Immortalizing Your Child’s Early Years

Many parents with young children feel that they never want their little rascals to grow up, no matter how messy, dirty and loud they are. We never want the gorgeous soft skin on their faces or chubby little hands to change. Even some days when we can’t wait for them to be able to entertain themselves just for an hour, or sort their potty training out themselves, we dread the days when they’ll be able to coherently argue back (rather than just cry in protest), head out into the unknown world and suddenly don’t need you anymore. The young years are the ones to cherish and they fly by so fast that many parents want to do as much as they can to preserve this special time (not matter how exhausting it can be!) Whether this be through photos, videos, saving nursery and school drawings or hoarding their baby clothes, we all have our way of keeping these experiences close to our heart.

Although everyone has their own personal ideas of how to immortalize their child’s early years, I have come up with a list of ideas that I think everyone can do!

1. Create an email address for your child
   In the modern day of technology, it would seem silly not to utilize it. So, create an email address for your child and send over photos, images etc until they get to 18 or 21 then give them the password! They’ll have two decades of memories all in one place! (Also, this won’t get lost or damaged)
   
   
2. Start a list of all their first words and phrases
   Electronically or physically, start a long list of all your child’s first words, phrases and then all the funny things they say as they get older. You can send copies of these lists to grandparents to keep too as well as using it to embarrass them when they get to their teens!
   
   
3. Have a memories box
   Although you will have thousands of lovely memories with your child in the early years, a memory box is a great way to keep the main ones in one place. This can be their milk teeth (that the tooth fairy has given back, obviously), hair form their first haircut, one photo from each of their birthdays, christening messages from relatives, first pair of shoes and anything else personal and important to you.
   
   
4. Quiz them
   Ask them questions every birthday such as “Who’s your best friend?” “What’s your favorite food?” “Who’s your best friend?” “What’s your favorite thing to play?” etc. Write down the answers and give them the answer sheet when they get old enough!
   
   
5. Store all of their drawings and paintings
   Buying a big folder and hole punching them in is a good idea. 
   
   
6. Get molds of their hands and feet
   In some schools and nurseries, they clay mold your child’s foot or hand for you to hang on your wall at home. However, sometimes, these don’t look great and it also means they are static to one place when you may want to keep them closer to you. There’s a fantastic online store I’ve discovered called Hold Upon Heart, who specialist in taking the molds of your child’s hands, feet and fingerprints and turning them into jewelry. Either in leather for Daddies or silver necklaces for Mummies, the company sends you a mold kit then shrinks the mold down to fit onto a piece of jewelry.

So there are just a few of my ideas for ways to easily and effectively immortalize your lovely child’s early years. I hope you try them out & enjoy the results!