Letters for my Babies

A couple years ago on my son’s second birthday, I decided to write him a letter. I knew he couldn’t read it, but I thought it would be fun to give to him later. In it I talked about when he was born and how I had felt holding him for the first time. I included his ages when he reached certain milestones like rolling over, crawling, and walking. I gave a list of his first words. And I recorded some of my favorite memories of him in the first two years of his life.

After completing it, I decided it would be a great idea to start doing that for all my kids every year on their birthday. Then when they moved out of the house, I could give them a packet of letters. It could even continue every year after that if I wrote more letters with new memories.

Starting so late, I felt bad that my oldest wouldn’t have a s many letters, but some was better than none. So on his next birthday I started writing to him too. The letters are not a comprehensive history of their life, just a few highlights.

I don’t always get letters written ON their birthday. Sometimes I’m a few days late. I think the latest was about a month after their birthday. And there was one or two that I didn’t write at all. But I just do my best. I love having time to reflect on the past year with each child and the things that I enjoy most about having them in my life.

I had about 6 or 7 letters written and saved on the computer when it died. 🙁

It wouldn’t turn on at all. And when I realized that those letters were on there and that I had not copied them onto the external hard drive I was very sad.

I still want to try to recover them, but there is no guarantee since it won’t even turn on.

So, I get to start again. 🙂

I plan on writing a letter to each of them before the new year. All of their birthdays are past this year, but the longer I wait the more the memories will fade.

I really enjoy writing to them knowing that it will be a while before they read it. I usually get so caught up in the day-to-day that I don’t see the progress and growth that is happening in each of my kids. These letters allow me to see their life in leaps and bounds. I also tend to lump them in together as ‘the kids’ and the individual people get lost. Writing to each one on their birthday reminds me they are different people, and I review what I love about each of them.

As I reread the letters each year and write a new one, I get to see new personality traits develop. I get to remember the fun things that we did, or hilarious things they said. A lot happens in one year, especially when children are young. They are constantly growing and changing, and I know they will be gone in what seems like the blink of an eye.

I want to remember these times. I want them to know that I was paying attention. I hope that they will enjoy reading about their lives from their mom’s point-of-view.

I love them each, for who they are now. And I look forward to who they will become.

 

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3 Comments

  1. What a great idea! I am totally going to do this! I started a journal for each of them when they were born but of course it never lasted more than 6 months- this is much less time consuming and they still get something written about them!

  2. We set up email addresses for our kids and email them a letter or pictures or videos every now and then. Once they are old enough to have an email address we will give them their password and they can read what we’ve written them. Then I can stay up with cute stuff with just a few sentences on my phone!

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