When I got pregnant with Magoo, I was swore up and down that I would have very detailed, beautiful baby books for all of my kids. The thought of not doing that was insane to me. How could you not preserve those precious memories?
Well, two kids in and the baby books are gorgeous although they are nearly blank, gathering dust on the shelf in the girls’ closet.
I used to feel guilty about that, and I guess I still do. But I realized that even though I don’t have official baby books, I still have so many memories preserved. I take thousands of photos a month; I write down my favorite toddler quotes, and I save all the important keepsakes. I just do it slightly differently. Instead of in a baby book, it’s on a blog and my hard drive.
And one day when things calm down (hopefully before they go away to college) I will sit down and take all of these written words, and I will compile a book for them. It will have my words and their pictures. It will have their drawings, and their quotes, and lists of their favorite songs and books.
And that’s one of the main reasons I wanted to start blogging anyway. I wanted a written record of our brief time in this crazy land called early childhood. I wanted a place to keep track of times I had with them, and I always wanted to keep track of my own thoughts and feelings, good and bad, so that when they become mothers themselves, they might be able to relate to it.
This is, and always has been, my gift to them. I struggle sometimes when I write about the obstacles I face as a mom because I want to make sure they always know how grateful I have been for them every second of their lives. But then I realize the struggles are important to share because they are what make us real, and ultimately, they will probably be what they most relate to.
So in the spirit of remembering these days, I thought I would just share a few things that have made me smile over the past few months.
- Magoo cannot say the word ketchup. For a year, it was chipchip, and now it is kipchip. I pray it takes her a bit longer to learn the correct way to say it.
- Her favorite singer is “Twaylor” Swift, and her favorite song is “Ours.” She walks around the house singing it pretty much nonstop, and she almost jumps out of her car seat when it comes on the radio.
- She is very careful that her sister doesn’t get hurt. If she sees her getting into something that she shouldn’t, she starts screeching at the top of her lungs and runs to her to stop her from getting into bad things. It hurts your ears, but it’s adorable.
- A few months ago, we were at the library, and the Goose was crawling but not yet walking. Magoo was walking around having fun when a little two year old toddled over to the Goose. I had never seen Magoo run so fast in her life to sit down right next to (almost on top of) the Goose making sure that little kid did not hurt her.
- Both girls love playing together in the car. Since the Goose is still facing backwards, they can see each other very well. They take turns screeching which in turn makes the other laugh.
- The Goose adores blueberries. She starts squealing as soon as I take them out of the fridge. It’s a sure fire way to make her happy.
- The Goose also loves books. Magoo always did as well, and I never thought we would have a child who would love them more, but that’s practically all Goose plays with. She doesn’t like being read to all that much (she’s much too independent for that) but she will sit there flipping through books pretty much all day. And even though she’s only 14 months, she doesn’t rip any of the pages. It’s actually rather odd.
- Goosie’s favorite place to play is in the sandbox. It can entertain her seemingly endlessly. The fun usually ends though when she has eaten a few too many handfuls of sand and I have to take her out to rinse out her mouth.
Those are just a few fond memories I have of the last few months. I’m sure we’ll make many more this summer. That is if it ever gets cool enough to safely step out doors.