Blogging Challenge #1

For info on this challenge, check out this post!
Click here to see a complete list of the prompts.

Why do you blog? What do you hope to get out of this challenge?

I jumped on the blog bandwagon back in July of 2005… it seemed like all the “cool kids” on my scrapping board were doing it, so I figured why not?! Jamie and I were just dating then, and I was anticipating a proposal, so I knew I'd want to keep track of the wedding planning process, and thought a blog was as good a way as anything! Over the last 4 years, the purpose of this blog has changed… I want to say it's evolved, but I don't know if that's true, since by definition, evolution moves things forward, and this hasn't always done that. It's been a place to collect ideas (while planning various events and projects), to ask for feedback (when I was wedding planning), it's been a place to make information available and save us from dozens of daily phone calls (when Max was in the NICU and his status changed daily), it's been a source of heartbreak (some of you may remember that I found out about my sister's first pregnancy when someone posted an anonymous comment on here, linking me to a post where she talked about it), it's been a receptacle for me to dump stuff (both words and photos) but above all, it's been a running commentary of my life.
I blogged back in the beginning because, often, I was looking for validation. I would update and then run to the message board to get people to come read it, to get them leave me comments. Tell me how funny my anecdotes are, how creative my crafts are, which wedding invitation I should send out… I blog now because I need to document Max's life. All those little things that get lost to time… I want him to be able to look back, years from now, and see what I saw. I want him to know his own story as well as I do.
I started this challenge because I need something to keep me writing; my day to day life, with work and dialysis and raising that boy, it's easy for those little things to fall by the wayside.
Already, and Max is only 17 months old, there are things I know I've forgotten. I never got a chance to document his grunting, when he was little tiny. He was the noisiest sleeper I've ever met! Now, he snoozes quietly (but snores a little if he's sitting up, like in his carseat) and those adorable little pig noises are gone… I took them for granted and never grabbed the video camera to document them.
I hold friends' newborns and try to picture Max that tiny… last week, I met my friend Nichole's week old son, Nolan, who weighed in at 9 lbs or something when he was born, and I could *not* for the life of me remember Max being so tiny! I know he was! For like 5 MONTHS he was tinier than that, but I can hardly remember it!
It's those little things that I want… no, that I *need* to remember.

Next week's prompt: 10/9/09 Do you enjoy reading? What do you read and when? What's your favorite book ever?