Simple Treasures: Special Memories

Special Memories

I’m sharing with you one of my most treasured collections: a shadow/memory box full of my children’s “firsts”… first outfits or special items from their first year.

How the shadow/memory boxes came to be…

When I was getting ready to deliver my first child, my mother came over to help me set up the nursery. Prior to my mother coming over, and in preparation of a new milestone in my life, she had my father go into the attic and retrieve all of her treasured memories from when I was born. She had saved them all these years: my first outfit, first rattle, etc…It was a very special time as she showed them to me and shared her memories from when I was born. As we continued to setup the nursery for my first child, I thought to myself “boy… it’s a shame that those memories had been stored away in an attic all those years and never shared. What if I never had children?” I never even knew my mother had saved my first outfit.

I decided then and there that I was going save some of my children’s first’s and figure out a way to showcase them.  I know what you’re thinking, “what a weirdo why did you save the diaper!” But, the diaper is actually quite significant. We all know that within the first weeks of life, that a new baby grows so fast and those first diapers (newborn sizes) only last for a very short time; maybe a week or two, depending on your child. Those newborn diapers were so little and as my children outgrew them, I had a couple extra leftover, so I saved them. I remember then thinking, “I couldn’t believe they ever fit into anything so small”. They were so little… Now, hanging on our wall in our bedroom, I am always reminded how little they were and how far we have come.  Each item in the memory box has a special memory and meaning for each child. Sharing my special memory boxes with you all this Mother’s Day Issue is especially poignant as my eldest daughter will be going to college this summer, and while I am flooded with emotions… I know it’s time for a new set of memories to begin.

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This post originally appeared on our May/June 2012 Magazine