The New York Times
January 28, 2013

To the Editor:

Re “The Last Calendar” (Op-Ed, Jan. 23):

I appreciated Olivia Judson’s article about the calendar of notes she and her brother kept as their father declined. I immediately thought of the calendars I have been keeping since my children were born.

Over the years, I have jotted down not only first steps and lost teeth but also quotes that provide a window into a child’s unique way of thinking. Here is my daughter, then 4, telling her baby brother, “I love you even though you don’t have any teeth to hold your tongue in place.” And here is my son, at 3, asking, “I’m getting to be mini-sized big, right, Mom?”

Memory can be as fleeting as childhood itself. Like Ms. Judson’s “last calendar,” these “first calendars” tell a rich story that would otherwise be lost.

ANNETTE MAKINO
Arcata, Calif., Jan. 23, 2013

A version of this letter appeared in print on January 28, 2013, on page A16 of the New York edition with the headline: Calendar of the Early Years.