The Memory bank.

I am sure most parents have that thing they do with their children that feels like their own special thing. The thing that maybe their kids will always remember and maybe eventually when the time comes adopt that thing as a tradition to then do with their kids. This thing doesn't have to be a big, and it doesn't have to cost much money to be meaningful. In fact yesterday it only cost me .$56 in change.

That thing for Khage and I is adding money to his piggy bank. Like I said its no big deal and yet I think as he grows up he will love that we do this together. We started our thing after Khage turned one and got his first piggy bank from Santa. I remember the first time his little fingers squeezed a penny and tried with all his might to place that coin in the little slot on the piggies back. With a few failed attempts he soon learned how to successfully drop the coin in and smiled with delight as he heard the clink of the coin as it fell to the bottom. A few times a month we do this together and it makes me beam when I see that smile plastered on his face as he watches me walk into the room with his bank and those few measly coins. Brad and I have plans to give Khage an assortment of coins, equaling his age in years, for every birthday and when he gets old enough explain to him the importance of saving money.

I love these moments with Khage. Bonding over a construction working pig and imaging that someday I will be doing this same thing but instead with a child old enough to distinguish one coin from the next and then eventually counting as he makes his deposits.

By then, he will be rounding up the coins himself from underneath the couch cushion or from Daddy's pockets. Our thing will no longer be some petty thing I chose to do with my child but instead something I look to when I'm feeling nostalgic. Its not about what thing you choose to do with your child but instead about sharing a moment during all the hustle and bustle.

Each day of our lives we make deposits in the memory banks of our children.
-- Charles R. Swindoll