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.