You’re Failing Miserably At Making A Baby Book So Here’s Something You Can Do Instead
My first child is three-years-old and I’ve still yet to put together a baby book. Now I also have an 11-month-old who doesn’t have one, either. Clearly, there is something about the baby book that eludes me. If I don’t get around to buying an album, printing pictures, and cutting out little cutesy graphics that symbolize milestones – am I a horrible parent? I don’t think so, but I do want to give these kids something to remember their childhood. What is a busy, un-crafty mom like me to do?
There is an easy, two-step solution to the baby book conundrum we all have.
Step 1.
Go to Home Depot, Target or anyplace that sells storage items and buy a large plastic bin.
Step 2.
Bring it home and dump all of your baby keepsakes in there.
That’s it. Bring it home and dump all of the stuff from the hospital you have been meaning to get into a baby book in there. Make sure you store it somewhere that doesn’t get excessively moist or hot. Put the paper items in little Ziploc bags before you throw them in.
It takes zero energy to shove stuff in a big box. Pre-school report cards, pressed flowers, hospital bracelets, first doctor’s office visit notes – all that stuff gets thrown in. If you want to be fancy, you can buy an extra external hard drive that you keep only baby pictures on and store it in there, too. Locks of hair, favorite tiny pairs of shoes – just keep throwing the stuff in.
As your child gets older, there may be a necessity to buy another box – but no big whoop. If you live in a small apartment, buy one of the large flat ones that you can scoot under your bed. The point of this exercise is, it takes the pressure off building the book. You can be certain you have all things necessary to eventually make one – and if you ever find time in your crazy schedule you can spend the day sifting through it. Or – like my friend just did for her daughter on her 18th birthday – you can hand the whole box over. Can you imagine pouring through a box of keepsakes like that when you turned 18? Who wouldn’t love that?
I mentioned something to this friend after I found my son’s first lock of hair I had cut off his head in our kitchen junk drawer. I asked her how she handled it, and she said, “I just threw it all in a big box.”
Okay. Brilliant. Stop worrying about the baby book and just plan on letting your kid sort through all of that stuff when they are older. Or revisit it all when you retire. Maybe you’ll be craftier then. Why do today what you can put off until tomorrow – isn’t that how the saying goes?
