And We Have Initiation!

OMG. It happened. The kiddo did something funny last night (said "sweet" after being proud of peeing on the potty) and the hubs looked at me and said, "I HAVE to write that one down."

I'm so excited! To play off of Neil Armstrong's famous post-walking-on-the-moon quote, this is one small step for men, one giant leap for humankind. It's also one small step for my hubby, one giant leap for our family. I'm so thankful to not be doing all the family documentation alone. I have to admit, I had to remind him to write the memory down, but he gladly asked, "where's the memory card system?"

He's such a good daddy!

That's Not a Scrapbook...

We hosted breakfast for some friends the other day, one of them is a freelance writer. She also took this photo of me and my cutie. Since I have few photos of the two of us, I'm trying not to focus on the fact that it may or may not appear that I have a double chin. I don't care, of course, because she captured one of my little dude's sweetest expressions. Pure joy.

We were discussing the topics about which we write. I told the group about the scrapbook Brent and I are making together. He looked at me as if to say, "we are?" But the words he actually uttered, cluelessly, were, "For Thomas?"

Later that day, I said "Why did you act like you didn't know what I was talking about when I said we're making a scrapbook together?" He still didn't know what I was talking about. When I said, "we've been writing down memories and finding photos, remember?" He said, "Oh, that? Oh, I wouldn't call that a scrapbook." I asked, "what would you call it then?" He replied, "it's a memory card system."

Leave it to my hubby to make it sound technological.

Hilarious.

More updates soon on how we're ROCKING our memory card system. Ha!

Adventures in Co-Kin Work: August 60th Scrapbooking

We sat down last night to document some life together. Yes, I did say, "Come on, Hunny. Let's document some life together."



He was on Twitter. Then I heard, "No way. Rachel's first CD was Free Willy Soundtrack, too?!" I'll never let him live that down. Ten bucks to the person who can guess his second CD. Check back for the answer.



At this point, he wasn't documenting life. Although he was keeping me entertained. And he made me a malt. Does that count as being an active participant in kin work?



Jury? Still out. Help me decide.



I ask him, "What stories are you going to write?"



He wonders, "Did you steal mine already?"



I had already written two stories down. I reply, "What are yours?"



"All the things we've talked about tonight," he says.



I had.



What? I have to make it even EASIER for him by making sure he has stories to write?



Okay. I looked through some of my iPhone photos to jog some memories for him. I came across one particular photo I thought he might enjoy writing about. He brightened up and was excited to write the memory down.



"Oh, $hit."



"What?"



"I put August 60th instead of 6th." That cool date stamper failed him.



We're learning how to do it, though. I'm wondering if we should schedule a weekly scrapbooking date? Maybe then we'd become more efficient?

Scrapbooking Daddy

As my idol scrapbooker, Nicole, wrote, "documenting life is just as important as taking the time to enjoy life as it comes too...and sometimes that means cutting out the time to get it all down on paper." She's right, I think. What about you? Kin work is necessary in order for relationships, and in this case, memories of those relationships, to be preserved.

Does anyone know a scrapbooking daddy? Anyone? Anyone? Bueller? Oh wait, I do. Well, I do NOW. We've just gotten started on our book. I don't want to be the only family documenter because these are not only my stories to tell.

My mom was always the scrapbooker in our family. In fact, the very thought of my dad sitting down to "scrapbook" is hilarious. Don't get me wrong, he's the sweetest teddy bear of a dad. He did give me a taste of what it might have been like if he did scrapbook. He wrote in the front cover of a couple of books he gave me. He'd describe what the context was, why he wanted to give it to me, and so on. Cuteness. I think it'd be cool to have even more written memories of me from my dad. Because everyone loves hearing (or reading) stories about when they were kids. Don't they? No?

Great. I'm the only narcissist.

Oh, well.

So the other night, as mentioned previously, we sat down to watch a show and each wrote down a memory.

So, doing our scrapbook is something we both have to grit our teeth and force ourselves to do. It's not something we look forward to doing. Does everyone feel that way? Although I'm hoping that changes once we get rolling. Actually, in full disclosure, I was the instigator (anyone surprised?). I had to bring everything downstairs and say, "okay, we need to work on our book now." He didn't argue, although it was clear that after working an 11 hour shift at the hospital, he wasn't exactly thrilled about our next task. However, my argument is always this: I worked 11 hours, too, taking care of the kiddo. Those of you who are childless, carry on with your judgment until you have a kid of your own. THEY ARE EXHAUSTING. It's extremely fulfilling, but oh-so-grueling, too. Some days more than others.

I think we both will agree, the coolest part of the kit is that it comes with a date stamper. I've always wanted one of these, for no reason in particular, other than its awesomeness.



Our son has started singing a Raffi song called "bath time." And Brent said, "did you already write about him singing that song?" I said, "nope." And he said, "I call writing that one!" As if it were a contest of who would write the best memories down. And he wrote that story and we were done for the night. Baby steps, people. I'll take it.

Now we need to become more regular about it.