Thursday, July 2, 2015

Your baby's journal: reminder and excerpt.


We have our two older grandsons staying with us. They are now 12 and 11 years old and are amused and delighted when I tell them funny things they said when they were small. I know it takes effort, but if you can record these kinds of things in your baby's journal (well, they'll be toddlers and older when they learn to speak, of course!) you'll find it well worth while.

Here's an excerpt from Letter Thirteen of my book 'Magical Motherhood, A Series of Letters to Cheryl' as an example.*

     I found it fascinating to observe the different ways Josh and Rory took hold of language. Josh loved adverbs and adjectives — sticky, slow, fast – and especially liked three syllable words. One day I swept the kitchen floor. As I finished, I commented, “Well, that’s better, but not marvellous.” He went around muttering “marvellous, marvellous.”
    Don’t miss the opportunity to record such things in your child’s journal. One of my regrets is that I didn’t make more detailed notes, starting with Miranda. By the time Ben came along I recognized how much of what I believed I’d remember I’d forgotten! So I have more of his delightful ways and sayings – sometimes funny, sometimes wise – than of the three others. I brought out my notebooks when we celebrated his twenty-first birthday, still the true time of our coming of age. When I read out some of the amusing things he said, the questions he asked, he nearly fell off his chair, he was laughing so hard!

     And now I’ve also recorded things that Josh and Rory say when I’m with them. Ah, how the heart sighs and smiles to read and be reminded of those precious moments.

* available from http://www.magicalmotherhood.com  

or email magicalmotherhood@rogers.com