When my oldest son was two and a half, my parents came to visit us in our house in California. Alec was very excited to see them. He was at the age where he liked to repeat everything he heard. One day during their stay, my dad had a sinus headache, and my mom was getting him some medicine. Naturally curious, Alec asked what she was doing. She jokingly told him grandpa needed some medicine because he was a sick man. Without any prodding from anyone, Alec proceeded to find his grandpa and told him with a straight face, “Grandpa you’re a sick man.” My dad was caught off guard at first but then had good laugh.

Write Down Cute Things Your Kids Say

In this digital age, it is easy to capture pictures and videos on your phone or computer. But what about those things they say that would make a good story? Speaking from experience, it is fun to tell your kids some of these stories when they get older. I thought it would be easy to remember stories when my kids were little, but as years go by, those images get foggy. Years ago, I had someone tell me to write down funny stories about when my kids were little. I did write down some, but not as many as I would have liked. I kept just a few in a journal, which I held onto for safekeeping. So you don’t forget to record stories or entertaining things they say, leave a journal in plain sight. You could also keep it on your nightstand and record anything worth remembering before bed. Using the notes on your phone would be another way to record those treasures like when my oldest taught his younger brother tumbling.

My boys shared a room while we were living in California. My four-year-old son, Alec, had just learned to do some tumbling. One night after putting the boys to bed, I heard some commotion coming from the bedroom. I walked down the hall quietly to determine what was going on, and to my surprise, Zach-my two year old-was standing bent over in his crib like he was about to do a somersault. I was about to go in and stop him when I spied Alec doing the exact same pose. Apparently, Alec was teaching his younger brother how to do a somersault in his bed! I was thankful they at least were trying their gymnastics on comfortable mattresses.

Another fun memory took place when our kids were six, four, and two. Alec and Zach caught on that we had a termite problem, and they realized Dad and Mom were trying to rid our house of them. I didn’t know they decided to help until one day I saw the boys in the backyard playing. At first, I was confused when I noticed Alec was riding his bike methodically in a circle on our patio and Zach was hitting the patio with a plastic bat. Upon further investigation, I discovered Alec was riding his bike over the places the termites were coming up through the cracks in the cement, while Zach was hitting them with a plastic bat as they appeared, like some sort of whack-a-mole game!

Capture Those Memories With Pictures (but have a backup)

You can store your pictures on a thumb drive or cloud service (like Apple’s i-cloud or Google photos). Whatever way you decide, make sure you have a backup. Our house was broken into a few years ago, and our computer was stolen, along with pictures that hadn’t been backed up anywhere. Thinking about that makes me sad. Please don’t make the same mistake we did. I am thankful for the pictures we do have. They help bring back some of those memories we may have forgotten. I am glad my husband took these gems of my daughter, Emma, that captured her “Style ‘N Shine” phase.

When Emma was little somehow she came up with the saying “Style ‘N Shine.” To top it off, she would wear necklaces, or a feather boa, bracelets, and sometimes even a tiara. She would pose and say her cute phrase. Most of the pictures you see of her around the ages of three-five, have her with her arm out too. One night she decided to brush her teeth with me with all her bling on. If you look closely, you will see that she is winking at the camera. If only we all could be that stylish in brushing our teeth! In fact, my blog is named in honor of her!

Make a Photo Book

A final way to remember memories from your kid’s childhood is by putting them in a photo book. There are different ones available online, but the one we have used is Shutterfly. When our kids graduated from high school, my husband and I made a photo book for each of them from pictures we had saved throughout their childhood. You can also use text to record any stories or fun things they said.

And by the way, I did get permission from my kids to share these stories on my blog.

How do you record memories for safekeeping?