Birthdays make me feel a little sentimental each year. It is, after all, a measuring stick of how long we’ve been on Earth and it gives us a chance to reflect on how we’re doing. Every year on the eve of each of my children’s birthdays, I sit down and write them a letter. I put all of my thoughts and feelings that naturally muster up around their big day each year and record it.

In each letter I record my observations about what they are like at that time in their lives. I include their likes and interests, what goals they’ve accomplished during the past year, what hardships they’ve overcome, etc. I also share how I feel about them. It’s fun to go back and re-read the letters from the previous years after I’ve finished their most recent birthday letter.

My hope is that I will bestow these letters to them as a gift at some point when I feel they will appreciate them – when they graduate from college, or get married, or become mothers themselves. It’s my hope that as they read these letters in their adulthood they will be able to see how they were as an infant, child, and teenager. I look at the unique personalities of each of my daughters and often wonder, Was I like this at this age? Where do these traits come from? It would be nice to have a window into those early years for which I have little or no memories and see what I was like so I can relate to some of the unique spirits I now call my own.

Another purpose I hope these letters fulfill is that they’ll boost my children during the hard times. It can show them how far they’ve come and that they’ve always possessed wonderful traits. Of course, I also have a wish that they’ll see how much I loved them as they grew into adulthood. Long after I am gone I envision them using these letters to teach their own children about me and as a way for them to feel their mother’s love if I’m not able to tell them personally.

I’m not a huge journal keeper. I admire those that are diligent in recording their children’s lives. I find the everyday life to be fairly mundane, and my lucky for me, my husband is wonderful at chronically important moments that aren’t captured on film (my favorite medium for recording our lives). I have found that the expression of my intimate relationship with each of my children is best expressed in these personal and private letters. It’s my expectation that this simple way of recording parts of my children’s childhood in both unexpected and cherished by my daughters.

Question: What do you do to record your children’s lives?