My mom was many things and among them she was a historian, a journal keeper, and a scrapbooker.

My mom read magazines about scrapbooking and found many great ideas in these publications. She shared one idea with my Aunt who also happens to be named Amy, when my mom found out that my aunt was expecting a baby. My aunt married my uncle after I was born so I wasn’t named after her, in case you were wondering =). The letter she wrote to my aunt is addressed to Amy so I like to imagine that my mom was also writing this letter to me too in some small way. She died 6 days after writing this letter.

In the letter she explains the idea a little bit and then she included the pages from the magazine. The general idea is that you take a picture of your baby on the same day of the week every week for the first year of their life and then write a little paragraph about what happened in their life that week. Then at the end of that year you will have an amazing record of the first year of your baby’s life.

I just gave birth to my first child and my aunt reminded me of this idea. When she showed me I remembered my mom telling me about this idea when she was going to share it with Amy. I thought it was a great idea at the time and I still think so.

However, I am not a scrapbooker. I am certainly crafty but printed pictures are more complicated to come by these days - not to mention all the other supplies needed to create a great scrapbook. I’m still keeping a journal so that my child(ren) will have my handwriting but for this project I’ve decided to stick with my favorite form of documentation - my blog.

I will do my best to keep up with the once a week record of my baby’s life. Oscar was born on a Tuesday so I’m thinking that Oscar’s weeks will go from Tuesday to Tuesday. I’m guessing my family will read this record and that’s about it. But I want the memories to be recorded for myself and for my brand new baby boy. I’m already about a month behind but I’ll be working to catch up as quickly as I can between feedings and doctor’s appointments and poopy diapers.

This project will be a love letter not only to my miracle baby, Oscar, but also to my mother who would have been the absolute best grandma. I know this because she was the best mom. So Mama - this is also for you.

All my love,

Amy