My daughter, Lainey, will be finishing preschool in June and heading to kindergarten in the fall. This is the first time I’m starting to feel nostalgic. It really is true what they say about being a parent: the days are slow, but the years are fast. Where have these five years gone?
I’m not usually sentimental, but I must confess that when I see people display monthly photos of their babies during their first year at their first birthdays, I wish I had done that. I think I was just too busy and overwhelmed (and sleep deprived) to even think about it.
So now I’m doing a project. I’m taking my daughter’s drawings from preschool which currently looks like this…
And I’m scanning each one using my HP Printer to make a photo book out of them. This way, I don’t have to save the actual pieces of paper because I’ll have a beautiful way of remembering them (and so will she).
Here are some of her drawings I love…
I got this idea after reading this article on the HP site, How to save mementos for your kids. As you may know, HP is one of our sponsors, so I’m always scouring their site for useful info (because I think they’ve got a lot of it). The article is full of great ideas, many of which I hadn’t thought of, like taking photos of your kids playing with their favorite toys, so you don’t have to save all their toys, too.
How do you save mementos of your children? I’d love to know, because I’m always looking for new ideas. Please leave a comment at the end of this post. Also, how sentimental are you? 
I am extremely nostalgic, and I save just about everything. For my kids’ first year, I had professional pictures taken every 6-8 weeks to document their growth and changes. And I’ve saved EVERY. SINGLE. ONE. of the outfits they had on when those pictures were taken, in case one day they want to dress up their kids in the same outfits. http://themarthainitiative.blogspot.com/2011/01/what-i-keep.html
I feel your nostalgia. My only daughter Annabella will be turning 9 yrs old on March 10th. I’d wish time would stop…
I throw away the ones I don’t want to keep and the rest goes in a 3-ring binder for now…and eventually the really precious ones go in a scrapbook.
I love this idea. I also love the innocence and purity from kids pictures. They are not egotistical, bias, pompus or fake- they are just the innocent thoughts of a child and as with any art can then be interpreted any way but the viewer. I challenge myself to do this and the only way I know how is to draw quick without the time to think. All my drawings are less that 9.9 seconds