A child’s 1st birthday is a joyous occasion, which lives in the memories of the proud parents forever. However, the majority of kids won’t remember anything about this fine day, but do enjoy looking at the birthday photos later on.

Here’s one way to make this special 1st birthday occasion into a stylish memento. Instead of putting these pictures into a photo album along with all the others, buy a special photo album dedicated to this first year of life, culminating in the 1st birthday party. This also makes a terrific gift idea to present to the parents.

So what goes into this keepsake photo album? Most parents takes hundreds of pictures of their children in the first year. Begin your commemorative 1st birthday party photo album with all of the pictures you’ve taken since birth ” consider the size of the photo album which will accommodate the number of pictures! Try to arrange them in sequence, which is easy if you’ve dated them on the back. The 1st birthday party photos go at the end.

If you’re wielding the camera, look sharp! These photos can be treasures! Two photos of our daughter’s 1st birthday has given us all plenty of laughter over the years. We seated her in her high chair, birthday hat and all, placing the birthday cake in front of her. We captured her look of shock and delight on film as she viewed this chocolate concoction. She promptly embraced the cake ” with her face and hands! Following a sampling, she sat up to show her chocolate covered face, smiling as big as you please. Lucky we’d already sung ‘Happy Birthday‘ blown out and removed the candle before she got to the cake! These pictures are the standouts of that 1st birthday party!

Keep a log of all the gifts and gift givers and include this information along with a photo of each gift. As kids get older, particularly around the age of seven or eight, they seem to enjoy knowing who attended their 1st birthday party and were thoughtful enough to give them a gift.

Don’t throw that wrapping paper and ribbon away! Cut small squares of each wrapping and a bit of ribbon, giving each a place in your 1st birthday party album. When you think how much styles, designs and materials change over a 20 year period, these little pieces of ‘antiquity’ will provide a peek back in time when your child’s all grown up.

Last, but not least, is the birthday outfit. This is usually very special and doesn’t get worn out. While it won’t fit in your photo album, this is an outfit you’ll want to save. Sure, you’ll have photos, but there’s nothing like the real article. You might want to wrap it in gift paper and use double-sided tape to attach it to the front or back of the album cover.

Now you’ve got a stylish 1st birthday party memento that can make a beautiful 21st birthday party gift. Think of the pleasure your grandchildren will derive from this lovely ‘antique’.

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This bit of wisdom came my way via Twitter:

#QUOTE: “The greatest service you can ever do is to teach your Children to make Good Decisions.” ~~Mike Wesely

And my response:

@Mike_Wesely How about just teaching them how to make decisions? The “good” part is beyond teaching I think. #QUOTE

First of all, for those of you who don’t know what Twitter is, its sort of like instant messaging or texting except it can be done at your leisure and can be broadcast for all the world to see and read. Like that exchange was.

So anyway, I got to tell you that if it is possible to teach kids to make good decisions, I probably did and continue to do a pretty bad job. And at that I’ve got a great bunch of kids. Wouldn’t trade‘em for anything and family life would be nonexistent without them.

But here’s the thing, how could you teach good decisions even if you wanted to or thought you could? By making good decisions yourself maybe? Yeah right. Like I already don’t put enough pressure on myself. On the otehr side of the coin, many of us know how well the old, “Do as I say do, not as I do do.” works.

My thing has always been to share the basis and thought process that go into the decisions I make with the kids. Sometimes they’ll listen, sometimes they’ll pretend, and other times they’ll have none of it. But when it comes to making their own decisions, they will often try their own thought processes out. Perhaps later they’ll come to the conclusion that the old man might have known a thing or three after all. Regardless, I wouldn’t have it any other way.

You do the best you can with your kids. Spend as much time with them as you can. Enjoy them and make memories. Coach’em up. But ultimately one day those little ships will sail wherever they decide to or wherever the prevailing winds take them. At that point all you can do is step aside and pray. Oh and be there to pick up the pieces and put their lives back together again should they run aground.

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I had a great time this weekend helping our youngest daughter, Abi with a recording project. Not only did I get to play engineer, but I even got to contribute a bass line. My oldest son, Isaac, pitched in by contributing the djembe line. Almost like old times when we had a family band called “The Screaming Gringos.”

One thing I think helps families stay close is shared interests. Yet I think even having common interests aren’t enough because they can become either a competitive thing or a source of separation: In our case, my musical taste/interest is so different than your that we can’t possibly reach a common ground.

My mother-in-law, Janet had it right one time when she commented, “There is always some kind of music going on in your house.” It was true then even more so than it is today. One of Gale and my earliest activities was being in a band together. As I already said, later we had a family band that included all the kids as well.

Now Rachael, our oldest, is a professional entertainer currently with Disney Cruise lines. Her primary interest is in musical theater. However, she also sings Jimmy Hendrix or Patsy Cline or Natalie Merchant. Isaac and Abi are both in college as music majors with numerous serious side projects. Isaac is big time into the alt/indie genre. Abi centers more on jazz/blues/old school R&B. Only Ben is not currently active in music but in his scant 16 years he’s played drums and bass and shown interest in guitar and keyboards. His tastes tend more towards electronic/techno kinds of musi. Gale has her tastes in music and I have mine. Each of our tastes overlap each others and our kids, but go off in their own directions too.

So what’s the point? The point is we can use our common passion for music to draw our family life together or to separate us. Wouldn’t it be better to use it as something that makes us stronger as a family rather than pulls us apart?

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