Interview with Nili Bueckert, co-creater of Toddler Tales memory book, a unique toddler journal (memory book) designed by Ruth from Isralove.
First published on Dog Slobber & Baby Giggles – March 28, 2016.

Happy Monday everyone. I am very excited to introduce this week’s Momspirational Mom- Nili Bueckert.  Nili and I are actually apart of the same Mom Group- Transplant Parents of Dallas! When I joined this group back in 2014 there were only a handful of members but two years later there is an overwhelming 386 parents in this group, as a result, Nili and I actually haven’t even met face to face. Crazy right?

However, after doing this interview with her and hearing about why she created her book Toddler Tales with her sister in law, Ruth Winkler Bueckert, I have truly been momspired. I love the idea behind this book and can definetly relate to wanting something like this as Little J gets further into toddlerhood!

One of my favorite things about this interview was her advice for other moms out there “find your passion and go for it!” Isn’t that what we all need to hear sometimes???? So, without further adieu, I introduce to you Nili Bueckert- co-creater of Toddler Tales and an absolute momspiration.

Nili Bueckert, co-creater of Toddler Tales, with her husband and two sons

Tell me about you!

Hi! I’ve just moved to the Dallas area after 6 years of living abroad in Germany. I have two boys ages 4 and 20 months. I’m originally from Israel (but grew up on the East Coast in the USA) and my husband is German.  We met in Germany 6 years ago while I was ‘visiting’ on business for auditions in the opera world (I’m a professional opera singer)- and we met, and he asked me to stay! I said yes.

We’re in the process of looking for homes to buy so please chime in at the comment section and let me know where you love to live! (We love nature, cycling, outdoors-y stuff, but also love to be within reach of art museums, music concerts, etc.)

So, what is it that you do?

Living in Germany, one is introduced to interesting customs and traditions (first example- the kids open their presents BEFORE blowing out the candles on their birthday cakes- weird!), and I noticed that in the pre-school years it was very popular for German children to fill out a “Friendship Book”. This was a book that could be passed around among friends and (with the help of adults) filled out to include what your favorite color is (at age 3, then 4..etc.) favorite foods (not so favorite foods), funny sayings, what you liked to play together with another friend, when and where you met, and more.

My sister in law, who is a graphic designer, and I both came up with the idea to transition this ‘friendship book’ to its English compatriot- and we designed and created a memory book for the “post baby book” years – just for toddlers (approximately ages 2-5)- that included special Friendship pages. Thus, Toddler Tales, My Very Special Book of Memories and Friendship was born!

What inspired you to start your blog or business?

I’m pretty proud of being a full-time mom, professional musician, and creator of something that I personally had a need for– (I definitely spent hours piecing together the baby books for my boys- but after that first birthday and first walking and first words– kind of fell off of the map!) I tried keeping email logs of ‘milestones’, and of course we have tons of pictures on the phone (that rarely get turned into albums)— so Toddler Tales was really a labor of love. My sister and I both needed a place to keep track of our ‘terrible twos’ and ‘threenager’ years for both of our boys (best friends, best first cousins)- and so we worked for about half a year on design layout, wording, color spread (so that it would be gender-neutral, of course!) and appealing to parents in the US. We also have a special place to record memories from other family members- which I think is an amazing opportunity to ask someone to write their thoughts about the child directly at such a young age- and have as a keepsake for later in life!

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