Raising Riley

One of the more daunting tasks in motherhood is finding a way to keep track of all the moments you want to remember forever. When I say this, I’m talking about the thousands of photos on your phone, the funny thing your toddler said to you the other day, the art project your child proudly brought home, the keepsake they collected from your family vacation, all the newborn hospital memorabilia, etc etc. As moms, we know the list goes on and on! It can feel overwhelming to stay on top of this.

I consider this to be sort of a “sweet spot” for me because I’m very passionate about both motherhood and organization! My friends have called me a “type A” mom- AKA the mom who knows what they’re doing a month and 3 days from today, has holiday decorations packed up and stored away immediately after said holiday, and has a basement storage room full of baby clothes folded and organized by size, style, and fabric. With that being said, I’m going to break down some of my systems and the methods/apps/tools I use to stay organized and on top of all things related to baby/child memories.

PHOTOS

-Chatbooks: For the first 13 months of our daughter’s life, we made a chatbook every month. These first months are precious and we wanted to remember every single moment AND have a physical copy of it. If we have more children, we’ll do this for the first 12-13 months of their life for every child. We selected the yearly subscription (slightly cheaper) and did the hardcover books. These are very sturdy and visually appealing. They’ve held up beautifully through several moves and our daughter looking through them frequently.

-Family Album: This app, Family Album is a great tool for sharing photos of your kids with family members! You can invite the family members that you choose, and once they accept the invitation they can view all the photos that you upload. There’s no storage limit, and it’s completely safe and private. I love that our daughter’s grandparents can comment on photos, save photos, and see every photo that I upload from our day! I upload photos every night before bed so they get a look into our day. Family members can choose to have notifications on or off, so their phone won’t blow up with notifications if they don’t want. We have a handful of traditional, physical family albums in our house (and I do love them!), but this is a great way to instantly share all of our photos with family AND have our photos stored in another place.

WRITTEN MEMORIES

-365 Days of Firsts: A Daily Record of Baby’s First Year. I recommend this little book to everyone who is about to have a baby. I did this instead of a traditional baby book, and I loved it! I will do it again for every child we have. Unlike your typical baby book, this book simply has 365 blank spots where you can write a small note about each day in the first year of your baby’s life. I know that sounds like a lot, but if I can do it with a baby who was waking up every 2 hours (or less!) for the first year of her life, then you can too! The great thing about this is that the spot to write is pretty small, so you’re not writing a full paragraph or anything. Some days it would take me less than 30 seconds to fill out while I was nursing our daughter.

-Basic notebook: Since the baby journal only lasts for the first 365 days, I also have a basic notebook that I keep on my nightstand and *try* to write in frequently. It definitely doesn’t always happen, and I don’t beat myself up about it! When I do write in it, I usually try to just write a small detail about our daughter and how she’s growing and changing. I have a running list in my phone as well for when she says something hilarious that I want to document in my notebook at a later time.

KEEPSAKES

-Savor Baby Keepsake Box. This keepsake box was gifted to us by a friend after we had our daughter. It is a personalized box with one half of it containing small boxes for larger keepsakes, and file folders on the other half for paperwork, artwork, etc. In our daughter’s box, I have ultrasound pictures, her hospital bands, her coming home outfit, and more items that we’d like to save from her newborn phase. On the paperwork side, I have first birthday cards, hospital foot photos, and certificates/artwork from various activities. I love how many labels come with this box because it’s very easily customized. It also folds up neatly so that it doesn’t take up much space. Lastly, this item grows with your child through their childhood and has the option for things like ceremonies, first lost tooth, school certificates, favorite toy, etc.

-Special “Treasure” Box or Keepsake Box for toddler/child. Our daughter has a special box (that is now overflowing) where she can put her most special treasures. This special box was passed along to her from her Noni & Papa and we keep it up in her closet. She tells us when she wants to put a special treasure in it, or when we get something that’s fragile/sentimental we put it in there for her. Every once in a while (probably like once a month) we take it down and help her look through everything. The most recent additions included her jingle bell from Santa that she got on the Polar Express ride, sand dollars from her Noni & Papa in California, and pressed pennies from the zoo and the beach. The great thing about the box is that it isn’t only items that are important to us, but things that are important to her! She decides almost everything that goes it in, and we know it’s safe because we keep it out of reach until we look together as a family.

I know when it comes to baby/child keepsakes and photos, this post probably only scratches the surface! With our daughter only being 2 years old, this are the things we have encountered so far and the systems we’ve established. I’d love to hear from others about the other “items” or “collectibles” or “keepsakes” that you have in your home but don’t have a way to organize! I’m sure as our daughter grows and enters school, I’ll have to come up with many more solutions for all the stuff.

I hope this post helps, and let me know what I missed! Thanks for reading!