Keeping track of the people in your life.

People that Nora has in her life.

How does a little one remember you if you are not in their life every day?  The answer deals with repetition.  Screen chats through whatever means possible, pictures, phone calls, cards, gifts, and of course appearances are all important in cementing relationships.  They say familiarity breeds contempt, but it also facilitates awareness.  And so came the idea of a picture book for a two-year-old.

I had to collect images from far and wide.  Some were mine and others not.  Then they were resized, organized, printed, and finally collated into a binder with sheet protectors.  The images above represent the first batch.  The idea is to repeat the process each year adding another 16 images or so with people and events for my granddaughter's own personal album.  By the time she is sixteen, she will have an album with 200-300 images of her growing up with people that are close to her.

Each image is printed on a letter-sized sheet of photo paper, the pictures themselves making up a framable 8x10.  If the sheet gets destroyed because of little fingers, I have the originals and can easily reproduce them.  There is vocabulary benefits as well as she is just learning who everyone is and their names.  The long term goal though is to facilitate a sense of familiarity with those she does not see too often.

Will it make a difference in the long term?  I don't know, but it is worth the effort.  I want to be more than a vague figure that provides the occasional gift.  I want to be PaPa, and get a smile whenever she thinks of me.

Thanks for reading.

Eric Svendsen     www.ericspix.com