Special things you've done for your children

[5dogsgoswimming]

I hope I express myself in a way that makes sense here.

If you have children, is there anything special you've done and are glad you've done for them?

I've been thinking of putting together a scrap book as a record of their childhood. Maybe 1 page per year, or a photo album. I've heard of people who set up email addresses for their kids and email them photos and give them the password when they are 18.

Any inspiration?

I'm doing a scrapbook for DD. I've done a lot for this (first) year but only have 2/3 pages for the remaining years up to 18. I plan to give it to her on her 18th birthday. I also made a little video for her first birthday.

My parents did a few things for me - baby book, scrapbook of things I made them with little notes in - and I really treasure them.

That's great. I've done baby books but I wanted someone to move into after them

I knitted DS a very special blanket - I've knitted loads for the DC but this one It took months and he watched me knitting every day while he watched his hour of tv every lunch time. He's very sensitive and he knows how much went into it - a year on and he is still so attached to it. He curls up with it on the sofa and shows it off to everyone ' Look at what my mummy knitted for me, I love my blanket!' He's only 3.5! And I think he really treasures it. I used expensive wool so it should last him forever. Need to make one for DC 2 next...

Thanks. I'm not sure if I have it in my capabilities to knit! Although I'd like to...

I've made DD a couple of photo books - one was of a holiday we went on. I intend to make more at some point.

I've kept my girls dresses with the intention of making them a quilt each for when they leave home.

Each Christmas I make my DCs a bauble just for them. I put things that they have been interested in throughout the year in it.

I knit blankets and squares for MN woolly hugs. DS2(18) has asked me to knit him a blanket. I am currently knitting lots of squares to make him a blanket to take to uni with him.

DS1(20) has a farm that DH made for his 2nd birthday. It folds up and all the animals go inside. It's hand painted, right down to the tiles on the rooves of the buildings.

I write DD a letter every year on her birthday. At some point between now and her 18th birthday (13 years) I'll re-write them all into a pretty notebook with photos.

I love the idea of saving clothes to make a quilt.

Lovely!

I kept a diary of every day of the first year of my son's life. Sounds very 'pfb' but it was just a line or two, in a normal diary as he's a January baby, and I love to write, so wasn't a chore.

I also wrote a poem for him and spoke it on video over baby clips of him - spoken word.

Each January I buy a new box (usually one of those Really Useful things from Hobbycraft) and fill it with all manner of things through the year; holiday snaps, stuff they bring home, tickets from trips, anything I think worth saving. Each December the boxes are sorted, labelled and put up into the loft. ES is on box 10 now, and DH doesn't get it, says it's far too much junk. But I was adopted when I was 10 and I have nothing from before that point, not a school book, not photos, nothing at all. So I've gone the other way with the boys.

And there's a diary available called My Life Story (will try and attach a link) that I fill out whenever I can. It's all about memories, important days, things that've made us laugh. Worth doing.
www.amazon.co.uk/SUCK-UK-Life-Story-Diary/dp/B001OIXVXK/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1424036045&sr=8-1&keywords=suck+uk+my+life+story+diary

We are making DS a photo book of each year of his life. The captions are very personal from us to him so it is like an illustrated letter. We plan to do it until he is 18 and then give him a set (we have several copies made each year for grandparents and us).

I'm also planning a photo book for each year - just ordered the first one as it's dds first birthday next week! I'm not doing any captions though I'm not really good with things like that , I have sorted the photos into months though. I know I like looking at my childhood photos even though ours are all just stuffed in a box - I certainly don't wish my parents had done proper albums or notes to us so I hope my children don't mind either! My mum always says she was too busy enjoying us to keep taking and organising photos but I think partly it's so much easier these days to take photos and do photo books etc. So I'm trying to get the balance right, I'm pretty sure I can keep an annual photo book up but probably not much more !

I've just ordered some things from hobby craft to make some scrapbooks for my Dcs . I've thought about doing the email ones but I just think the paper ones are so much nicer.

Hope I can keep it up though.

Thanks!

Box frames work well: a photo with objects around it. After a few years you'll have a little gallery!

I am not very good at this sort of thing, have kept very little from when the DCs were babies etc, never did baby books and don't really do videos. But every birthday when we take the cards down I write in the card about what they are like at the moment, what their favourite things are, what they like to do, who they play with and what we enjoy together, that sort of thing. They each have a box which the cards go into with the occasional other random thing.