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20 Comments

  1. This is so great! It is so important to live in the moment and truly cherish where you are in your life right now with your children. Your mental health may seem on edge right now while your children are young and driving you nuts, however time goes by extremely fast and you will soon regret the days you didn’t hang onto the little amount of time spent with your kids

    1. Charlotte, thank you for your sweet note. Time does go by extremely fast!

      p.s. My youngest’s full name is Charlotte too. :)

  2. For some reason this just all feels like another impossible to do list

    1. Jenna, I’m sorry it came across that way. That certainly wasn’t my intention! I added a note above to clarify that it’s best to look through the whole list and pick the one thing that resonates and try that. This is intended as a grab bag of ideas for you to pick from, *not* a to-do list. <3

  3. Although I am a very emotional person, I am not very emotional or sappy buthe yet this article had me in tears. I also, am not the comment type. I just had to let you know how much I enjoyed this. Even though I already do am few of these things, I love the extra spin you put on them especially the journal from mom to daughter. Then putting it out on the pillow so that you don’t forget. That’s my biggest issue is, I always have good intentions but never find the time or I forget when I do. Thank you

    1. Misty, I’m so glad to hear this resonated with you! I was in tears as I wrote it, too. <3 And I can definitely relate to starting out with the best of intentions and not putting the reminders and systems in place to help me stick with it. Hopefully this gave you some new ideas to try!

  4. Jaideep Kaur says:

    Reading this made me laugh, think and cry all at once. Thank you for giving words to my feelings and sharing your life in such a sweet and funny way.

  5. What a great post, thank you! I really love how you share personal “aha moments” with your daughters and the solutions you come up with as a result! I’ve picked a few new ideas from your list that we will definitely implement.
    To maybe add one further idea (I adapted this one from a friend with older children): my son is 10 months old, and we set up a private Twitter account when he was born so only people that we approve (grandparents, close friends) can see the posts. I post (at least) one picture or video of him every day. This helps in two ways: 1) my family lives far away, and this way they feel more connected; and 2) I remember to capture some new moment or sweet thing he does on a daily basis. Later we will add stuff he says as well. Ultimately, the point of this account was to have it for him when he is grown up – a day by day snapshot of his childhood. But it is helping me pay attention every day and appreciate the many things that he learns and changes day by day.

  6. This made me laugh and cry. So many great new ideas. I am obsessed with preserving memories. Thanks to Pinterest I started a memory jar and learned to create a special hashtag for my Instagram photos. On New Year’s Eve we open the mason jar and read all those memories.

  7. Wow! This brought me to tears. My youngest just turned 2 and it is going by SO fast! I love that your suggestions are simple and easy to implement. Any little thing I can do to make time slow down I will try. Earlier, I noticed my middle boy (soon to be in kindergarten) stick his tongue out while he was coloring. I couldn’t help but smile.

  8. Oh Kelly, you had me in tears (and I’m sitting in a public place crying which is all the better.). This resonates so much. My 2 year old has started telling me “no kisses” when I tuck her into bed at night. I didn’t realize how much her independence would hurt. I’ll think of your article the next time they do something I thought was gone forever. Thank You!

  9. My husband has been in intense schooling the past 2 years. I have ashamedly wished away more days than I should have. People have asked me what’s next for us when he’s back home, my response is to hit the pause button and be a couple of kinda young parents raising our 3 little girls, 9,6,3. I want to savor every moment a little more fully. Thank you for the ideas. :)

  10. I need help. I have 2 daughters (9 and 11yo) that live with us full time. My stepson lives with us every other weekend (4 days out of the month). My girls have chores every day of the week except for weekends. My stepson is responsible for those same chores on the days heโ€™s at our house. Is this fair?

    His mom recently got into a fight with my husband about her not being okay with him doing โ€œgirlโ€ chores. And it leaves me feeling guilty at times.

    any suggestions?

    1. Hi Maria. Like Kelly, I write about parenting. Kelly’s shared experience and knowledge is truly authentic and informative…and I love her humor.
      I’m not sure how she would answer, but if I may offer 2 suggestions:
      1. Guilt is a scary yet powerful feeling. I would suggest you ask yourself what you feel guilty about? Be really specific.
      2. Without getting too much into gender roles and what exactly is a “girl” chore; I would encourage you and your husband (even your stepson’s mom – if that’s possible) to identify what value you are trying to instill in the boy, with the completion of chores, and maybe come up with a collaborative approach on how to teach him that value.

      Just by asking for help and looking for solutions…you’re doing a great job!

  11. What a wonderful list of reminders for moms who are trying to do it all, but who sometimes forget to soak up the tiny moments that get lost in the midst of it all. Quite a few of your tips hit home and I’m thankful to get to work on them!

  12. I don’t even know why I’m here really…. I’m twelve years old! I have no children, but your blogs are so captivating and I love reading about your children! I hope to be a mum like you when I’m older.

  13. Love this list Kelly. My favorite has to be looking at the old photos. My baby is 5 months and she’s changed so much in this short time. I try to cherish every moment, between the breastfeeding, the giggles, and the cuddling, it’s all so satisfying. I went pro once from a photo standpoint (JCPenny Groupon). It was reasonable enough for me to do a few times a year. Great advice!

  14. Thank you so much for this blog. My baby is only 9 months old and I try to be mentally and emotionally present with him, but there is always so much to do that I tend to multi-task or watch the clock when I’m playing with him. #1 on the list is definitely a habit I need to develop.

    When my son was 7 months old I downloaded a collage app (Photo Editor) to my phone. We were out in the garden and I just started clicking away with my phone camera. There were so many beautiful photos that I did a collage with it and sent it to friends and family. We set it as the desktop background on our laptop. The following month, when he turned 8 months, my dad asked me to do another collage, which I did using the best pics of the previous month. This has become our tradition – every month doing a collage of best pics of the month. It is very special. I’m planning on doing collages for his first 6 months too and printing them to put in his room. My dad also did a special shoot with us (using a phone camera) on his 9 month “birthday”. I have also started keeping a journal – there are just too many precious moments I don’t want to forget.

  15. I love this post. I am guilty of doing a lot of things at the same time so I forget sometimes. As parents, we want to capture everything that the kids do while we can but we just cant.