Holding On to the Little Things, Sponsored by OneDay

I’m excited to partner with OneDay for this post about remembering the little things. This new, easy-to-use app creates magical movies of and about your children in a matter of minutes.

Little’s favorite subject in school? Insects.

The most fun thing to do at school according to Pink? Playing trucks. (What?! This girl?!)

You know what Big is looking forward to about growing up? Having kids.

The things my kids say have me laughing one second and welling up with tears the next. Their perspective on life is just so outrageously fascinating. I’m constantly learning to look at things differently and break down the walls that time has built around my mind. The world isn’t black and white—just ask my kids who are constantly rainbow spotting.

Right now, as he heads into 3^rd grade this week (gulp!), Big’s at the age where the answer to every question is not only literal, it’s well thought through. Spontaneity is not his friend.

Little may be hesitant about making new friends in kindergarten, but he has our family wrapped around his little finger. Nobody can make us laugh with a witty and entertaining response to things like he can. And the way he laughs right along at his own jokes? Magic.

Pink’s confidence, vocabulary, and facial expressions are like none I’ve ever seen. This girl belongs on a stage. And maybe one day, if she ever lets me comb her hair, she’ll get discovered. But until then, she’s mine all mine.

Here’s the thing… I can tell you all of this with my words. Heck, I can tell myself all this with my words. Years from now, I’ll have this blog to look back on and I’ll remember. Sort of. But experience has taught me that the facial expressions will be blurred, the mispronounced words will be auto-corrected in my head, and the memories will be sweet, but lacking precious details.

Which is why I have a new obsession. (And I’ve dragged my kids into the madness with me. They can’t get enough…even Mr. Serious.) I was introduced to the OneDay app at BlogHer ’14 and I instantly fell in love with the idea. Here’s how it works. You download the app (do it now while it’s still free…that won’t last long). Then you pick a question set (think Back To School, Summer Fun, When I Grow Up), and use your phone/tablet to videotape your child’s answers. Each question set has 10 questions. You can re-record answers and skip questions along the way. Once you’re happy with the questions and answers you’ve selected, you save the video, and—in less than a minute, in my experience—the app stitches it all together into a movie that’s set to music. You can save it to your camera roll, or get a link to share via email or on social media sites.

Yes, in a matter of minutes, you can create a truly wonderful movie that you’ll treasure for year and years to come. Like this Back to School interview I did with Pink (who for once didn’t say she was going into kindergarten…figures): WATCH HERE. (Give it a minute to load…)

For us, the real magic came when I decided to sit the three kids down together and have them take turns answering questions. I keep watching it over and over, discovering new wonderful things I missed—the way they look at each other, kindly anticipate each others’ words, and magically laugh together. Obsessed. See why for yourself: WATCH HERE. (Give it a minute to load…)

So while the Back to School question set will now become part of our end-of-summer tradition, we’ll also continue to use OneDay for things like Grandma’s birthday (she loved it!) and other calendar milestones. Like, you know, Thursday afternoons.

Oh, and I should note, they have some cool new features in the works that will only fuel my obsession—create your own question sets, interviews for other age groups (can’t wait to give it a try with my grandmother), and more background music choices, to name a few.

Have fun giving OneDay a go with your kids. I can’t wait to hear the funny things they surprise you with. If you’re up for sharing, post the link to yours in the comments here on my blog, or email them to me at usingourwords[at]yahoo[dot]com. (Did I mention I’m obsessed?)

Disclosure: I was compensated by OneDay to write this post, but all opinions and obsessions are entirely my own.