diaries and journals and little baby footprints.

I don't know if I've ever mentioned this on my blog before, but I am a chronic journal keeper. I got my first diary when I was in kindergarten—it had a gold lock on it and I wrote all about the crush I had on the boy that lived across the street, because that's what I thought you were supposed to write about in diaries at the ripe young age of 5. It's been 20 years since that little diary, and I've been consistently keeping a journal ever since. I get anxious when it's been over a week since I've written last, and in my perfect world I would have time to write in it every day. (Sometimes I do.) I have journals and sketchbooks and little planning notebooks filling storage bins in our closet, and I joke with Aaron (but am actually super serious) that either I want to be buried with my journals, or I'm going to burn them all before I die. Because honestly...there would just be way too much information about me floating around otherwise. The only journal I might consider leaving behind is the one that I'm showing in the photos above.
I started this journal in January 2013, and finished the last page just last week. This journal is so special to me. 2013 was the best year...I got pregnant, had an awesome pregnancy, delivered our first child and finally became a mother. I took this journal with me to the hospital, with the intention of writing down the events of the birth day right after they happened, but I was obviously preoccupied with a lot of other things, and didn't actually have a chance to write in it at all during our hospital stay. But! How glad am I that I brought it though, so that when our nurse was doing Wyatt's little baby footprints I could have her do some on a blank page in my journal too? (Answer is...very glad!) Such a treasure. This journal came full circle, and maybe one day I will give it to Wyatt so that he can read about his very beginning when he was still in my tummy and how excited I was to meet him and so he can see how tiny his little feet were when he was just barely born. I think something like that would be worthy of leaving behind.
I just bought another new journal tonight, so I'm off to go write on the first page. Nothing quite as exciting as starting a new journal, and thinking of the possibilities of where life will be by the time I finish it. Keeping a journal is so fulfilling for me, and is one chronic condition I am very, very grateful for. I've sure come a long way since my little diary with the little gold lock on it.