Each day, our children become a little bit older, a bit more mature, and a little farther away from the innocence of their childhood. Pieces of their youth slip away when we are not paying attention. One day, you might realize that your daughter no longer calls TV commercials “previews”. The cute things our children say and do are moments we want to hold on to forever.

Some of us work diligently to preserve those memories. Scrapbooks, videos, and photographs are pathways of reminiscing, allowing us to recall, to celebrate, and to open our hearts.

I, personally, have drawers of stuff – pictures, awards, photos, locks of hair, and more – that I hold on to. Perhaps, one day, they will find themselves into a baby book or maybe I’ll weed through them saving only the “most important things”. Regardless of where these mementoes end up, my favorite of all the things I hold on to is the Quote Book.

Children say, think, and believe the darndest things, and I think they are worthy of being captured.

Our children often have their own vocabulary. They create words, either knowingly or unknowingly – like, previews for commercials. My daughter also (still) says desides instead of besides. “Who else desides daddy knows how to do the Rubik’s Cube?”

Or “amn’t” (which actually happens to be an acceptable word – look it up). When I tell my oldest son he isn’t going to school, his reply is “I amn’t?”

Children teach us many things with their magnificence. I love recording their worldly wisdom.

One of my sons, in particular, has had many of those wise moments. “The best invention ever was reading because you can go anywhere in a book.” Or, “I’m pretty sure I just figured out how to prevent radiation. That’s why I need one of those atom-mixer things.”

Their insights and descriptions are pretty amazing too.

My 8-year old son recently told me that his back hurt “like pizza crust left out for five weeks”. Once that same son asked to speak to my husband on the phone. I asked if he wanted to talk to daddy about computer time. He said yes, but “I also need to talk to him about the world spinning.”

Finally, there is just the utter cuteness and random comments that come out of nowhere. We don’t want to forget these!

My two youngest children were having an argument. One of them was not following through on something they said they would do. “You cannot break a said,” said the other one, “Can you break a said, mom?” That established a new rule in our house. We don’t break a said.

Watching TV one day, a commercial for Coffee Mate comes on (while we do watch TV in our house, we do not drink coffee). My son says, “It’s about time they made a commercial for Coffee Mate.”

This conversation between – again – my two youngest is also a keeper.
“Nobody interferes with my questions…. Well, you do,” said my daughter.

“Yeah. I do,” replied my son.

Even our older children can say spectacular things that are worthy of recording. When my oldest son was twelve, he was having a pre-teen moment. He was arguing with and challenging his father over an issue related to an iPod. His comment: “Well, Luke Skywalker challenged Darth Vader.”

Some of these cute moments continue to melt our hearts long after they’ve happened.

I write messages on my children’s lunch napkins. One morning, I wrote “If life gives you lemons, make lemonade” on my son’s napkin. He happened to read it before school and was pouting – he doesn’t like lemonade. So, I changed it to “If life gives you ice, wait for it to melt.” He doesn’t like ice in his drinks, so this fit him rather perfectly, and he was happy. My daughter decided to write a message on my lunch napkin. During my lunch break, I took out her napkin and read “When life gives you Ellie (my daughter’s name), then kiss her.”

Quotes from our children make up some of my favorite memories. They are sweet; they tickle my heart, and they let me hold on to the moments I don’t want to let go of.