Dear Maddie

Recently, at a friend's baby shower, I sat sipping my mimosa as the guest of honor joyfully opened all her gifts. She was pressured into the act, doing so as a good daughter and friend does to appease those who live to see a mommy-to-be ooh + ah over burp cloths and onesies. While opening the gifts, she came to mine, which included {amongst a few other goodies} "Mom's One Line a Day: A Five Year Memory Journal" - a keepsake meant to chronical the journey she is about to embark upon.

I explained to the woman sitting next to me that I, too, had been gifted the keepsake when MM was born and that I had excitedly filled out the pages in the first several weeks of her life. However, in a moment of honesty, I admitted that as her days became more wakeful, and my new role as a mom became more routine and less novel, my entries became more and more sparse, until they eventually stopped altogether.

A grandmother herself, this lady replied that her daughter had forged a modern day version of this memory book- creating an e-mail account for her children, to which she could send notes, share stories, and keep memories for them to someday read. And while I hate to diminish the importance and personality of a hand-written keepsake, the reality is that an e-mail is just easier to write, and, like it or not, more indelible than a note penned from the past.

I'm not entirely sold on forfeiting the written words to my daughter in place of an e-mail, but I have, admittedly, embraced the idea- creating an e-mail address for the little doll to someday log-on to. And, if nothing else, I'll spare her the disappointment of having to be MaddieMae1@email.com...