Sweet sixteen Just thought that some of you might appreciate the idea and so I thought I'd share. For my daughter's sixteenth birthday I didn't get her a storebought gift. Instead, I wrote her sixteen short stories of my sixteen favorite memories of her infancy and toddler-hood - memories that she wouldn't have been old enough to remember. Anywho, it was met with typical teenage indifference at the time, though I think anything I might have given her would have, but year after year she pulls those stories out regularly and re-reads them. They're beginning to aquire an heirloom presence and quality about them to her.
That's beautiful. My mother when I was pregnant with my first child did something quasi similar. O.k. the fact that it was a book is as close as it get. She used giant poster board for pages. Each page was devoted to things she planned to do with my daughter when she was born and each had an outfit/toy/accessory attached to the page for the event. Going to church with granmda had a pretty frilly dress, going fishing with grandpa had a little cap that said "I'd rather be fishing", going to the beach with them a swim suit, sitting in the garden had sun glasses and so on. I used each item and placed it back in the book and we kept it for years until it finally fell apart our last move and was no longer capable of making the move. She is 11 now. It was always a sweet sentiment we kept for years and knowing she was once that little...sigh.
