Some things never change

Growing up, I was one of four kids. Our house was pretty crazy, loud and manic…but always happy and fun. I’m so lucky to have grown up with wonderful memories of my childhood. My Mum and Dad had four kids under six. Crazy. Now that I’m a Mum, my admiration for them has grown ten fold. Imagine driving to Queensland each year with four kids in the back!

One of the most endearing things about my Mum is that she kept everything. When I mean everything, I mean everything. Kindergarten artwork, school newsletters mentioning our name, student of the week awards, Christmas decorations we made, clothes we wore. From time to time, we tend to get these out and have a great laugh about the memories attached to them. Each Christmas, my Mum puts out our ‘Santas’ that we made at Kindergarten. Over the years, these Santas have faded and look a little worse for wear, but we can still make out who made what. We always debate whose is the best. It’s memories like these that make me smile and really tell the story of our family.

Now that I have our beautiful baby girl, my Mum loves nothing more than to get out our old baby clothes. This week, she literally played dress ups with her. It was amazing to see how she fit in the same dresses that my sisters and I wore. Mum has a box of ‘every day’ clothes and ‘good’ clothes from our childhood. Knight rider t-shirts, home made jumpers with puff paint, and gorgeous pinafores made by my Granny. I was at work yesterday, when a steady stream of photos were sent to my phone. Each one with a new outfit that Ella was trying on. How amazing it was to see her in these gorgeous dresses. How similar she looked to my own baby photos. It’s funny because since she was born, her resemblance to myself has never really been obvious. However, when you compare her to photos of me as a baby, the similarities are quite spooky. Amazing even!

I’m so lucky to be able to dress her up in these clothes, and am so grateful to my Mum for keeping them all of these years. What a great thing it would be if one day, Ella’s children could be dressed up in the same clothes! Some thing tells me that I’m going to inherit my Mum’s love of keeping my children’s things. I just need to find somewhere to store it all!