Sunday, April 27, 2008

Birthday Interview Idea

In our upheavel of the house (no picture. sorry) I came across a spiral sketchbook that I purchased exclusively for Drew & his "art." I wanted to keep an ongoing progression of his scribblings and doodles. Nothing very structured or perfect. Just for fun. Well, it had been packed away some time ago and it was recently unearthed. Drew's last entry was just after he turned 2, so I wanted to start it up again. I decided to recreate some birthday ideas that is in this birthday book by Amy Krouse Rosenthal I got for Jack.


The design is so adorable and I love the book but I didn't want to leave the Drewster out. So I got out my (er, drew's) crayons and started coloring away. I mentioned this interview idea earlier and told some of you I'd post it in detail, thus the looong post! SO here it is:

[Everything underlined would be blank for personalization.]


***page 1
"EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW"

age 4
conducted by MOMMY with ANDREW on TUES. MARCH 18th, 2008 at the DINING ROOM TABLE. ANDREW is sporting his "CHOCOLATE" CORDUROY PANTS & IS STILL IN HIS PJ SHIRT. (oops) It's 11:05AM.

(I added this myself) ANDREW'S STATE IS INTERESTED & EATING A GINGER CHEW COOKIE & DRINKING SOME MILK. He's ANTSY & ASKING TONS OF ?'s. SO LET'S GO:

1. What is your Favorite Color: YELLOW...(AND BLUE & PINK & PURPLE)
2. What do you think of when you hear the word:
Home: watching videos & playing. (nice)
Sibling: (I said brother) playing with Jack in his pack 'n play.
Magic: "how can daddy get pictures from his blank drawing book?"
Bedtime: reading books & music. I like mommy to put me to sleep.
Love: sleeping with you in your bed. (we usually all pile in our bed in the morning if the boys wake up before we do)
3. What makes you feel sad? nightmares
4. What makes you feel happy? pixel & seaweed (his 2 favorite stuffed animals)
5. What makes you feel scared? a witch (a "scary" witch figure was out at halloween at home depot and he has never forgotten it)
6. If you could have any animal as a pet, what would it be? a little, little, little, little puppy
7. What do you want to be when you grow up? to play outside with my children
8. Do you like your name? (a smile & nod of head)
9. Who is the last person you kissed? mommy!!!

***Page 2: I'll spare you the details, but I also jotted these down about his birthday.
"YOUR BIG DAY"
*time i woke up
*first thing i said
*what i wore
*my breakfast
*fun morning activities
*lunch of choice
*afternoon doings
*my special supper
*CeLeBrAtIoN
*gifts i opened
*places we went, people we saw
*favorite part of the day
*crash time

***page 3
"FUNNY THING YOU SAID RECENTLY"
(I drew 5 different sized quote brackets and filled each one with a funny thing he said)

***page 4
"WHEN I CLOSE MY EYES, THIS IS HOW I PICTURE YOU"
(captivate in your words how you would describe your cutie patootie. keeping the memory of personality, looks, mannerisms, etc. alive. it's amazing how quickly we forget as they move from one stage to the next)

***page 5
"HOW WE CELEBRATED YOUR BIG DAY"
"GIFT LIST" (for thank you's + remembering)

WELL, there you have it. Another great thing that I have done is gone on a "date" with just Drew to Barnes & Nobles and gotten a yummy treat and grabbed the latest WONDERTIME magazine. They usually have a great little insert called "instant journal" (although not in their latest...I hope they're not doing away with it) that I go through with Drew. It always has some great little questions and even activities such as: "what is your favorite animal" or "draw your child's hand here," etc. Just those neat little things to captivate those moments in CONNECTING with your child & making memories! Simple things throughout life. They don't necessarily need to cost anything except maybe a bit of time & care & attention (and whatever a hot chocolate & PB chunk cookie costs at starbucks!).

p.s. pleeeeease share with me how you like to connect with your kids and if you decide to try out the interview and how it went! i love feedback! (hint, hint!) :)

4 comments:

Jenny said...

These are all great ideas! I will be keeping them in my "files" and use them later. (Not sure how effective an interview would be for a 2 year old birthday, but I could probably modify it!) thanks, Erin! You are so creative!

Beth said...

I have 2 very special notebooks that Jonas and I filled his second year and then his third year. The pages hold lots of coloring, drawing, funny stories, etc... We spent many hours on our tummies on the floor filling those pages in the evenings when daddy was at work and Ella was sleeping. I really had great intentions of doing this w each of the kids and every year adding a new notebook, but alas- I'm a failure! Actually, I should just start again- thanks for the post. I'm anxious to conduct an interview with Jonas and Ella. That's a really great idea. I might just use my digital voice recorder to capture this instead of being overwhelmed w all the writing. thanks again!

Carrie said...

Thanks! I saved the interview to my computer - I love it and can't wait to use it...I might go a head and do it for Mother's day since his b-day is so far away..I'll probably do it more than once in his life time.
2 more weeks till Caleb finshed his hooked on phonics program..I've kept all of the stuff from this year (letter and crafts) in a notebook, our last project will be memorizing Ps 23 before School is out!

Matt & Nicki said...

Thanks for posting this--I saw your other "interview" post earlier and I am glad you added "details". .. I keep a journal for each of my kiddo's since I enjoy writing, and I am going to use this interview idea and simply add it to their other journal entries. Sara and I are actually going to do her "5 year" interview today (she turned 5 in March)as her "special activity". . we try to do a mommy and me thing together before her nap everyday. You seem like such a fun and creative mom--thanks for another idea:)