Consider what one young mother did to preserve the memories of her baby’s birth: she purchased a shadowbox and proceeded to fill it with more than a half-dozen items, all of them associated with her blessed event.

Among those items were a wooden yardstick with the baby’s birth height written upon it in bright red ink; an alarm clock with the hands positioned to show the time of birth; the barcoded wristband worn by the newborn while in the pediatric ward; and baby’s hospital-issued swaddling. There also were two photographs: an ultrasound image and a picture of baby asleep in her hospital bassinet. Both photos were secured to the shadowbox backing with spring-fitted wooden clips, the kind that mothers long ago used for hanging freshly laundered cloth diapers on an outdoor drying line.

Life is Lived in Three Dimensions

Since the world exists in three dimensions and your life is lived in three dimensions, a frame like the shadowbox enables you to better reflect those realities. They should, for that reason, be thought of as an essential item for your wall or shelf.