A book with all the milestones you’d want as a Catholic parents? Impossible, you say… But, it does exist, thanks to Kate from Thy Olive Tree!
It can be overwhelming how many milestones, photos, and memories you want to record for your children. You could fill in a baby book with blanks in it, record the sacraments in the family Bible, find a calendar specifically for baby milestones, make scrapbooks yearly or topically, or all of them at once to catch all the memories.
It feels like there’s still a little too much in too many places, especially as a Catholic who values recording the developmental and spiritual milestones.
But then there’s Kate’s My Catholic Keepsake. It’s perfect.
It’s the baby book that includes the birth details, the photos for each year, and the sacraments. There’s even a part for “My First Pilgrimage”! Every month the first year has a photo spot, and then every year after that, including places to record spiritual growth. Confirmation saint? There’s a spot for that. Prayer before birth? It’s in there. Letter space for high school graduation? Also included. Additional pages for your own needs? Yep. No one else has all that!
It’s not just practical, but it is also aesthetically beautiful from the monstrance on the front to the color choices and quotations throughout. The colors are not hard on your eyes or super pastel-like some baby books can be, but they also aren’t boring or all greys and whites. It’s thick, quality paper and will last lifetimes.
At first, I was slightly confused as to how adding to the book would work when I looked the product up, but once it arrived, it completely makes sense. Give me a sharpie and some scrapbooking photo tape, and I’m good! This adds a personal touch of having your parents’ own penmanship in your book, but you could also be much more technically-inclined than myself and use other creative methods.
For Catholics who (stereotypically) have a bunch of children, this would be easy to remember for each child without needing to be a professional graphic designer or find time for a scrapbooking hobby all on your own. Of course, your children would appreciate your talents and looking through endless amounts of photo books, but having this one personal book for each child with the major milestones, including the spiritual ones, is a weight off of shoulders. You won’t miss a thing! (And if you do, it won’t be difficult to catch up.)
I honestly can’t decide which child I’ll use this one for first, but I know that I’ll end up with one for every child. Thank you, thank you, thank you for creating something simple to use, beautiful to look at, and important for Catholic families!
