One of the things I’ve appreciated during my pregnancy is journals/memory books. Journaling has been helpful for me to remember the ups and downs of this pregnancy, jot down what is important to us at the time, and to have an outlet. I’ve also been blessed reading the pregnancy journal and baby records my mom kept for me.
Naturally, I want to be able to share something similar with our daughter so I’ve been looking for good baby books. Despite there being an abundance of options, I struggled to find a good balance between capturing the details I wanted and having to be on top of documenting everything.
Since one of our number one priorities for our daughter is for her to have a relationship with God, it seemed fitting that we use a Catholic memory book. Fortunately, we found something even better than we were picturing in the My Catholic Keepsake book created by Thy Olive Tree.
Disclaimer: I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.
The My Catholic Keepsake book has the basics of what you would want for any baby book and has opportunities to document many important milestones in your child’s life.
The book appropriately starts with pages to write about Baby before they were born with prompts for prayer, the story behind Baby’s name, and a place to list the patron saint.
The “Day You Were Bron” spread has the key details and space for pictures and footprints.
One of my favorite parts of the book is “Your First” spread. It has the classic baby firsts and some Christian firsts (Mass, Pilgrimage, Christmas, and Easter). I appreciate that I have reminders for those special moments that would be easy to overlook with the business of newborn life.
This book goes well beyond the baby years and has prompts for each month in the first year, spaces for 2nd-5th birthdays, and space for a short message for their time in school. I like that each of the grade pages prompts call back to how the child grew in their faith. It’s a unique way to center what could easily be just milestones to actual connection with their faith. I also think it’s a good reminder to us as parents to have these conversations about faith.
Each Sacrament of Initiation gets a two-page spread with a space to write details, Bible verses, and room for photos or other things you would like to keep in the book. The pages have clear imagery for the Sacrament without being cheesy or distracting. The attention to detail (which you’ll notice throughout the book) is excellent; she even selected colors that are appropriate for the Sacrament.
The guided content ends with a letter to the child when you give them the book as they head off after high school.
If there is something you want to document but there isn’t space to do so on the main pages, there are several pages at the end of the book that have plenty of space to add your own ideas, memories, pictures, etc.
Everything from the matte cover to the beautiful colors to the clean pages made me love it. As someone who isn’t visually creative, it’s helpful for me to have such clear guidelines on what to write where. There are even hints for pictures to put in the book with recommendations for sizes. The Bible verses and saint quotes throughout the book are the perfect addition.
I would recommend this book to any Catholic parents who want a straightforward, beautiful, and meaningful record book for their children.
Plus, if you can get $5 off if order between now and Thanksgiving from www.thyolivetree.com and use the code SAINTHOOD5