Over the past nine, almost ten years, my kids have said and done some adorable things. (They’ve also done some crazy, agonizing things but I won’t dwell upon those items right now.)  These quotes and events have were so precious at the time I thought there was NO WAY I could forget that moment and it would stick with me until I was old, gray and rocking in a chair in the nursing home.

Well, guess what? I was wrong.

Sure, I remember quite a few funny details about my kids, but sadly, I’ve forgotten quite a few as well. I thought my memory was better than that, but I am realizing it’s filled up with such junk as lyrics to early 90s boy-band songs, recognizing the difference between Lego and Playmobil accessories and odds and end information such as it takes eleven genetic mutations to create cancer.

I mean, really… this hodge-podge of information works great when playing Trivial Pursuit, but it’s hindering my ability to recall my own children’s childhoods!

They say the first step to overcoming a problem is to admit that you have a problem, so I will say it: my memory sucks.  For 2013 my goal is to find ways to supplement my memory when it comes to my kid’s childhood and here are a couple of ideas I found online:

1. Email your child

I heard about this a few years ago and am kicking myself for not actually doing it. What you do is create a Gmail (or other type of free email account) in your child’s name and then start writing correspondence to that email address about things in your child’s life. Quotes, events, pictures – you name it. It’s simple and it’s brilliant! Periodically print out the emails so you have a hard-copy record.

2. Journals

My great-grandmother kept a scrapbook of things during her life. I find it fascinating to see what events and articles caught her eye at the time.  She would clip out advertisements of products she like or wished to have. Wedding, birth and later, death announcements of her friends were scattered through the book. But one thing I love the most about her scrapbook is seeing her handwriting. I love the same thing when looking through recipes from my grandmother and I am trying to convince my mom to hand write out a set of recipes to give to my daughter as a wedding gift (which better be in 20+ years!)

I love the idea of a journal to mark the events and quotes from my kids. Handwriting is so personal and precious, especially as we move further and further into a purely digital age!  Here are a couple of ideas for hand-written journals that are dedicated to recording special moments:

My Quotable Kid: Amazon $14.95 Retail

Paper Coterie - Documenting Life Personalized Journal: $32 Retail

I hope one of these ideas may work for you or you find a great way to document your kid’s daily lives! Please feel free to share your ideas in the comments!