04 AugJournaling Your Children: I’ll Never Forget it

October 4, 2004

Dear Jory,

            You are four years old now. You have the darkest rootbeer eyes much like your sister Autumn. You have the same color hair. And your smile—your smile is the most beautiful smile in the family. I can’t define what it is about your smile, but it can light up a dark room with beauty. If you did nothing but smile the Lord would not let you remain on Earth because you would be too wonderful. You take care of that problem quite handily, though. You know how to throw fits. You can scream, yell, and cry with the best of them. When you are in the mood it doesn’t take much more than a look to set you off with a “Weeve me awone!” and then the screaming and crying. But you haven’t thrown as many fits lately. Maybe you are starting to grow out of it.

            I took you and Cory to Grandpa Anderson’s house over the weekend. I was going up to go to my 25^th high school reunion. I took you and Cory for company and to let you enjoy Grandpa unencumbered with all your brothers and sisters. You were a wonderful boy—many smiles and no fits. Saturday night Grandpa took you to the store with him to get milk. He let you sit in the front seat and everything. He tells me you insisted on carrying the milk from the checkout counter to the car. You had Grandpa and the cashier worried that you would trip because you had your hands full of milk carton and, as usual, your pants were falling down. The cashier said, “Careful, Honey,” as she watched you go. But you didn’t trip and your mission was accomplished. That night you lay on the floor in your sleeping bag next to me. I heard you tell your belly goodnight.

            On Sunday morning you experienced the joy of standing over a heat vent in your nightshirt for the very first time in your life. You loved the way the warm air felt on your legs and the way the air poofed out your nightshirt.

You wanted to get into the hot tub. We wanted you to wait until General Conference started. I thought that this might give you fits, but you were extraordinarily patient. You even sat in the living room with the old people and watched conference for awhile. Finally I gave you the word and we got in our swim suits. You and I had a good time in the hot tub. You had a tea pot and a scoop and you kept pouring water over me. I poured some over you too. You loved the way your swimming suit filled up with air and made bubbles as we pushed the air out.

After the hot tub we went outside while Grandpa and Grandma got lunch ready. I put you on the rope swing and you sailed like a seagull back and forth. Then you threw rocks in canal and petted the cats.  You said the willow tree was “crazy” because it hung out over the canal and nearly dipped its willow limbs into the water. What a wonderful afternoon at Grandpas. I know you won’t remember it. I know I will never forget it.

Love, Dad

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As I searched for ways to capture the wonderful trivial moments of my children’s lives I found a simple, easy method: once a week I take a few moments to write some brief observations on a child’s life. I’ve done this for all eight of my children. There is nothing special about what I’ve done. I simply sit down and take a few minutes to dump a few details and feelings about a child and what’s been going on in our lives. If it was any harder I wouldn’t have done it (scrap booking anyone?). What I have now is a montage of our lives mostly of things that have long been lost to my memory. I say “our” lives because even though these blurbs are about one of my children, it inevitably catches a picture of me in the reflection. Each Sunday I send my kids one entry from their “journals” and we are reliving our lives together. Anyone can do this. You will find it worth it when your children are gone.

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