Confession: I’ve never filled out the pages of a baby book. I have two of them, but they’re full of pristine, blank pages. Truthfully, this is how they’ll remain until I eventually hand them over to a future expectant mother. I didn’t fill one out when my daughter was born in 2018, and I’m not filling one out for my son who is turning one this May. I think we all know if it didn’t happen for the firstborn baby, it’s definitely not going to happen for the second (sorry, buddy).
Despite the fact that I’ve never used these books, I’m a very sentimental person. I absolutely relish my babies and cherish all of their “firsts.” In fact, I’m seized with panic when other mothers tell me I’ll forget all of the little details. It makes me feel physically ill to realize I won’t always vividly remember them as they are today. On top of feeling sick, then I feel guilty for not filling out the freaking baby books in the first place. The mom guilt is intense! Thankfully, I’ve found alternative methods to document my babies’ first years and beyond without ever lifting a pen. If you are looking for quick, modern options to immortalize the babyhood period, here are a few of my top tips.
[email protected]
As soon as we came home from the hospital with our daughter, my husband created an email account for her so we could send her notes on a whim. We both have access to the account and plan to give her the password when she turns 18. By that point, she’ll have a large collection of digital love letters from her parents sharing intricate moments from her upbringing over the years. From the smallest details, like the alter ego nickname we gave her when she cried hard as a newborn (“Tara”—for pterodactyl—in case you’re wondering), to the biggest moments (describing our thought process behind the life-changing move from Georgia to Texas when she was six months old), much of her baby story is documented. It’s cool that she will be able to read her parents’ raw perspective—written while we were still in the thick of it all—and have a good understanding of what it was like to be in our shoes at the time. Not only does she have the option to read through everything later, but her dad and I can too. For me, it’s much easier to take five seconds to search for an email on my phone, rather than remembering to: 1. Find the baby book. 2. Sit down and intentionally read it. We run the risk of being in big trouble if email isn’t a thing anymore in 2036, but hopefully, that’s not the case.
Photos: Casual Snaps and Professional Portraits
They say a picture is worth a thousand words, and they’re not wrong. I refer to my phone’s camera roll as my visual modern-day baby book. When something is happening that I want to remember, I reach for my phone and quickly snap a few pictures. It takes two seconds and I don’t forget to capture it, unlike the time-consuming task of filing it away and writing it down later (if I remembered, which I probably wouldn’t). I love reading, but pictures better transport me back to a fleeting moment in time.
I use Google Photos and Apple iCloud to back up all of my pictures, but I keep many of the originals on my phone too. This way when my iPhone generates “featured photos” or makes little categorical movies set to sappy music, I can bask in the glow of yesterday for a few minutes every day. Social media also creates “time hops” to remind us what we were doing a year ago, or even ten years ago. Being able to revisit memories in an “anniversary” format is one of the reasons I love creating content on Facebook and Snapchat.
Note: If you are looking for tips on how to declutter your phone’s photo album, you’ve come to the wrong place. Why yes, I do have 25 versions of the same photo and I can’t bear to delete any of them because each microexpression is special to me. Sorry, not sorry.
In addition to casual snaps, professional-quality photographs are really important to me too. I am a portrait photographer and drag out my “big camera” a few times a month to document my own children. That said, I prioritize hiring another professional photographer once or twice a year to capture my family. This way I can have images of my children from somebody else’s perspective, and I can be in the photos too (#proofofmom).
Make a Family Yearbook.
Hat tip to one of my favorite photographers, Katelyn James, for sharing the concept of an annual “family yearbook.” I think it’s such a sweet keepsake! You can organize your photos taken over the course of a year and create a visual timeline with captions. It’s a great way to incorporate memories with everyone together, including highlighting baby firsts, and it’s a fun way to revisit an entire year in a nice and neat format you can easily use as coffee table decor. If you want to go really big, ask friends and family to sign the back of it with their own memories of the year. Tip: You can design the yearbook at any time on websites like Mpix.com or Artifact Uprising, but wait to purchase and print when these companies offer big discounts.
Record video, too.
When my daughter was a few weeks old, an older man struck up a conversation with me while we stood in line together at the store. With my little one snoozing away on my chest, he urged me to take photos, but to also take lots of videos. He said pictures are great, but still images can’t compare to videos that capture the way our babies move, sound, smile, etc. I heeded his advice and started filming her all the time. When she slept, when she ate, on the swing, and even uncomfortably extended my arm like Ellen DeGeneres taking a group celebrity selfie at the Academy Awards to capture her propped up on my lap with a Boppy pillow. We used to have “couch conversations” every morning when she was a newborn, and now I can revisit them. It means so much to me to be able to watch her coo away, a miniature version of the dear girl I still adore today.
Long story short: If baby books aren’t your thing, or you want to supplement them with dynamic multimedia content, I hope these tips are helpful.
