A year ago, I started writing down what my kids say. Not every comment. that would be a full-time job. Just the ones that made me laugh, stopped me cold, or captured something essential about who they are right now.
My daughter Lily was six when I started. My son Max was three. Looking back through a year of entries, I have 47 quotes and 12 mispronunciations. Some are hilarious. Some are accidentally profound. A few remind me of days I'd otherwise have completely forgotten.
Here's what a year of documenting looks like.
The Variety of Quote Lengths
One thing I didn't expect: how different the quotes would be. Some are a single sentence. Some are full exchanges that needed the larger speech bubble format.
[PHOTO: Journal spread showing 3 different quote entries. one short quote in a small speech bubble, one medium-length quote, and one longer exchange using the large format with lines below. Who/Date/Place fields visible on each.]
A quick one-liner:
"Daddy, your head is shiny like the moon." . Max, age 3 | January | Kitchen, at breakfast
He said this completely unprompted, pointing at my forehead. He's not wrong. My hairline has seen better days.
A medium quote with context:
"I want to be a doctor when I grow up, but only for dogs, because people complain too much." . Lily, age 6 | March | Car, on the way to school
She'd just had a checkup where she had to get a shot. The reasoning tracks.
A longer exchange:
Me: "Why are you crying?" Max: "Because the orange won't work." Me: "What do you mean?" Max: "I wanted to peel it but it won't open and I already licked it so I can't give it to you." ( Max, age 3 | April | Kitchen)
This one needed more space. The full context matters. A kid crying over a licked orange only makes sense if you capture the whole escalation.
Tracking Two Kids in One Journal
Having the "Who" field on every entry turned out to be critical. Even just 47 quotes in, I'd have mixed up who said what without it.
[PHOTO: Close-up of a page showing quotes from both Lily and Max on the same spread, with different names in the Who field clearly visible.]
Looking back, I can see how different they are. Lily asks philosophical questions. Max makes observations about physical reality. Lily processes through language. Max communicates through volume.
A few comparisons from the same month:
Lily, age 6: "Why do we have to be nice to people even when they're mean to us?"
Max, age 3: "That tree is wearing a hat." (It had a bird nest on top.)
Same day, same walk. Completely different brains.
The Mispronunciation Section
This is the part I'm most glad I documented. Max's speech has developed so much in a year that some of these pronunciations are already gone. I wouldn't remember them if I hadn't written them down.
[PHOTO: Mispronunciation section of the journal with 4-6 entries filled in, showing the kid's version alongside the intended word.]
From Max's first year of talking:
| What He Said | What He Meant |
|---|---|
| Hangaber | Hamburger |
| Pasghetti | Spaghetti |
| Lellow | Yellow |
| Pider | Spider |
| Buhsketti | Spaghetti (earlier version, evolved to pasghetti) |
| Oat-a-meal | Oatmeal |
He started saying "spaghetti" correctly around October. I didn't notice the last "pasghetti" was the last one until it was gone. But I have it written down, with the date.
Lily's mispronunciations from earlier years aren't in this journal. I didn't start documenting until she was six, and most of hers had already self-corrected. That's my one regret. Start earlier than you think you need to.
Quotes by Season
Flipping through, patterns emerge. Summer quotes happened at the pool, the backyard, during car trips. Winter quotes happened at bedtime, during meals, watching it snow.
Summer (July):
"If fish can pee in the pool, why can't I?" . Max, age 3 | Pool, during swimming lessons
"I'm bored of summer. School is boring too. Everything is boring when you're six." ( Lily, age 6 | Backyard)
[PHOTO: Page showing a quote with the Place field filled in as a specific location. e.g., "Grandma's backyard" or "Hotel pool, Florida trip."]
Winter (December):
"When it snows, that's the sky sending us blankets." . Max, age 3 | Living room, watching it snow
"I don't understand why Santa gives presents to kids who have enough stuff already. Shouldn't he go to the poor kids first?" . Lily, age 6 | Dinner table, out of nowhere
The context fields help. "Living room, watching it snow" tells me exactly what was happening. A year from now, I might not remember which December conversation was which.
The Speech Bubble Sizes
The journal has different bubble sizes on different pages, and I didn't appreciate why until I started using it.
[PHOTO: Page spread showing the variety of speech bubble sizes. small paired bubbles for quick entries, medium ovals, and one large bubble with lined space below.]
Some quotes are three words. "You smell outside" doesn't need a paragraph. The small bubbles handle these perfectly. I can fit four or five quick quotes on a single page.
Other quotes need room. The exchange about the orange took a large bubble plus the lined section below. If I'd tried to squeeze it into a small space, I'd have left out half the conversation.
The variety isn't random. It matches how kids actually talk. sometimes in fragments, sometimes in monologues, sometimes in dialogues.
What Surprised Me Looking Back
Twelve months in, a few things stand out.
I forgot more than I expected. Even quotes from six months ago feel new when I read them. The licked orange incident? Completely forgot it happened until I flipped to that page.
The kids love looking through it. Max thinks hearing his old quotes is the funniest thing in the world. Lily is slightly embarrassed but secretly pleased. We've started doing occasional "quote nights" where I read a few entries.
Context matters more than I thought. The place and date fields seemed optional at first. Now they're essential. "Hotel pool, Florida trip" locates the quote in a specific memory. Without it, it's just floating in time.
Mispronunciations disappear fast. I started documenting in January. By December, Max had corrected half of them. The ones I didn't write down in the first few months are just gone.
What's Next
One year gave me 47 quotes and 12 mispronunciations. The Things My Kids Said journal holds 300+ quotes and 125+ mispronunciations. At this pace, I'll fill it in six to seven years. right around when Max hits the age where he stops saying things quite as quote-worthy.
By then, I'll have a record of both kids from ages three to nine (Lily) and three to nine (Max). Their voices. Their logic. Their worldview at each stage.
That's the point. Childhood moves faster than you think it does. The quotes are how I keep up.
For more on starting your own quote journal, see our complete parent's guide to kid quote journals or browse 75 hilarious things kids say for inspiration. If you're deciding between paper and digital, our comparison of quote journals vs. notes apps breaks down what each captures.
Explore the full quotes journal collection.
Share: