Diary of the first year

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my mother has always cut out magazine and newspaper articles that she thinks i would find interesting. once she thought of me reading an article about the actress jenna fiscer in oprah winfrey’s magazine, “O,” from may 2007. she circled a part about when the adolescent jenna found an old diary calendar from the year she was born. and she found that her parents had written a message to the future jenna almost every day about what had happened that day, whether it be “you tried strained peaches today and you loved them! do you still love peaches?,” “you wouldn’t stop crying today, third day in a row. thanks a lot.” or ” today you tried on your easter outfit. it has little bunnies on it and you look so cute! i can’t wait to take you out wit hthe family.” adolescent jenna was shocked to discover that even her parents were human and they loved her.

when i saw that article, my daughter was about to turn one, so i didn’t do this with her and i stuck the article in my copy of “what to expect the first year.” when my son was born last december, i took that book out and rediscovered the article. so i took a free calendar (the ones from the erbolario that i use every year) and i started writing every day, about the good things, the bad things, my doubts and difficulties. about everything.

as time went on, i started skipping days or even weeks. but already now that my little guy is 10 months old, i love rereading what i wrote just a few months ago. how much he’s already changed. as have i. i relive the days that i cried out of exhaustion, that i suffered seeing how he suffered from acid reflux, that i wondered what in the world to do in those hard moments. i see the story of a love that grows and matures, with its ups and downs. and it’s just amazing.

6 thoughts on “Diary of the first year”

  1. Ciao! E' un po' che ti leggo ma non ho mai commentato… Mio marito mi ha regalato per san valentino una molskine… all'inizio scrivevo della nostra famiglia… ma soltanto le cose positive… quelle negative intanto si dimenticano… e sono spesso dovute alla stanchezza… ora che il mio bimbo parla mi annoto le battute … le sue tenerezze… quello che dice insomma! Non ho la telecamera e il registratore sempre con me… ma l'agendina sì… e mi piace l'idea che un giorno le potremo rileggere…

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  2. @pat: sì, è vero. si dimentica di tanto così in fretta. non mi ero resa conto!

    @giuliana: mia sorella mi diceva che vorrebbe fare una cosa simile anche con i suoi bambini più grandi, tipo scrivere una volta all'anno su quello che fa in quel periodo, le cose che gli piacciono, non piacciono, quello che fa a scuola, ecc. mi sa che farò anch'io così!

    @tatina: mi fa piacere che hai commentato! ottima idea, scrivere le battute del piccolo! forse continuerò dopo il primo anno per farlo anch'io!

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  3. Oh Lisa this is such a cute idea! Here we have a book called (not a literal translation of course) "The Book of Joy" where mothers are invited to fill it in for their babies. Every page is dedicated to something of the baby's life with wonderful illustration and it really was fun for me to write in it! I have done the same for both my children – Jacob (6) loves to get me read out what I have written while Eva (11) falls into fits of laughter reading it herself especially the part where I have compiled their baby dictionary. This is such a nice gesture and I am sure our children will appreciate it when they are (much) older.

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