If I could put time in a bottle ...

One of the struggles we face as parents is the conflict between a wish to hold on to each memory and a debilitating lack of time and energy to record said memories. Add this to my list of motherly shortcomings: I have failed utterly at the task of recording milestones. And those are just the biggies - I've been even worse about the small, precious day-to-day happenings. I'm sad to say no height-tracking hashmarks adorn any place in our house. I have three baby memory books that are, at best, half filled out.

I know many people are great at this, compiling gorgeous scrapbooks or writing in a journal each day. Somehow I just have not found it in myself to commit to these. Like so many, I take for granted that my memories of my children will be indelible. I must not lose sight of the fact that if I don't make more of an effort, my remembrances just may evaporate like so many childhood tears shed. My desire to preserve memories is a big part of the reason I like to write this blog, but it still doesn't feel like enough. 

Amidst my once-in-a-while wish that time would just speed up so I could get past this really demanding part of parenting is an even bigger yearning to be able to stop time and really take in my boys just as they are right at any given moment. I wish I could bottle the scent of the tops of their little boy heads. I want to memorize the fact that Ben cannot watch a movie or TV show without being on his feet and tossing around a ball. The times that Paul takes out his Pokemon cards and asks me endless questions: which one is cutest, what's your favorite fire type Pokemon? The bajillion hilarious things that Gus says and does, like the other day when we were playing Zingo and he gave me a piece I needed and said in his 3-year-old voice, "Here Mom, you deserve this."

I've tried to journal in the past and have gotten bogged down writing pages and pages about my feelings. Inevitably I burn out and stop doing it. That's why I liked this idea I came across in Good Housekeeping: keeping a one-sentence journal. It's that simple. You write a one-sentence remembrance of your day. So I haven't been able to keep myself to just one sentence, but I'm all about keeping it simple, so two to four sentences is all I need. I think I can maintain that. In addition, I'm going to commit to taking out the video camera more often. I can't stop time, but I want to do a better job of preserving those precious moments big and small.