We all want to track our baby’s milestones and find a way to get ALL those iPhone pictures in some kind of order (and somewhere they won’t accidentally get deleted). Usually a baby book is a good way to do this. But I found that for me, it actually complicated things.
When I was pregnant with my son, I was gifted a baby book. It was cute enough, had pages to mark milestones… and I thought, ok I’ll use this! I answered a few of the pre-made questions with the intention of continuing with the others a little at a time. But eventually a month would go by, 2 months and then boom he was a year old and I’d filled out maybe 3 full pages of this really thick and detailed book. I looked back at the questions this book was asking me and got so disappointed in myself for not remembering the answers. What was his favorite toy at 7 months old… I don’t actually remember. I don’t know when I even realized that there was literally a page for each month of the first year of his life. Total mom fail.
The thing is, the more I thought about it, I couldn’t really imagine this pre-made book with cookie cutter questions being my family’s way to remember year 1. So, I made my own! And it was REALLY EASY. I just went on Shutterfly and started a photo book. I divided it up by occasion instead of month and used the text option to add in my own milestones. (Really you can do this on any photo book website).
Was this time consuming? The answer is YES! I completed the book when my son was 16 months old. But was it worth it? ABSOLUTELY! I now have a baby book that’s in the order I want it in. I was able to put in as many of the photos I love as I wanted to (because Shutterfly allows you to add as many pages as you’d like) and I could emphasize the events that are important or funny to me (ie. his 3 Halloween costumes).
Plus, the book looks great! The quality is excellent and instead of sitting up on a shelf collecting dust, it makes a great coffee table book. So, although I might never remember my son’s favorite food at 8 months old, I do now have a way to remember events, milestones and holidays that were important to my family in his first year. I’ll call that a win for mom!