There are so many things you can do with a journal in order to fill in the blank pages and make it personal.
A long time ago, after the birth of my first child, I was given an idea by a fellow mom. Every year on the child's birthday, that mom would sit down and write her child a letter. I asked this mom if she minded that I used her idea for my own child, and she didn't mind at all. She actually encouraged me to start this habit and to pass it on to others.
She went on to say, "What better keepsake and memories could you pass on to your child than the recount of what happened each year of their life in their mother's handwriting."
I admit, I love writing, so jotting down a letter was easy for me, however keeping track of those letters was much harder. So, instead of individual letters, I began a journal for each child as they came along in our lives.
Each year, I write a letter to my child, and addressing with "Dear ________,". I tell them the hardships, the difficulties, and struggles we went through together during this phase of their life. Then I tell them the praises, the joys, and the amazements that they brought to my life. Since someday, these letters will be sort of historical, I might mention a presidental election, what they're and my favorite song was, and other favorite things about that time in their life.
At the end of the letter, in closing, I remind them how special they are, how much I love them (even on the days where faustration may have set in, that love is still there), and I try to include one picture of the two of us, or our family together on the child's birthday.
One day, when your child has reached an age or stage in their life that you feel they are ready to move away, you can pass on this journal of letters. And if they so choose, the unfinished pages of your child's journal can one day be fill with letters to your grandchildren.
What a wonderful family heirloom it would become, don't you think?
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