for the first time. Before she got started chopping my baby girl’s mop, the stylist snipped off a curly lock and taped it up for me. When Annalyn asked why she did that, the woman answered, “So your mom can put it in your baby book!”
Of course! Duh! In your baby book! I’m so glad my nosy inquisitive child didn’t ask right then and there, “WHAT baby book?!”
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When Annalyn turned three last fall, she no longer qualified for physical therapy through the state. And after extensive evaluation, our school district decided that she had made enough progress to kick it on her own. (Literally, I suppose, since kicking is one of the skills we’re supposed to practice at home.) But now that we’re half a year into the threes and she’s still significantly behind her peers, we’re having her evaluated again.
And that means tests, forms and questions. Oh, the questions. They’ll ask me – even though we’ve answered it all before, multiple times – how early she was born, when she crawled, when we started therapy, when her left eyetooth came in and more. (Okay, probably not about the teeth. But who knows? It’s been seven months since we went through this!)
Completing the forms and answering the questions should be a piece of cake, right? What kind of mom doesn’t remember every significant moment of her only child’s life? And really, all I need to do is whip out her baby book and read off the big dates. Well . . . that’s assuming Annalyn has a baby book.
And that would be assuming wrong.
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I know! For a person who loves lists and writing things down and – for crying out loud – scrapbooking so much, you’d think a baby book would be a given! Except it’s not.
Though I have three enormous scrapbooks, dozens of Facebook photo albums and hundreds of printed photos to record her short-so-far life, I don’t actually have a baby book for my daughter. Even though I love my own baby book that my mom kept and have literally had “baby book” written on my to-do list for years, I have yet to buy or write in any such book for my own child.
I need to. I want to. But I sure haven’t done it.
When my cousin’s kids were little, she was so good about recording every little change or development in her planner. I thought that was just brilliant and intended to do the same. But sometimes good (even brilliant) intentions don’t always lead to success. Or baby books.
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I’ve got to run now. Annalyn will be finished with preschool soon, and my to-do list is mocking me. You know, the one that says “Call about therapy” and “Buy baby book”? Yeah, that one.
Did your parents keep a baby book for you? If you have kids, how do you record their milestones and memories?
I loved looking through my baby book, and my brothers’, when I was little. In fact, on the “signature” page, I kept updating it for years. And I’m pretty sure the last time I signed it, I was in college. Why? Because my signature changed so much from when I was 6, of course!
I was dutiful with Lincoln’s baby book, and I’m thankful, because now I’ve forgotten so much of it. I would write stuff down on a blank calendar & then transfer it to the baby book. Let’s hope I’m able to keep it up with this baby, or he may feel distinctly unloved in comparison!
Good luck, Mary!
You’d better do it for Baby #2 – or you’ll be in as much trouble as me! :)
My mom did keep one for me (I WAS a first child, after all) and I always loved looking through it. She even wrote us letters and kept cards from first birthday and everything.
I’ve tried to keep up with ones for my kids. They’re not as great as my mom’s … but they’re something, right?
Plus they have all these blogs posts. :)
Exactly. The blog posts!
My mom kept a baby book for all of her 4 children. I have mine now, and I have my husbands that his mom kept. I love reading through them, and comparing the milestones with my 2 kids (one is 2 1/2 the other is 9 months). I have a baby book for my children, but would you believe someone forgot to fill it out?! I’ll have to talk to the babybookeeper about that! I do have some things filled out, mostly for my son…first giggle, first step, first sign, first wave…I can’t tell you when he started talking, I only know that he walked at 10 months because he went trick-or-treating, and walked a week later…he can jump, don’t know when that started, he sings, not sure when he “sang” his first song…Sorry this reply turned out so long, I should probably have just gone up and got the baby book to fill out! Anyway, you’re not alone :0)
I was feeling so guilty, reading about your mom’s diligence, and then you just made me laugh about “someone” forgetting to fill out your own kids’ books! :)
Oh my gosh, email me your address, I will totally send you a baby book! I about fell on the floor in utter shock that you don’t have a baby book for her. That’s wild! I’d be happy to help you get that off your checklist. She needs one, you love her loads, you want to do this, it’s on your list, it’ll be a huge relief to check it off your list, you. need. a. baby. book. like. right. now.
Okay, so I’m being a little silly and annoying at the attempt to be funny {what can I say, I’m sleep deprived and loopy}, so just let me seriously say that we all know how those to-do lists can get out of control. I think you’ll just feel way better if you force yourself to do it. I know a scrapbook lover who had a really hard time with this because none of them were quite what she wanted. She’s a bit of a perfectionist when it comes to her scrapping her memories so it was tough for her, but she knew when she found one that would suffice well enough for its purpose. Annalyn will thank you immensely when she’s older. Just snip it in the bud now before it bugs you to the point of insanity ;)
Rochelle, you cracked me up! Your comment just about had me in the car, headed to Hallmark to buy a baby book, any baby book! I’ve had the same problem as your other perfectionist scrapbooking friend. To be honest, my cousin’s wife GAVE me a baby book at one of my showers. But I didn’t like it and TOOK IT BACK! Ack! What was I thinking?!?
Just crazy.
Oh, the guilt! The mommy-guilt! I actually filled out a baby book for my oldest. I did maybe half of a baby book for my middle. I think I filled out a page for my third. So thanks for picking that scab, Mary. :)
Ha! Just trying to bring everyone else down with me. ;) Seriously, I have worried about this second, third child thing with my scrapbooking. Not that we HAVE any other children on the way yet, of course, but if and when that day comes, I’m going to feel so bad when (no “if” here, I’m afraid) I don’t put together huge scrapbooks for him/her/them!
Just another reason to get a simple baby book, huh?
I am in the exact same Baby book place you are. My mom kept a great baby book and even now (at 39) I love to look at it and read everything. And yet my daughter’s baby book sits under a pile of papers in the “to-do” pile with some random post-its in it. LOL!!! But you do have the blog and the loads of pics-both paper and digital- something our parents didn’t have!! :). She will grow up and love looking at those the same way we love the book! Don’t stress!! :D
Very true – my blog has a lot of stories that wouldn’t have been captured otherwise!
I have books for all three. None are filled out completely. I keep collecting stuff to put in them, but then just throwing everything in a box until I can get to it. I will get to it one of these days. I hope!
Loving this post because I don’t feel so alone (or imperfect) anymore! Off to glare at my insane to-do list…
:) I resemble this post ;). Dang it.
You do have a baby book. It’s online. I really want to say, “Forget about the baby book.” but the reality is that I do have one for my older daughter that is all filled out and a mostly empty one for my younger daughter. And I’ll continue to write in them.
Seriously, though, you’ve got the scrapbooks and the photos and she’s going to always know that she was loved. A baby book seems sort of superfluous now. (Or it does to me.)
I tried to tell myself I didn’t need one. But…after I wrote this post I totally went out and bought one! :)