I keep a journal on my computer of all the funny things my kids say and do, and other such memorables, one file for each of them. I also put together a couple of photo albums for Ava with like a hundred or so pics from each year of her life, one year of her life in each album in chronological order. Got a little behind on that and Savannah's too, but one of these days I'll sit down and get it finished. At least the pics are on my computer and backed up twice. Then I've also got a storage box that I keep my favorite pics they've drawn and such. But this would be neat, in this electronic age, to have a digital present for them to open. I suppose they would still be there after 18 years? I'd think you'd need to at least log on every so often and get them pulled off the server or they might delete them after a while.
@journey11 that sounds like a great gift too! I don't know if email servers will delete unopened mail after awhile, they may well. Having things backed up in a digital "album" like you're doing is a great idea.
We sadly lost nearly all the pics from my son's birth and his first few years in a house burglary. On hindsight, storing everything on an external drive was not a good idea