If you know me you know I love to write and you know I have journaled many years of my high school, college and part of my early married life. When I became pregnant with my first baby I started a journal of my pregnancy and wrote it directly to him as things were happening during my pregnancy. I still write in them occassionally as they do something funny or something I want them to be able to know. That way they have it to look back on and read when they start to, Lord willing, have children. When I had my second I wrote things as they did them throughout the months of his first year. I wrote some of his first words. You may think you have no time for that but I scribbled wrote things on our dry erase board in the kitchen or on a piece of paper. Then when I had time to write neatly in their journal I did so.
Something that I continue to do like clockwork every year on their birthdays is write a letter to them in their journal. I got the idea before my firstborn’s first birthday on Pinterest as I was searching for first birthday ideas. I write to them about new things they discovered or new things they started doing. For instance last year, my oldest became a big brother so I wrote what a joy it is to see him with his baby brother. Things like that. I challenge you to carve out some time to start this tradition for your kids.
Another thing you could do to take this a bit further is have your parents write a letter to them on their 1st birthday that they will open when they turn 18! I would have loved to have opened a letter from my grandparents when I turned 18 that they wrote to me when I was one year old! It would have been neat to read their hopes and dreams that they had for me way back then!
Hope you enjoyed this post and idea! Let me know if you decide to incorporate this into your traditions with/for your kids!
