Design

Little Things :: Kiddos, You’ve Got Mail!

By Carrie Ryan
Kiddos, You've Got Mail | Little Things | Carrie Ryan for Camille Styles

Kiddos, You've Got Mail | Little Things | Carrie Ryan for Camille Styles

I’ve been dying to share the simplest idea I had for those of you who may be a little like me. I am not a baby book maker. In fact, I purchased and started one for Porter (filled out one page) but never even purchased one for Mary Mae (and she’s almost three). All in all, I have not been consistent in chronicling my kids, their milestones, achievements and crazy antics…until I happened upon this idea.

Kiddos, You've Got Mail | Little Things | Carrie Ryan for Camille Styles

As a photographer, I love the idea of letting the photos speak for themselves most of the time, and sometimes that works great on Instagram, but a lot of the time the things I want to remember are not always things I want to share. And, sometimes the thing I want to remember is just a quick note, and there isn’t a photo. In comes the idea—I created email addresses for each of my kids. When they do something silly at the park and I snap a quick pic, I am normally emailing it straight to their Grandmothers, so now I also add their personal email addresses to the email chain. If they do something crazy at school their teacher tells me about, I write it in a quick email from my phone and send it to them. They are too young to care about this now, but later, I think it will be a really fun way to look back and see what they were up to.

Kiddos, You've Got Mail | Little Things | Carrie Ryan for Camille Styles

Sometimes a little note is included, sometimes a one minute video of a tantrum about long sleeve vs. short sleeve shirts (so when their own children do this to them they will perhaps have more grace), maybe a quick snap of what they made at school that day. Each email is dated and is being ‘filed’ into an online journal for them to look at one day. I even added their emails to their recent birthday party invitations—friends were able to send notes as well and where sometimes birthday cards get tossed aside, these little notes will always be tucked into the ever evolving online journal we are creating.

Carrie