Documenting Memories

I ran across the above book at the National Bookstore.  It is going to document some first events in a child's life such as the following :

1.  Before I was born...

2.  Ultrasound photo while in mommy's tummy...

3.  About the baby (arrival time, date, etc)...

4.  Origin of baby's name...

5.  Baby's first photo (what mommy and daddy think when they first saw me, etc.)

6.  Hand and Foot prints (this i find so cute hehe)

7.  Baby's birth certificate...

8.  Headlines for that day (news headlines, political figures, popular actors, movies, popular singers / songs, etc)...

9.   Family Tree (Grandparents, daddy and mommy, myself and sibling...if there are any)...

10.  First Day at Home (date, weather, first visitors, their comments)

11.  First Outing

12.  First Holiday

13.   The First Time the baby crawled

14.  The first time the Baby's finger nails were cut

15.  The First Time the Baby's hair was cut

16.  Teething

17.  Baby's favorites (playmates, toys, food,songs, activities, games, places)

18.  Medical visits

19.  "How I've grown"

20.  Baby's Baptism

21.  Baby's Baptismal Certificate

22.  Baby's Baptismal Celebration

23.  Special memories and Favorite Pictures

24.  Baby's First Birthday

25.  Baby's first Birthday Guests and gifts

26. Dedication and Wishes

The book was really a good buy.  I never expected that I would come across such kind.  I insisted from my husband to buy it since the moment, I held and browsed through the pages, it moved me from within.  I never had such documenting in my childhood years.  Hmmm I don't blame either my parents for not doing that.  They had so much to deal with 6 children ( I was the fifth one).

I know that this book would greatly help us and our child as we look back at her "history".   I realized how this one would help when my doctor asked me questions like:  What was your weight when you were born; my mother's cravings, etc and... I wanted so much to know how my mother felt when she carried me in her womb.... 

Actually my doctor was interested to know my history too, so that she can relate with my pregnancy.  She discovered from the last visit that my tummy and baby was smaller than she expected (though she knew already that I was a little trim...hmmm not really skinny prior to my pregnancy ...good thing our little girl is in within the normal range of birth weight for a fetus :-) ).  And I could not sort of answer her questions simply because I had no idea.

With my background in Psychology, I know how important memories are as to understanding present behavior.  The not so good thing was, I had no chance at interviewing my own mother about me.  She died without me knowing everything that I needed to know from her pregnancy up to my childhood years.  I could  remember full well my adolescent years expect that I wanted so much to know how she felt about my odd and crazy behaviors during that time :-).

Ahhh.... I realize, there are a lot of things that a mother or parents for that matter can do as to helping their own children craft  stories that one day would help them understand themselves and their journey.  At this time ... I could help that out in partnership with my husband so that our own - Maria Mikaela (yes that would be her name...on my 8th month of pregnancy:-)  wouldn't have a hard time tracing backwards her own path.