In Lieu of a Baby Book

I'm very proud of the fact that I've been journaling almost daily about the twins for a year now. Not online, of course. Don't worry, you haven't somehow missed over 300 blog posts. I'm talking about my DayMinder.

Journals have always intimidated me. Those big, blank pages just staring at me. My nightstand is littered with journals containing only 2-5 entries. I'm pretty good at journaling while traveling, but that's finite. I know that I only have to keep writing until I get home. I don't write because I like to write. I write because I want to document life and revisit it later. I look forward to rereading my words but can honestly say that I've never anticipated the act of writing itself.

But the girls' short lives were moving swiftly by and I was already losing track of new teeth, words, etc. The baby books I was gifted at the shower are nice but too prescriptive. Where was the place to write in the twins' first hug? Their first squabble over a toy? The funny, nonsensical ramblings of a toddler? The baby books were just too basic, too fill-in-the-blanks-oriented. So journaling it must be. Grr.

The answer came last September and led me to my trusty local Staples to purchase a weekly view DayMinder. It's perfect for me. Just a few lines per day and it only cost $8 so if I wrote once a week (or less), I wouldn't feel bad about wasting money and paper.

Turns out that I've written almost every day since. I love it. That finite space inspires me and I'm no longer at a loss as to what to write. Perhaps someday I'll move up to a real journal but not anytime soon. I've just purchased my second DayMinder and have already reveled in writing two weeks' worth of cuteness in it. When I do want to write more, I can elaborate in the extensive Notes pages in the back of the book or blog about it (which I've been trying to do this summer).

But alas, the DayMinder has no room for pictures. Problem solved long ago. Before the twins were born, I knew that I wanted a summary album of their lives. One childhood, one album. I found two cute albums that hold 200 photos each. 200 photos = one photo per month for 16 years. Math gurus will notice that there are eight remaining photo slots in each album. I devoted those pages to pregnancy and ultrasound shots. In the end, Mika and Allison will each have an album devoted to their childhood through their sweet 16 birthday. I call them their "growing up" albums.

There will be other albums, to be sure. With almost 7,000 digital pictures on our computer alone (not counting pictures taken by grandparents and other family members and friends), we have A LOT of pictures to use creatively in a lot of different spaces. I already have plans for Best of 2006, 2007, etc, plus any number of themed albums and have been busy tagging photos accordingly in Adobe Lightroom. Look for the public debut of those albums around 2014 or so. For now, the DayMinder and Growing Up albums are available for anyone to peruse in our foyer. Happy reading!