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Despite those long, sleepless nights feeling like they might last forever, you have probably started to notice just how quickly this special season is going by. How is that tiny newborn you just brought home already this big? Soon, they will grow teeth, learn to walk, and develop their own little personality. You want to hold onto every last moment – but how?
Today, we’re going to explore some of our three favorite ways to commemorate your babies’ milestones!
1. Keepsake box! Where you can store all the memories
The first step is to designate a space to store all of your keepsake items. This activity could even be part of your nesting stage during pregnancy. Show your creativity! Decorate your box with colors, words, family photos, ultrasounds, and other fun imagery that captures everything in this phase in your life.
You could even go ahead and make a few boxes that represent your baby’s first year and include moments you’re excited for, such as “Baby’s First Year of pre-school.” You could even decorate piggy banks for each year and “deposit” handwritten notes into it all year long. Make sure to store your boxes somewhere safe! If this is too over the board effort for you, you can always get these done from a personalized store like LITTLE DAYS. Amazon has some sellers who sell personalized items as well. Check them out below:
1. J. Devlin - Personalized glass accent collection
2. Things Remembered - store on amazon
3. Let's Make Memory Store on Amazon
Expert tip: The classic old wooden boxes or glass one like above, of course, makes the keepsake classic; however, many opt for plastic containers that are easily stackable and are resilient against dust, water, and other unforeseeable accidents. Size also matters depending upon what you will store, which we have helped you narrow down in the section below.
What to store in a keepsake box?
Now that you have determined where you will put your favorite items, you can decide what you would like to include! It is easy to get attached to every last lock of hair and pair of booties, but we cannot possibly keep everything. Take a moment to reflect on what truly means the most to you. Have you been dreaming about seeing your baby in their first Halloween costume? Do you still have the card you used to tell your partner you were expecting? Did your husband run out to buy your little man a jersey of his favorite team? Those are the once-in-a-lifetime mementos to treasure in your keepsakes box.
Some other unique items to keep an eye out for include:
Names to Remember store on amazon makes these one-page new papers if your family missed collecting or keeping one from your delivery day.
B. Their hospital cap and swaddle blanket
C. Tiny footprint/ handprint molds throughout the years
E. Locks from the first haircut
F. Pictures of bringing them home, their first steps, the first time they meet your family
G. Their favorite toy
H. First trophy
I. First sports team uniform
J. Birthday party invitations
K. Cards from your baby shower
L. Baby shower invitation or decoration
M. Baby’s every month milestone pictures
2. Documenting the Journey
Now that we have the rare moments covered, it’s time to nail down how we will remember all those seemingly mundane, day-to-day sentiments that easily get lost in the sands of time. We know that smartphones these days offer the best way to document quick moments; however, with time, your storage gets full, pictures get lost, and we often forget to organize them in folders.
The best way to regularly document your journey is to decide on and set up a system early. What we mean by that is to figure out and decide how you want to record the month-to-month or even year-to-year happenings.
Write a quick note every time you take your baby’s monthly milestone pictures with the edit option on the photo or use smart apps or use Instagram to upload a memory. If you prefer using a baby memory book to keep track of important dates, then go for it—plenty of baby book options are available on Amazon.
The important piece is finding a system you know you will stick to for years to come; this way, you’ll be able to look back on all of your, and your baby’s, growth in the past few weeks, months, and years.
There are more options than ever to document every big and small moment that comes. Some of our top picks include:
A. Birthday Cards: A note written every year on your child’s birthday that you save for them to read on their 18th birthday.
B. Emails: Set up an email address with your baby’s name (you know those user names are hard to nab - they’ll thank you later!) Then, you can shoot them quick emails every time a life event you want to remember happens. You can read through the emails together when they are packing up for college.
C. File Box or a Magazine file: Create a file system. Each school year gets its own folder to hold every art project, A+, blue ribbon, and report card from that year. That way, your child can walk back through their school years in a single stop.
