I was young.
I thought it would never happen.
I assumed I would remember it all.
No need to write it down, I only had one child at the time.
Every word she spoke would stay etched in my memory.
And then I got older and had more children.
I lost keys right after I set them down, rewashed laundry, forgot how to spell my own name.
While driving my son home from preschool last week, dust was blown from the most precious of memories, from the years B.I.B. (before I blogged). The instant this memory reappeared I felt as grateful for remembering as I did guilty for forgetting…
Ashlyn began first grade during the time when Victoria’s Secret lotion was all the rave. Every morning I dipped my body in a bottle of Plumeria as I was getting ready but one hurried morning I forgot. She came home from school a little “off” that day. Through the evening she was more teary than usual but, because of her autism, was unable to fully share what was wrong. That night as I lay in bed with her, hoping she would fall asleep before the sun came up again, she turned her little head from mine and said,
“I put my hands on my nose at school today Mommy, but you weren’t there.”
My heart warmed at the thought that my scent could get her through a day then tumbled into a million tiny pieces because I was not there when she needed me. I coated my hands with lotion every. single. morning. for the rest of her elementary years.
And this is why you should blog, or journal or scribble on sticky notes and shove them into baby books.
Because even the most perfect of memories can get buried by dust on the shelves of a Mommy Brain.
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This made me cry! I’m feeling so nostalgic for my kids’ baby years, and this one got me. Gorgeous. XO
Oh my goodness. Wow. I’m all choked up over here. So sweet and tender. Oh sigh. It goes so fast. My oldest will be in high school next year. Officially slumping my shoulders. Boo. XO
Thanks for sharing this… Reminds me of lipstick kisses left on tiny hands as mommy went off to work (a story shared with me by a friend). I am so glad I write, blog, & try to scrapbook even the smallest of moments! XO
We would like to thank you yet again for the lovely ideas you offered Jeremy when preparing a post-graduate research plus, most importantly, regarding providing all of the ideas in one blog post. Provided we had been aware of your web page a year ago, we’d have been kept from the useless measures we were participating in. Thanks to you.
This was beautiful and heart warming – not really in keeping with the “motherhood is annoying” post that I was about to write but…def. a lovely sentiment about why we blog.
Those words pierce the heart. At the same time it’s comforting to know there were things you could do to reassure her.
Wow. I love it. Scent is such a powerful tie to memory. To this day, I smell Phisoderm and get sad. (I used it to wash my face when my family moved while I was a tween.)
So glad you caught this one again.
It is funny the little things they notice. JDaniel can’t stand my hair pulled back. He says his mom wears her hair down.
This is so incredibly heartwarming. My twins are two months old, and I struggle to find more time blogging about the little things that will get lost over time. Your post inspires me to find that time.
I voted!
I had such a hard time keeping track of all of those little things that I had post its all over the house. Thank goodness for blogging!
I love the story about the lotion. That is just so sweet!
This is such a wonderfully written article. And the pictures comes much more brilliantly with it.
Thanks for sharing.
-Brad
You are so right. I can’t even remember why I came into the kitchen…so I am thankful for this reminder!
Jessica, that is just beautiful. LOVE that you are sharing the joy and importance of writing down our memories. Im thankful to have my memories of Yasminah’s pregnancy as after we lost her that was all I had to hold onto x x
Oh, Jessica.
My baby girl used to miss me at night. So I’d spray one shot of my perfume in the air then wave a t-shirt through it for her to take to bed with her while she slept.
I felt so loved.
I still do.
I love this memory you shared so much.
Thanks for stirring one of mine.
And I will be voting for you RIGHT NOW!!!
Oh I love that you have such a similar memory and that this post brought it back. Isn’t it amazing the tender moments we will always have? Thanks for the vote :). xo
I love this!!! So sweet and so true!
That is probably the sweetest thing I have ever heard. Our olfactory senses are the strongest and most memory inducing, which I’m sure you experience every time you get a whiff of hand sanitizer like I do. I love that she depended on that, and I love that you obliged her for the rest of her elementary years. 🙂
Oh the hand sanitizer. That and the monitors beeping, either one sends me tumbling backwards.
I remember sometime after I had my third child, I stopped finding time to do my nails. One day, a very young child #2 said “mommy, those don’t even look like your hands”. All the bottles of forgotten nail polish came back out and were put into use…you never know what’s important to those little memories.
Really? How funny that that is something he remembered. And you stopped polishing your nails? I don’t ever remember that happening.
Sticky notes are the best way not to forget the important things! I’ve done for decades, and it really works. Although I have got a smartphone, I only use the handwritten post-it tags on the fridge.
also?? That picture is beautiful! xoxo
Oh, my friend…this memory is beautiful. That your scented helped her through the day?? Tears. It’s just beautiful. And yes, we need to write this down.
Congrats on such a great honor…voting!
Thank you Katie! xo
Oh that is the sweetest thing ever. Even better than the kissing hand.
Hmm, wonder if I can get a book deal out of it :).
So very true. Our memory bank only holds so much.
I live for that scent too. 🙂
Lovely memory (so glad it came back to you) and so true about thinking you will remember it all… and then not.
I have to confess that I never kept up with Paige’s baby book and it just breaks my heart now. I am so thankful that I blog now so that I will have something to look back at some day. I even need to get better about writing about all of the fun stuff that we do. I need to keep a notebook with me at all times.
I just love this story. It is so sweet. Paige just asked to get her hair cut like mine because she wanted to look like me. 🙂
We just think we are going to remember everything forever because we are so immersed in motherhood. But, oh the fog. Beautiful post. Ellen
Ah, I remember that scent!
The mind of a child never ceases to amaze me. They way they look at life, the things they see… it’s all so heartbreakingly raw.
This was such a beautiful memory, Jessica. And memories like these are EXACTLY why I blog.
That is amazing. Her ability to count on you, and to tell you about it. She said – you matter, I need you. The details might blur but the message won’t ever. Your writing really inspires me!
So true. I wish I could say I’ve kept up with my youngest child’s baby book (he’s my fourth) but I haven’t, and his first teeth and first steps may not be recorded. I haven’t been blogging long/much so I may need to troll through old Facebook posts to find these milestones.
This is so true and beautiful. The detailed journal I kept with my oldest child became one liners with my second child and barely anything with my third. This is a great reminder to just write a little something every day. And even more reason to blog!
This is so precious.
I worry about this a lot. My grandpa had alzhimer’s disease when I was 7…it rocked my world. I went from being the center of his world to a stranger. I vowed that I would never forget memories and I wrote in journals to remember.
Our kids grow so fast that memories zip in and out faster than we can process them. But I’m glad that we can dust them off 🙂
Mommy brain…. I like that.
I’m terrible about keeping up with baby books and all the little things that my kids have done. Terrible… that is one of the reasons that I like pictures so much, they help me remember special moments in our lives.
I have learn a lot of thing in social media, Inspired by different blog… And this month I am planning to create an essential ideas that most of all love too such like this beautiful one…
That is such a great memory. So glad you remembered it. This is so true – I need to remember that and get back to writing more about our life.
That is heartbreaking and heartmending all at the same time!
I have a day-keeper thingy. No year is attached to it but each day/month has a space. When something happens I write it down with the year next to it. Kind of like a journal. I love it!
Love that story. I do write down some of the things Donut does, but I need to do it more often.
This is why I created a category on my blog just for conversations with my kids… those little things that make me laugh and I always want to remember.
What a sweet memory. I try so hard to write thi gs down so that I don’t forget. Social media and blogging make it much easier.
oooh, I love this…
and my heart just broke for her…what a sweet sweet girl
Beautiful. Stunning, really.
This. This is exactly why I write our little stories. Because I want my kids to remember, and I hope to never forget.
I love the lotion story – thank you for sharing. Thank you also for giving another reason to blog – because sometimes I do have trouble writing.
Congratulations on the top 25 – I will go figure out how to vote! Take care.
Congrats on your nomination! Of course I voted for you. IMMEDIATELY.
What a sweet memory, Jessica. And it is so interesting what our kids remember, too.
Oh, so very true.
I have kept calendars since the first one was brought home…just an 2×2 squ space where I jotted what we did,ate/was said.
The memories that flood back and when they read it: these scribblings became their memories, too.
Lovely post.
Ooh, I love that idea, such a quick way to hold onto the memories.